Masculine Birthday Card - Easy Peasy!

I am hanging out in my craft space today to get a few things straightened up, sorted out, and put away. As I was doing that, I came across this card I meant to post a few weeks back. Better late than never, I guess. 

I know a lot of us struggle with masculine birthday cards. This classy card is both masculine and simple.

I had been wanting to do some old page backgrounds, so I went to my local book resaler and bought an old yellowed dictionary for a quarter. I snagged a page out of there and went to town distressing. It was a thin paper so I had to be a little tender with it. I first crumpled the stank out of it. Before flattening it out, I gently swiped some ink over the top of it. I kept with browns and grays for this project. I flattened out the paper and recrumpled it. After gently smoothing it out (just a bit) I added a little darker shade of ink, just gently swiping over the raised areas. Using a light tan, I further aged the paper by brushing a little ink across the edges of the paper. 

Once I was satisfied with the grunge-level, I attached it to a piece of kraft colored cardstock cut slightly larger than my page panel. That was attached to a black A2 card base. I added a sprig I cut from the Taylored Expressions Branch Out die set. I embossed the sentiment with white powder on black cardstock, trimmed it down, and attached it to a piece of kraft cardstock the width of the card.

For the inside of the card, I kept it basic and simple (most masculine cards don't have a lot of flare it seems).

I just stamped a simple sentiment on kraft cardstock and attached it to the inside of the card. The kraft paper is light enough that a personal note can easily be added with any type of pen.

Well, now that I've shared this card with you, I think I am less inspired to finish my craft room straightening/sorting and focus on some more craft (minus the room) projects.

Til next time,

Keepin' it inky!