Flowers for Algernon

That was the title of a science fiction short story I read many years ago. I can't remember much about it now (I think Algernon was a mouse) but the title stayed with me because back then it was even rarer than it is now to give men flowers - or make cards with flowers on them for men.

Which leads me, in a very roundabout way, to this fortnight's challenge at The Male Room, which is to use flowers in a masculine way.  I decided to go for an industrial look.

First of all I made the background, using some grey textured card. I stamped all over randomly using a wire netting stamp and a scribbled lines and circles stamp - both from a very old Linda Luckin set (dated 2008). Then I distressed the edges and rubbed a little brown and charcoal grey chalk over the surface to bring out the grainy texture of the card here and there.

The sentiment, from Rubber Dance, is stamped on a piece of woodgrain paper and embellished with brads, then layered over some brick-effect paper from my scraps box.

The metallic flowers are cut from patterned metallic effect card and then embossed using a grid effect embossing folder, and finished with eyelets. The newsprint flowers are stamped (using an old magazine freebie stamp from several years ago) on newsprint effect paper, inked, curled a little and finished with screw-headed brads.

I am sharing this with

The Male Room - Make Flowers Masculine
Fab 'n' Funky - Two or more designer papers
Retro Rubber - Brads and Eyelets
Ooh La La - Something Beginning with F (Flowers)  
Craft Rocket - Anything Goes