Sassy and Scrappy: For A Guy

Hey scrappers! I want to apologize for my shortage of posts lately, I guess I lost my crafty mojo for a little while. I'm sure most of you know what that's like. I want to share a banner and card that I made for my brother. He just graduated with his Master's Degree, so of course we had to party! I made a banner and matching card. I know a lot of people struggle with making masculine cards or projects so I thought I'd share these with you, and maybe it will inspire you a little.

There are a couple of things that I think are important when making a card for a guy: keep it simple and choose masculine colors and patterns. Now I will admit I've used flourishes and damask prints for boy pages, which is fine, I think it's important to keep the guy in mind. So for this card and banner I used a new paper stack from Papertrey Ink called "Argyle Socks". It has blues and greens in it and the prints include diamonds and of course, argyle. The solid cardstock is also Papertrey Ink, Enchanted Evening, Kraft and Smokey Shadow.

The banner pieces, layer and shadow, are from the Birthday Bash cartridge. The banner was cut at 6-inches. The font, both layer and shadow are from the same cartridge and were cut at 3-inches.

I attached eyelets with my crop-a-dile and used black grosgrain ribbon from Stampin' Up. As you can see from the pictures I didn't add any "extras", no stitching, bling, etc. This banner went over really well, in fact my brother took it home with him. Although I think it was more of a reminder to everyone who enters his house to continue to congratulate him and pat him on the back, so to speak. You know those youngest children are always looking for attention, lol!

The card is a standard A2 size, cut portrait style. I used the same paper stack and solid cardstock. The mat that I stamped my sentiment on is from the the Cricut Essentials cartridge that came with the E2. It's label number 2. I cut both the layer and the shadow, can't remember the size. To finish the card I added satin ribbon. I could have chosen to use the grosgrain again, but it's kind of a sophisticated card and I liked the look of the satin better.