Have you ever seen a stamp set and just knew you had to make a card with it. The Open Sea set in our new Summer Mini just called out to me as a perfect Manly card waiting to be born. Since guys like clean and simple, I stuck with limited colors and squared corners and NO sponging. (I didn’t realize how much I sponge the edges of my layers until I decided not to. 

 For the front I kept it simple with no text or sentiment and just added the Happy Birthday offset to the right on the inside.

The front used a style I think works well on many cards. I have been carrying this sketch around in my head for some time but thought I’d share it with you, so here is the sketch:

Manly Birthday Recipe:
Stamps: The Open Sea, Perfect Punches 
Ink: Basic Grey, Night of Navy 
Paper: Basic Grey, Night of Navy, Very Vanilla, and Brushed Silver CS, Nautical Expedition DSP 
Accessories: Wide Oval Punch,  Snail,

I would love to see what you do with this sketch.