Boy, oh, Boy!

Boy, oh, Boy, it's been a long time since I posted!  Try as I might, time just keeps on slipping away (that old song..."Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future..." comes to mind).  I've noticed, the older I get, the faster time seems to go...except when I'm at work.  Then time seems to stand still!  LOL

I've been trying to come up with a theme for this post, and with the last couple of photos I've cropped, I think I've found it.  I have 2 sons and 1 daughter.  I love cropping pictures of my daughter, particularly when she was a little girl.  I can go are feminine, floral, flourish and really bling out on those layouts.  Where I get stumped, is with masculine layouts for the boys.  They cringe when they see flowers or bling on their layouts...apparently floral accents and rhinestones aren't "butch".   LOL

So, I've tried to create layouts without bling or flora and it is such a challenge to my designing sense!  The real challenge is to find an embellishment that adds interest to the layout, remains masculine and makes sense with the subject.



For this layout, I used bold colors and lots of
design elements, including the "surprise" stars
behind the photo and some chipboard
asterisks (they're not flowers!)




For this layout, I used a Tim Holtz grunge die cut, did 
alot of tearing and inking to distress everything, and chose
papers with masculine colors and subdues patterns.  The
chipboard flourish was covered in paper, inked and I
added some bronze brads to make it a bit more masculine.



This layout uses geometric images (the stars and circle),
to which I added some raffia.  Again, the papers are
distressed looking and subdued in color. 

Ok, so this layout has a few flowers, but they aren't
"feminine" flowers.  I think the geometric shapes
behind the pictures add to the masculinity of the
page, as well as the deeper colors.

Ok, so, what could be more masculine than a cowboy
page?!  I used inking to add age to the page, and brown
raffia tied around the top and bottom of the page.  I used
stars with pewter star brads for interest (ok, close to flowers,
but not really!).  I also employed twine to create a lasso
around one of the words in the title.

So, if you've read my blog a few times, you may have seen
this layout before.  But, I think it works really well for a
masculine layout.  No flowers, just loads of stars.  I used
foam squares to pop the stars for dimension.  I also used
buttons and stitching for more texture.  The colors also
lend themselves well to a boy layout.

A boy and his dog.  The papers I used remind me of
patterns on my dad's ties as I was growing up.  The brown
and orange ribbons (dog bones and bow-wow) are also kind
of rough and masculine in their texture.

I tried to make this layout be a little tougher.  I used
distressed papers, tearing, inking and papers that didn't
necessarily coordinate to pull this layout together.  The
orange paper is actually a Halloween paper with flourishes
and skulls.  I added safety pins and staples, along with
phillips head screw brads with orange leather bases. 
The corrugated ribbon was a find. I inked it and distressed
it to give it more of a tough guy image.  The vinyl scroll
flourish may be a little feminine, but seems to fit nicely
with the over all design and gives it visual interest. 



A simple layout with darker colors helps define the
masculinity of this page.  I used tags and a flourish, along
with the owl in lieu of flowers.  The ribbon is a homespun
checkered pattern in a dark green.























I hope you have found these ideas on how to keep your layouts masculine, without giving up any flair, helpful.  I am always looking for ways to make masculine layouts interesting and attractive.  Do you have any tips to share?  If so, please use the comments section to share how you make masculine layouts work for you!

Until the post, use your creative energy for good (not evil!) and go crop yourself!