boy themed question:

I have a son named Cody he is 13. Now I have butterflies, and flowers for my Daughter's Kaili's pages but nothing for my Son. I am making my own embellishments. I do not want the typical fish or dinosaur thing. I want something for boys that I can put on any page I want and I need ideas. If any of you could help that would be great!!
thanks,
mg

I use a lot of shapes: Stars,circles, squares ect. I also use a lot of paper layers and paints.

I like the different shapes for boys pages too. Banners always seem to make it on my boy pages. Also nature things such as birds, trees, sun, etc, are very gender neutral.

What are his interests?

I have all boys and I use whatever works for the theme, message or subject of the page. Its easier when you make your own since you can make the colors work for the page.

This is a big problem for me too, having all boys. I have SOOO many flowery, girl papers from packs I've bought.

Cody is into hockey, soccer, hunting stuff like that but aren't those for themed pages I mean it would look stupid to have fish embellishments on a regular non themed page?? right?
I thought of leaves and stars. I will probably do stars . The whole reason I am asking this is so I can put handmade diecuts as embellies (I hate that word) into little jars to store for future use.
thanks girls!!!

• mindygail Said:

I mean, you could use the same logic for the flowers and butterflies you mentioned for your daughter - I rarely, if ever, use those on pages unless the topic or photos specifically include flowers and butterflies.

I like small to medium tags: good for journaling, good for accents, good for a peek of a coordinating paper.

banners, tags, pennants, arrows, gears. lots n lots of gears.

I have found that the biggest blocks in doing boy pages is our perception of things.

For example, when did butterflies become a girl thing? I still have yet to find a pink glittered butterfly in nature.
I used butterflies,dragonflies and even a flower or two when we went to Yosemite. It made sense based on the landscape. I didn't use fufu flowers, they were stickers from the collection I used.

I used hearts on a two page spread when we visited the puppy litter for our dog.

My one son went through a gardening phase and loved daffodils. My other son use to pick dandelions for me any time he went outside. I will use browns,yellows and greens along with a flower or two.

As I said earlier, context of the page or message mixed with your color choices can open up a lot of possibilities that on the surface we may overlook.

Good ideas so far. Stars, gears, random geometric shapes. Textures, patterns, and images of wood, nature, industrial stuff. Bugs. Maps. Denim, Sneakers & backpacks. Hardware like screws and nails. Feathers. Chains. Distress. Arrows.

I suggest a lot of the same as others. I don't have kids, but when I make pages about my husband, or my hubby and I, I use a lot of gears and other metal embellishments. Wood grain patterns and all those new wood shapes are good too. Also loving the cork embellishments right now too!

The only thing I can think to add to this excellent list of ideas is a little trick my friend showed me using Tim Holtz distress stains.
Hold the bottle upside down and firmly tap it down on the page and it will create a splat. It is so cool, and it looks great on boy pages.

wow you guys are awesome and special thanks to :jaxxan!
yall are awesome!!!
mg
ps- I love the idea of arrows
gotta go make some!!!!

• jaxxan Said:

I love this!!!

Exactly!!! Sometimes it's fun and okay to be stereotypical (blue for boys pink for girls) ... and sometimes doing the opposite, or just ignoring the stereotype completely, is much better.

great point stix!!!

Jill, I agree absolutely 100%!! I've used hearts and flowers and butterflies on my boys pages, I've used pinks and yellows and purples, and they look great!

Mindygail, for the pre-cut embellies I'd go with gears and stars and arrows, also I'm buying a lot of embellie packs with critters of all kinds, monsters, robots, funny things like that. it may be too kiddish for a 13-year-old, they would want guitars and balls and such.

I've only used flowers and such on my boys pages if its a pic of me with them, or my grandma with them. maybe I need to spread my wings and try some new things....I've just always considered the flowers and butterflies and such as girly.

I've done many a boy page with pinks, after all, it IS my signature color...

• heather375 Said:

Just think of butterflies as bugs.

I've scrapped for 5 years for my DS before DD came along. I tend to shy away from using flowers on DS's layouts unless there is a female (i.e. me, his teachers, grandma, etc) in the pictures. Or if it's a picture in a natural setting (i.e. national park, hiking trail, beach, etc). That being said, I used a lot of stars, arrows, gears, and lots of metallic embellishments in my DS's layouts. I also like to throw in some inking, distressing, torn edges, etc. to add some "grunge" factor to my boy layouts. Some times I will also use burlap, twine, metal brads, and wire to add some masculine touches.

But now that I get to scrap for a little girl, I'm having lots of fun experimenting with flowers, butterflies, rhinestones, etc.

I vote stars, gears and arrows as generic shapes.

• jaxxan Said:

I also agree with this...and just wanted to add, that I have a little ggd, who loves trucks and anthing with wheels, so I have used trucks and gears and traditionally boy things on some of her pages. I have seven dgd's and only 4 dgs's but a lot of my "girls" were really into sports and therefore I have not always used "girly" things for their pages either. My oldest grandson, when he was little, loved my flower gardens and I used many flowers on his pages during those years....I think it has more to do with the subject, the child and the photo itself than it does the boy/girl thing.

• mindygail Said:

AWWW! Thanks.

Exactly Betsey (Meme)!

How awesome that your girls liked playing with trucks and your boys had a gardening interest.

I have four girls, so really don't know about scrapping little boys, but I do sometimes make layouts about my DH or dad or FIL...

I think if I had little boys, I'd most likely use:
- stars, arrows, circles, polka dots
-lightening bolts
- shapes that are decorated and embellished to look like superhero crests... not licensed stuff, but how could would embellishments like the Captain America shield or the Superman Crest, but with your son's initial instead of the S, be?
- airplanes! and paper airplanes because these are too cute
- leaves and trees
- clouds!
- insects and bugs

Hi,

I do almost all my own embellishments as well especially making my own paper piecing. I often go with either the theme of the picture or with the title I choose. For instance... "Kid on the Go" and would use maybe a traffic signal and cars or something like that. I have used a lot of animals, nature, robots, shapes, etc.

• jaxxan Said:

speaking of gender preconceptions..

remember the hot toy of the (last) year - the Rainbow Loom??
Everyone had them, I mean EVERYONE. Including my son. DH complained and complained about how boys are not supposed to do this, then gave up because it's crafty and creative and DS could sit for hours doing the bracelets.

Anyway, I walked into the afterschool class one day - and saw two groups of kids, boys in one corner, girls in the other. The boys were all clustered together with their Rainbow Looms discussing bracelets and rubber bands. The girls were sitting around a table with screwdrivers in their hands taking apart an old telephone set. I was speechless!

Remember that prior to WWII Pink was for boys and Blue was for girls.