MFT Jan. Creative Challenge

**please scroll down for my TCP Blog Hop card**

Hello again. It’s time for another Creative Challenge with the MFT design team.  I was pretty excited about this month’s challenge. We are getting in touch with our Masculine side and sharing some tips and tricks about making masculine cards. 

I know a lot of you probably cringe when you think about making a boy card, or a card for a man.  I used to, as well.  Thanks to all the males in my household, I had to get over this fear pretty quickly.  LoL!  Plus I think there  are TONS of great products out there now that cater to men.

There are a few RULES (and I use rules loosely, here….I don’t usually create with too many rules) I follow when making cards for the men in my life.

1.  Find a good male themed paper.  This is usually how I kick start my mojo on a boy card. I almost always start with the paper.  Stick with Polka dots, stripes,  and plaids. 
2. Use a simple layout, with clean lines.
3. Kraft card base.  I create with kraft  a lot, I know, but I almlost always use it on my masculine cards.  If it’s not the base, you can almost always find it somewhere on my card.  I realize I say this, and here I have a card without…..again, these are general  rules I follow. 
4.  Twine and twill.  I loooove ribbon, but a big frilly bow does NOT cut it on a boy card.  With twine or twill you can still add a bow without it being overbearing or girly. 
5.  Stick with basic shaped dies and embellies.  You can see from both my cards I use STARS a LOT .  Circles are great, too.  When  a border is needed, I usually always pull out my ZIG ZAG dienamic.  Pointy, instead of curved (I put my scallops away for boys cards).  Metal brads and even staples can add just the right accent to your masculine card.

Of course, a masculine card comes together easily when you have the right stamps! I am sooo happy with all the choices in the MFT BOUTIQUE that make a great boy/man card.

Today I chose to work with the AWESOME new AT THE MOVIES stamp set and die-namics.   I needed to beef up my boy birthday stash, so I used this challenge to do that.  I used the  film strip lable die to hold my sentiment.

 Check out the shine and texture I gave to it, simply by covering the cardstock with Versamark ink and giving it 2 coats with clear embossing powder.  I also cut two strips of the MINI FILM STRIP die-namic and ran those up the side of the panel. 

Twine and stars, along with a few other die cut elements from the AT THE MOVIES set, tie it all together. 

I have one more to share today.    My favorite boy papers by My Minds Eye, Outta the Blue were my inspiration for this card.  I used the TAG YOU'RE IT die-namic and the very cool, MIXED & MATCH  BANNER DIES.

You'll notice my two banner pieces here are longer than the actual die. I used a trick I believe Meredith showed on her a blog a few weeks back. It's a trick that is really quite simple. You just line up your die a little over the edge of the cutting plate, so it doesn't actually cut into the paper.

Let me show you quickly how I did it.

• cut a long strip of paper, and line your die up with decorative edge towards the bottom

•  Move your paper and die, up towards the edge of your cutting pad, making sure the edge is just over the end. Tape it down with washie tape (or low tack, repositionable tape)

•  This is what your cut will look like after you run it through your die-cut machine.

•  Line up the cut marks with your cutting blade and continue the cut for the whole length of the cardstock (or as long as you want your tab to be).

•  Here's the finished, long banner piece. Cut to fit your project accordingly.

Here is a closer look at my tag detail. I love all the little extras with the Stacking Stars and the zig zag stitching and the twine. Oh, and the number 11 is stamped on the circle die-cut from Homespu birdhouse, it was the perfect size.

Now head on over to Kim's blog....there you'll find the line up of everyone playing along with this month's Creative Challenge.

Feel Free to click on the graphic below to go directly to the product.