Handmade Gifts for Guys

Welcome to the third group post for Papertrey Ink's May release. Today's post is all about the guys! We know making masculine cards and projects can be challenging, so we're bringing you lots of inspiration, ideas, tips, and tricks for making those guy projects easier.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, all of the May release products will be available in the Papertrey Ink store on May 15 at 10 pm.

Nichole challenged us to re-make one of our feminine cards into a masculine card and share some tips and tricks. Here are my original and my re-make:

With the florals and sequins and pretty chicken scratch panel, the original definitely leans more feminine. I changed up a few elements and worked in the new Petite Places: City Station building for a totally different, and masculine, look.

Tips/tricks for creating masculine cards:

1. Choose a simple layout. Lots of white space here, and not too many layers.

2. Basic geometric shapes tend to work well. No fancy shapes here, just two circles and a pair of horizontal elements.

3. Avoid bling. Instead use wood veneer embellishments (stars are great) or die-cut stars, maybe some ink splatter, something metallic (I used a staple to adhere the sentiment flag), or no embellishments at all.

4. Color is often the number one factor in creating a masculine project. Primary colors, more muted tones, and neutrals all generally work well.

5. And then, of course, comes imagery and icons. Scenes are so trendy right now, and are a good gender neutral choice. Certain imagery is stereotypically male -- transportation in general, and in this case the fire truck in particular. 

For my next project, I've created some gift packaging using Petite Places: City Station.

I created a dome and used it as a tag for a plain kraft rope-handled bag. I stamped the Petite Places: City Station components to be a filling station this time, using the bright colors that you see on actual service stations. I love the hinged garage door, gas pumps, and oval sign.

The sentiment under the dome is perfect: "Hoping your day is filled with good things." For the dome backer, I layered a Tag Sale #4 die onto a Spellbinders circle die-cut. (The Tag Sale #4 die-cut isn't actually necessary, I just liked that shape sticking up at the top.)

"Filling Station" is a good fit for pretty much anything you fill your gift box, bag, tin, etc. with, but I wanted to make my "filling station" a mini bar, and so I filled my bag with miniature alcoholic beverage bottles.

I customized the gift-giving occasion with a Happy Father's Day sentiment banner, stamped with Keep It Simple: Father and die-cut with the Double Ended Banners die. The flared Soft Stone stripes behind the dome were die-cut with the Rainbow Stripes die set.

Here's more of a top-down angle, so you can see the dimension on the filling station building, which is just a tent fold secured along the left and right with liquid glue.

A couple of other fun details: the cityscape in the background was done by reconfiguring and layering True Black and Smokey Shadow skyline die-cuts from the Zappy Birthday die set. The road was done with one of the stamps from the new Plaid Builder set. Those dashed line stitches double as pavement lines when the stripe is stamped in True Black or Smokey Shadow (and the size is perfect for the Petite Places buildings).

For more Petite Places: City Station inspiration, visit Betsy and Melissa:

Betsy Veldman

Melissa Phillips

And visit the rest of the design team for two whole different batches of new products! There's so much coming, we had to divide to conquer :)

Ashley Newell

Laurie Willison

Maile Belles

Dawn McVey

Heather Nichols

Laura Bassen

As always, visit Nichole for all the formal introductions, product details, giveaway info, and her projects:

Nichole Heady

Thanks so much for stopping by!

SUPPLIES

Fire Station Card:

Stamps: Petite Places: City Station, Plaid Builder, 

Dies: Petite Places: City Station, Double Ended Banners

Ink: Classic Kraft, True Black, Pure Poppy, Smokey Shadow

Other: stapler, wood veneer stars 

Paper: Fresh Snow linen card stock; Enchanted Evening Card Stock; Comic Strip Patterned Paper

Filling Station Gift Bag Tag:

Stamps: Petite Places: City Station, Plaid Builder, Keep It Simple: Father

Dies: Petite Places: City Station, Double Ended Banners, Rainbow Stripes, Zappy Birthday, Tag Sale #4, Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities

Ink: Tropical Teal, Summer Sunrise, Pure Poppy, Smokey Shadow

Paper: white card stock; Tropical Teal card stock; Fresh Snow linen card stock

Other: Black and white baker's twine, clear dome, miniature binder clip