A card for the guys – and an amazing new use for Stampin’ Up! Fine-Tip Glue Pen!

Cards for men seem to be fairly sparse in the design spaces.  I try to note various patterns of Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Papers (DSP) that will be useful for cards for men for my own reference.  I even mark their storage folder with a blue dot to remind me.  (I use the same dot on stamp sets that also lend themselves to cards for men.)

The directions for today’s card – which was designed for my son’s only legit 29^th birthday – are HERE. 

This envelope gatefold card has so many uses for birthdays, Christmas, Hanukkah, and other regular celebrations.  But I think that it could also serve VERY well if you dressed up as a wedding card – or an engagement party, a new baby card – and lots of those other important one-time only celebrations too.

I chose Stampin’ Up! Whiskey Business stamp set for Alex’s card.  I used two of the sentiments for the face and the inside panels of this card.  But the biggest attraction of this set for me is the beautiful stamp of the large crystal decanter.

To get that beautiful rich whiskey color, I used Stampin’ Blenders in Dark Mango Medley, Dark Pumpkin Pie, and both light and dark Cinnamon Cider.  These colors made the beautiful colors.  But I wanted the decanter to look like crystal.

There are a number of products on the market.  Stampin’ Up! has one that works very well as a glaze – Shimmery Crystal Effects.  It is a great product.  But it has glitter in it and I wanted a clear glossy glaze.  I turned to a well-known product from a different manufacturer.  Although it dries clear, it frequently has bubbles in it – which need to be removed with a pin (good grief!) – and it doesn’t self-level well.  I ended up coating the stamped image almost 5 times to get it to an acceptable level.

So, here’s the tip:  while I was annoyed and waiting for the various coats of glaze to dry, I experimented with other adhesives that claim to dry clear to see if I could find a substitute.  I tried the Multipurpose Glue, Stampin’ Up! Fine-Tip Glue Pen,  and 3 other glues that I had in my stash. 

And the winner was Stampin’ Up! Fine-tip Glue Pen!!  And it won by a land slide!

This adhesive dries to a smooth, high gloss shine.  And the best part is that it is self-leveling! All of the test examples that I did with it dried clear, glossy, and smoothly as glass… 

My advice is to use this Stampin’ Up! Fine-tip Glue Pen as your go-to adhesive (it’s excellent at that task!) AND as a clear, high gloss glaze to enhance your stamped images.  It is amazing!

Alex’s birthday card features the Stampin’ Up! In Good Taste DSP.  There are several patterns in this pack that would work well and it offers many good options for cards for men.  I also used a 12” x 12” piece of Cinnamon Cider cardstock from the 2020-2022 In Color cardstock as the base.  Don’t forget to create a pocket on the back for a gift card.  I like this card especially because it accommodates those gift cards that are mounted in a cardboard folder, which many gift card designs do not.

The other reminder is that I have used mini Velcro dots to “seal” the card shut.  These are available from a number of retailers – but I got mine from Amazon here. 

I used them under the decal on the face of the card.  These cool little things let the card open and close multiple times without ripping the paper.  I’m a fan!

Thank you for taking a look at today’s card!  And another happy birthday wish to my sweet boy!  May he have MANY 29^th birthdays in the future!

I will list the supplies that I’ve used here for your reference.  You can access them through my online store by clicking on the icons below: