Masculine Cards and Halloween

I always have a hard time stamping masculine cards. I think it's the fact that I feel I cannot use ribbon, and most other embellishments just tend to "girl" up a card. I needed a couple of thank-you cards for our Cub Scouts to give to two men who helped us with achievements. One of them is a veteran and taught us to fold a flag, raise it up a flag pole, and gave us a history lesson. To top it off, his wife is a stamper extraordinaire!!

I was flipping through my Basic Grey June Bug 6x6 paper pad and saw some great patriotic paper and this card just grew from there. I used Stampin' Up!'s "The Free and the Brave" stamp set and only Aged Copper brads for embellishments. I guess the stars might also count as embellishments, but they are just stamped and cut out.

I've been in a Halloween slump. Basic Grey came out with this great Halloween paper pack called "Eerie". There are a bunch of fabulous papers inside, but nothing was speaking to me. Maybe I need more Halloween stamp sets....I don't know what it is. Anyway, I thought about Halloween cards in my head for a couple of days and finally this card sort of designed itself. I used Orange Juice, Leprechaun, and Summertime buttons and tied 1/8" Organdy through the holes. This ribbon is extremely inexpensive; you can purchase 1 yard each of 41 colors for only $5.30!!

Have a fabulous stamping day!