AAA Birthday challenge #71 - Masculine

Good morning friends and welcome to March and the first day of meteorological spring *yay*.  I'm sharing my card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month our theme is 'masculine'. Now I know we all prefer to make pretty, girly, flowery creations but we do occasionally have to make cards for the men in our lives lol!  Please take on our challenge this month and get creating some masculine makes. Our guest designer this month is the lovely Ella so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

It was my nephew's birthday last week so it was perfect timing for my masculine make.  I had a new die set that I wanted to use so set to work.  This card would be suitable for males of all ages and full disclosure - my nephew was 36 this year!  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A close up of the monsters:

Plus I decorated the inside:

As my card was for a family member I made a 5" x 7" card size as always.  I began by cutting a panel from fog card 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" and used an embossing folder for some fun texture.  I added a black mat panel behind with double sided tape.  I die cut all the elements for the monsters from card in my scraps bin and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I stamped the 'monster' sentiment onto alcohol marker friendly card, coloured it with Promarkers and used the coordinating die to cut it out.  I also die cut the letters to spell 'nephew' from black card 4 times and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I stamped rest of the sentiment onto white card with black ink and used sentiment strip dies to cut them out.  Now that I had all my elements ready I arranged them onto my card.  I added the die cut monsters and 'monster' sentiment with foam squares and the remainder with liquid glue.  I didn't add any embellishments as I thought there was enough going on, especially with the embossed background.  Instead of adding foam tape for dimension I used 4 layers of scrap card behind my panel and added it to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut a white panel 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" and adhered this to a black mat panel with double sided tape.  I embossed another piece of fog card and cut it into two strips, adhering one to the top and one to the bottom of the panel with double sided tape.  For a fun twist I partially die cut one of the monsters and adhered him at the bottom left of the panel so that it looked like he was peeking over the embossed panel.  Finally I stamped a sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panel was added to my card base with double sided tape.  A really fun card and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It could be sent to a 4 year old or a 40 year old I think!

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

As You Like It challenge - masculine or feminine (I do find feminine cards easier to make but enjoy the challenge of making masculine cards.  I have a hubby, 2 sons, and a nephew so had lots of practice)

Can You Handle The Pressure challenge - ATG embossing with a twist of masculine

Creative Knockouts challenge - finish the inside

Fab 'n' Funky challenge - fantasy/myth

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

Mix It Up challenge - ATG optionals layers

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

The Male Room challenge - monochrome (blues with neutral colours black, white & grey)

Try It On Tuesday challenge - Boss it (I used an embossing folder)

The Design Team have created amazing cards as always so please pop over to the blog and check them out and perhaps leave them some love on their personal blogs.

I hope you will be able to join in with the challenge this month but don't forget it has to be birthday themed. I can't wait to see your creations in the linky.

Have a great day.

Love and hugs,

card ingredients: 

Spellbinders - monster love pop die set

Spellbinders - splatter embossing folder - currently on sale!

Neat & Tangled - little monster stamp & die set (for monster word) - store now closed

Promarkers

MFT - little letters die set - retired

MFT - purr-fect birthday stamp (for partial sentiment)

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips dies

Gina K Designs - on the inside - birthday stamp (for inside sentiment)

Simon Says Stamp - fog card stock

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - currently not available

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

coloured card from scraps bin

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed