Cards for Men - Happy Birthday

Posted on 22nd May 2018 by Nicole Mullen
Filed under Projects And Cards By Type, Cards For Men

Hi All,

Nicole here to share a birthday card for that difficult group - men! I actually quite like making cards for me, it appeals to the more simple and minimal style I enjoy creating in. I have a few tricks I use to make cards like this that I thought I would share.

Keep the colour palet simple and strong - pick two bold colours and a neutral. In this card I have used Papermilldirect Smooth Black card and Papermilldirect Intensive Red and my neutral is white. I have a hint of Slate Grey in there as a accent also.
Use texture - Using texture is a good way to avoid patterned papers, which often don't suit cards for men, or you may not have suitable patterned papers in your stash. You can use embossing folders or a scoring board to add texture, or just use a Papermilldirect textured card like the Hammered White Card I have used here to give a lot of texture.
Pick a theme - I knew the person I was making this card for loves trains, so I used that as the large focal point. But maybe the man you are making the card for likes football, golf, rugby, cars and so on. These all have a single identifiable item in them that can work as a focal point. If the person is into clothes, you can do a shirt and tie. You can get as creative as you like, the possibilities are endless!
Work in dimension - use foam tape where you can to raise layers. My circle, train and the red banner shape all have foam tape on them in varying ways to add in more dimension.
Be creative with the sentiment - I added my sentiment on a large banner. But this birthday was for a 75th. So I added the 75 on the side of the train, as the train 'number'.

Train Bday Card Nicole 1

I did use my Silhouette for the train file to cut this out, but you could always cut out one by hand or print a image in place of the cut out file. Whatever you prefer really.

Train Bday Card Nicole 2