Masculine Valentine Tutorial for Really Reasonable Ribbon

Hello, Friends!  Can you believe that we are already at the end of January?  Before we turn around twice, Valentine’s Day will be here.  I’ve been seeing (and making!) loads and loads of pretty pink Valentines loaded with all sorts of frilly, feminine details, and while I love them….they don’t work so well for the men in our lives!  So I thought I would work up a masculine valentine tutorial to share with you here today.  I don’t know about your man, but my honey loves chocolate.  I mean, he LOOOOOOOOOVES chocolate!!!!  So I wanted to design a card that would allow me to tuck in a little dark chocolate sweetness for my sweetie pie. Here’s what I came up with.

I used papers from Authentique’s “Durable” collection, which are perfect for any masculine project.  Here’s how I made the card:

Here’s what you will need to make this card

• Navy blue cardstock: 5″ x 7″‘
• Brick paper: 4 3/4″ x 6 3/4″
• Journal Tag (M is for my guy)
• Car ad collage paper: 5 1/2″ x 3 3/4″….leave the border strip on (for the pocket)
• 6 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ plaid paper to wrap the chocolate bar
• Sticker from the collection, matted onto navy cardstock and trimmed
• Prima Ignition keys embellies
• 4 1/2″ x 2″ chocolate bar
• Natural Jute String
• Cappuccino Diamond Satin Ribbon
• 5×7 Kraft Card base
• Scor-tape
• Scoring tool

Here are the steps for making the pocket:

Place the short side of advertising paper (5 1/2 x 3 3/4) on your scoring tool and score along the border strip, as shown here.

Turn the paper to the long side, and score 1/4″ in from each side, as shown.

Trim the corners along the border strip as seen here. Burnish the scored lines with a bone folder.

Turn the pocket over, and add Scor-tape to the top and both sides, as seen here. Burnish it to secure it to the paper.

Remove the paper liner from the tape, and insert the brick paper panel so that the brick pattern is face down, as seen here.

Fold the pocket edges over, as seen here.  Now when you turn this over, you have a pocket attached to your card front.

Trim the “M is for My Guy” journal card so that it measures 2″ x 3″.  Cut a fish tail in one end and mat with navy blue paper.  From here, I began to play around with my elements, moving them around until I liked the arrangement.  I started out thinking this was what I wanted, but ended up doing this instead:

I wanted to add a little more color to the front of the card, so I cut a panel of the newsprint paper to 4 5/8″ x 2″.  I scored it 5/8″ from the top, and folded it down to reveal the pattern on the reverse side.  I matted this with  more of the navy cardstock and secured it to my card base with Scor-tape.

Next, I wrapped the top of the panel with a strip of Cappuccino Diamond Satin Ribbon and a triple row of Natural Jute String which I simply tied in a square knot.

Next, I wrapped my chocolate bar with the pre-cut piece of plaid paper.  I cut one of the cars from the advertising sheet, matted it with navy cardstock and glued it to the top of my chocolate bar. I wrapped the chocolate bar with more of the Cappuccino Diamond Satin, tying the ends in a simple square knot.  I added one of the ignition keys to the jute string and topped it with a bow.   I attached my banner to the top left hand side of the card with my staple gun, added a few little embellies, and the front of the card was complete.  From here, I glued the card front to the prepared navy panel and then the whole assembly to the kraft card base.

I decided to use the sticker on the inside of the card, as you can see here.

I hope you enjoyed this masculine Valentine tutorial!  I know it’s always a challenge to come up with a Valentine for the guys in our lives…but this one should work well.  It’s a “manly man” Valentine with brick walls, vintage cars, and chocolate!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy