WHERE ARE ALL THE MEN?????

or should I say "cards for men?" I needed a card for my nephew whose birthday is tomorrow so I went to my stash of more than 300 cards and do you think I could find even ONE masculine birthday card in the lot? Of course not! There were birthday cards for children - male & female alike and birthday cards for women but NOTHING for a guy. I know where my future lies now - I'll be remedying that situation soon.

Anyhoo - here's the card that I came up with for tomorrow's birthday. My nephew is a bow hunter and each fall/winter he searches out the perfect buck. Don't be too angry - I know I find it hard to think that such a beautiful animal falls prey to his arrow - but he DOES use it for food too.

I embossed a piece of Bravo Burgundy cardstock using a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder as well as Night of Navy and Kiwi Kiss cardstock, Old Olive 1/4" ribbon, a piece from the current Stampin'Up! Hodgepodge hardware set, and silver brads. The image itself is from a retired Stampin'Up! set called Noble Deer that I colored with markers then sponged using different colors for the sky. The mountain range was originally a cloud in the sky as is shown in this card by KristineB at Splitcoast, but I used the night of navy marker to "re-draw" a few lines and to color in the mountain shapes. By doing that, part of the lower sky then became a lake. The last bit to the image was to add highlights with a white gel pen.

The brads in the hodgepodge look off kilter but are actually evenly spaced using a piercing tool and the Stampin'Up! mat pack. I think I moved it a little when I was gluing it in place. I added dots and "faux stitching" to add a little interest but now wish I had used the piercing tool around the edge instead. Maybe on my next one - AND THERE WILL BE A NEXT ONE! I've got to build up my stock of cards for men. So in answer to the original question "where are all the men (cards)?", they are waiting to be created. Let's get busy ladies. Here's a challenge for all of you: create a masculine card, either email it to me or send it through snail mail and I will post it on my blog so that we can all be inspired by each other. It's time to get busy -

Have fun and get creative.

Jill