Saturday, February 4, 2012

The secret to making cards for males who don't care about fancy embellishments

This afternoon, I had a card making session with my teenage son.
Now, I'm just going to pause for a minute while those of you with past or present teenage sons either dust yourself off after fainting on the floor, or wipe the tears of laughter from your eyes.  . . . but it's true.  This afternoon, Rohan and I made cards together.  But before I show you the results, I want to talk about the subject of this post:

The secret to making cards for males who don't care about fancy embellishments.
Now, it might be that every man and boy in your life absolutely loves and appreciates the miniature works of art you produce.  "Straight to the pool room", he might say, like the Dad in the movie "The Castle", giving it pride of place on the mantle piece.
And if your Dad, husband, brother, sons, and every other man you know is like this, you really don't need to read any further. 
But if, like me, you know one or two (or twenty) men who don't really seem to value the time, not to mention your favourite papers and embellishments, that go into your creations, you might want to keep reading!
It's not that they don't appreciate the sentiment that goes into your cards, because of course they do! It's just that they wouldn't appreciate it any less if it was written on a used paper towel!

My suggestion?  Keep it simple, and add a little dash of my secret ingredient . . . .

Humour!

Time and again I've noticed that the cards that my boys have most loved to give and receive, have been the ones that have had a touch of the giggles.  Whether it's a funny picture or a couple of hand-written lines in a store-bought card, or an explosion of hand-made goodness, it's the funny cards that work every time.  And I haven't noticed this changing as they've gotten older.

So here are our two versions of a funny skateboarding card (using my new stamps, of course!)

Rohan not only decorate the front of his card . . .


but also the inside . . .


and the back!


My card is based on Sherri's card, stop 11 on the Let's Scrap blog hop.  Here it is:


As I explained to Rohan, it is open to interpretation whether this baby is the next Bob Burnquist, pulling a really hard trick, or the next admission in the Emergency Ward.  I know which one I prefer!

7 comments:

  1. So true.. boys are special indeed.. this reminds me of my son when he was in Gr 2 and broke his arm the first day of school by riding his Skate Board.. hasn't stopped him though... Love your card.. Those stamps are amazing.. where did you get them...

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    1. Hi Michelle, the people are from a Stampin' Up set called "All in the Family". The skateboard is from a set called "Family Accessories too" which I don't think they have in their catalogue any more, but I bought mine on Ebay last month. (Love Ebay for cheap Stampin' Up sets!) Thanks for reading!

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  2. AWESOME CARD! And I loved reading your story, made me smile for sure. Love how your DS did his card.

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  3. This is just such a fun card...from all sides! ;-)

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  4. go figure! that's a boy for you!! lol humor is a good suggestion! love it

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  5. Brilliant - and I am impressed that your son is crafting along with you!

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