Gentleman (masculine)

Hello and welcome to the Alphabet wheel! We're having a new challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog, and I'm your challenge host this fortnight. We'd like to see creations that are dedicated to men, which gives you a broad spectrum of opportunities. I can imagine that you have some Father's day leftovers you'd like to show us, or maybe some masculine birthday cards, or some Just because creations you've created for, well, just in case. I know that some crafters struggle with cards for men, but don't despair: Our DT members have prepared some wonderful projects to inspire you! Have a look at our page to get inspired, or take inspiration from my take on the challenge theme.

I opted for a birthday card this time. I didn't have any specific man in mind when I was creating this one, so it's just a generic male birthday card that doesn't include any person-specific details such as age, hobbies, favourite colours... 

I've picked white as the main colour of my creation, mainly because I really liked this swirly embossed paper and I wanted to make it shine. Even though the embossed pattern is not highlighted in any way, I think those swirls come across nicely without taking attention from the main motif. That being said, the centerpiede of my card is a leftover piece of paper from you have seen on my creations ages ago, namely here and here. The floral paper comes from a set of patterned papers, but rather than one of the actual papers I decided to use a bit of the album cover. As said piece was rather tiny, I enlarged it by placing it onto a turquoise piece of patterned paper. Not only it makes the floral scenery appear bigger, I think it also creates a nice connection towards the background of my card. To place the image onto the card base, I used 3D adhesive pads, which gives additional depth to my creation. Since I figured this would be a birthday card, I added a tiny silver sticker to deliver the birthday greetings. To spice up the white background, I then added a couple of shimmering gemstones. I like to think they, too, are enhancing the motif as I used a similar colour scheme for the embellishments, but I'm  a bit torn about the gemstones alltogether: I tried to not overdo it with the bling as I was creating a masculine card, but I'm not sure whether I've stopped on time. What do you think? Can male cards use a little sparkle every now and then? 

challenges: 

- krafty chicks: all occassions

- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "for the guys"
- a place to start: ATG

- allsorts challengeblog: ATG with optional twist "way to grow"

- C.R.A.F.T.: ATG

- cardz4guyz: ATG masculine

- CAS on Friday: nature

- classicdesignchallenge: ATG DT 

- crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "embellishments"

- do-all kreatives: ATG

- kreativtanten: for men

- lil patch of crafty friends: ATG handmade

- little red wagon: layer it up

- my time to craft: summer florals

- pennys papertake: ATG paper
- scrapping4fun: ATG

- seizethebirthday: add a star

- wortartwednesday: ATG
- pinspirational flowers