The Good Kind of Mullet or How To Make a Manly Card

I thought I'd let you know right up front in the title that this isn't going to be a post about scary 80's hair styles. Nope, it's about the best mullet around, Fred B. Mullet and his stamps. I've been a fan of his stamps ever since I saw images in magazines and books. (And you should check out his website - it's fantastic! Great images and a good read too.) I've never seen the stamps at my local LSS, but when I was in Victoria at Stampers, I gave a small (I hope) shriek of delight when I saw a whole display of them. It was really hard to choose just one (of these, there were numerous other stamps in my basket, don't worry), but I chose this spadefish. I thought it was a good size, had lots of potential for colouring and didn't look too tricky for a first-time user.

I made this card for DH's friend who's having a milestone birthday this weekend. I hunted through my stamps for something "manly" or at least suitable for a masculine card. And what's more masculine than a spadefish???? It's hard to think of a single thing. I upped the testosterone factor by using ultra-manly colours like red, orange and yellow, and I felt that the feathered edge of the mulberry paper gave a sort of "whisker-burn" mystique to the whole thing. The cranberry panel is inked with a few shades of pigment ink, including gold, as well as my ginko leaf from Old Island. The ginko is the oldest tree in the fossil record, and fossilized attitudes are often characteristic of the masculine world view, so that echoes the theme here too. I debated about the button and string, since it was reminding me somewhat of a "little swimmer". That clinched it! It stays - how could I take off an embellishment that reinforces not only the fishy theme, but the masculine one to boot! {snort} The only thing that might deviate from the theme here is the Kanji character, which means "wisdom". It's not fishy at all. {double snort}

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. AP, I hope seeing this stamp "in action" brings back some happy stamping memories from this fall - I know it does for me!

Supplies: Stamps: Spadefish - Fred B. Mullet, Ginko leaf - Old Island Stamp Company, speckle - Stampin' Up, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Wisdom - SU, Kanji; Ink: versamark, Colorbox pigment ink (terra cotta, burnt copper, and a bunch of other colours that I couldn't hope to remember!), Encore gold, riding hood red, Memories art print brown; Paper: very vanilla, bravo burgundy, cranberry crisp, kraft, rust mulberry; Other: button from my stash, hemp twine, clear detail embossing powder.