Masculine Blog Hop - Starburst technique

Welcome to another blog hop, this time on a masculine theme. Thank you for dropping by to see what I’ve made – and I hope you enjoy travelling around the world from the comfort and safety of your own home, as you explore some fabulous masculine projects from Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators. 

Masculine cards seem to cause people a lot of bother, particularly those who favour floral designs with lots of embellishments and bling. Fortunately, this theme plays into my hands as I’m not big on bling and fuss! But if you struggle to make masculine cards, remember: men are people, too. They like many of the same things that we do – scenery, cake, trees and animals!

I’ve gone with the animal theme for my cards. Both my husband and son love foxes – in fact, my son put “fox” on his Christmas list every year until he was about 14. When I mentioned this last year (he’s now 20) he said he still wanted one and had only stopped asked for it because he new it wouldn’t happen.

So what better than the handsome fox from Nature’s Beauty for my projects? I made two cards with ever so slightly different colours – which do you prefer?

I think this might be the first time I’ve ever created a starburst background but it definitely won’t be the last as it was a lot of fun. 

To do this, start with a piece of scrap paper or cardstock the same size or slightly larger than your card front.

Draw a circle where you want your main element to be and mark the centre of the circle with a dot. Then using a ruler, simply draw straight lines through the circle, through the dot, to create a starburst design like this one. Make sure you draw an even number of lines.

Mark every other section with a dot or shading. Then carefully cut these marked sections away. You'll end up with a mask that looks like this.

I applied a very thin layer of Tombow Multi-purpose adhesive to the back of my mask and allowed it to dry thoroughly. This made it repositionable but mean it didn't move around for the next stage which is... brayering! Yay! Well, you can sponge instead if you prefer. If you do prefer to sponge, make sure you start in the centre and swipe outwards away from the circle, so you don’t crease the mask. 

 

 

My first card was sponged in Sahara Sand onto Very Vanilla. The second is sponged in Sahara Sand and a hint of Soft Suede onto Sahara Sand cardstock. 

  

On top of this I added a die-cut circle from the Tasteful Labels dies (which meant I didn't actually need to mask the centre circle but it holds it all together), stamped with a greeting from Zoo Globe. Then all I needed to do was add my fox and some cut-out leaves from Beautiful Autumn.

I hope you like my masculine cards – for more masculine inspiration, please hop around the world and see what other Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators have created.