Hello, my cardmaking friends! I hope you are having a wonderful week, staying healthy and cool. This time, I’m focusing on cards that would be suitable for male recipients, after one of my class members asked for some ideas. After I made them, I decided to label them gender-neutral, since I think they could be appropriate for either gender! The stamp sets I used were Rooted in Nature, Forever Fern, and Tasteful Touches with a few additions for sentiments as noted. Of course, many stamp sets work- I just avoided flowers and flowery sentiments for this project. On pages 28-33 of the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog (2020-2021), there are a number of suitable choices.

The first card uses Rooted in Nature, and starts as a piece of 8.5 x 4.25 inch thick cardstock in Very Vanilla, scored and folded in half. The front was topped with a 4.25 x 5.5 piece of brown (Soft Suede) cardstock, and that was topped by a piece of regular thickness Very Vanilla that had been stamped in Soft Suede with the Birch background stamp. The focal piece is stamped with Soft Suede and Memento Tuxedo Black, and measures 3.75 x 2.25 inches,and is matted with cardstock cut to 4 x 2.5 inches. I adhered it with dimensional foam, cut the sentiment apart after stamping, and also raised those with small pieces of foam, snipped from the sides of the Stampin’ Dimensionals sheet..

The second card uses the Forever Fern stamp set, Whisper White Thick and Regular cardstock, and Pretty Peacock cardstock and ink. The overall size is the same as above. The blue card front was embossed with the Pinewood Planks embossing folder. The leaves were stamped on a piece of cardstock sized 2x 5.5 inches, and the mat, also in white, is 2.25 x 5.5 inches. These were glued to the card front. The sentiment is from the Peaceful Moments set, cut with Stitched Nested Labels, and glued to a Stitched Shapes circle, which was adhered to the card front with dimensional foam.

Cards for men can use bright colors, too! This Very Vanilla card base is 4.25 by 8 and 3/8 inches, scored and folded at 2 and 7/8 inches. I adhered the Toile Tidings designer paper (brought back for the new Mini Catalog!), cut to 4 by 5.25 inches to the inside with equal margins all around, and cut to 4 by 2.75 inches, glued to the front flap right up to the edge of the opening. I tried to match the pattern. I then cut two 3-inch Very Vanilla circles, gluing one to the front flap. Be careful to put the glue only on the flap side of the circle!!! The other is glued to the inside, so that it hides behind the front circle. A Real Red 2.75 inch circle was textured with the Tasteful Textile embossing folder, and glued to the front , and a tree from the Rooted in Nature stamp set was stamped in Real Red, and diecut, then adhered with dimensional foam. The sentiment was from the Blossoms in Bloom stamp set, popped up with dimensionals.

Finally, I have a card made with my new favorite stamp set, Tasteful Touches. The card base is sized as for the first card, but made with Seaside Spray cardstock. I used a 4 x 5.25 inch piece of Misty Moonlight cardstock for the front, stamped the feather randomly with matching ink, and ran the piece through the Subtle embossing folder. I attached another piece of Seaside Spray cut to 1.5 x 4 inches, which was embossed with Tasteful Textile, and a small flag cut from Misty Moonlight at 0.5 x about 3 inches. This sentiment was also from Blossoms in Bloom, cut with a Stitched Rectangles die, and matted with a circle cut from the In Color designer series paper, and a (retired) Starburst punch. As before, the whole thing was adhered with foam dimensionals.

I hope these cards can inspire you to look at your stamp sets differently, as even the most flowery sets may have just the right image or sentiment for a gender-neutral card. Thanks for stopping by! All current items are available from my shop (click Visit My Site), and most are linked below. I appreciate your support! Please leave comments, questions, or pictures of your own cards in the comments section below. Like this page to receive notifications when I have a new post, and /or sign up for my newsletter below.

Happy stamping!

Michelle