Dudes and Flower Fest

So, I held my first ever Dude Night.  I heard about this idea at Convention.  Of course in the ecstasy of convention, it sounded like such a great idea.  Get some husbands together, serve dude food like wings and chili and beer and get them to make a super simple project for their wife that involves tools like the Big Shot and the heat tool and of course offer the opportunity for them to Christmas shop for their wives without having to even step into a mall.  What a great idea I thought to myself.  Even better considering my husband is the extrovert in the family and loves to socialize with other guys but for some reason doesn't do it as often as he should because the ability of men to plan ahead and book a guys night is too challenging.

I sent out a cool evite about it to my husbands friends and guys whose wives stamp with me.  I can't say the positive RSVP's rolled in.  A few weeks before I started to get wind that some men didn't want to come because the very thought of making something was frightening them away.  I then started to worry that in fact this was a bad idea.  Perhaps the stamping element was going to ruin an otherwise perfect guys night.  (Kevin pointed out to me that men do NOT call themselves "dudes").  Well, about 5 men overcame their fears and came out.  As promised, there was beer, wings, chili and soda pop.  I don't think there was a vegetable in sight.  (oops, maybe in the battered sweet potato fries). 

Now, in retrospect, I would have to say, dude night was a blast.  Hilarious is a better word.  I don't know how I can capture the mood. Here's some pictures.  Before the guys started arriving and while I was trying to get the kids to bed, I told Kevin to reassure the guests that yes, they were going to make something but it would be really really easy and short and that there was going to be lots of beer and video games and other manly things.  I was so nervous after I put the kids to bed and headed downstairs to the guys.  I was afraid I was going to get boo-ed or mocked out of the room.  I plucked up my courage and announced that I was going to help them make a cute card for their wives because what wife wouldn't want a card with a nice message inside from their husbands.  I even told them that a nice card might help with the "lovin"  (yeah, I even stooped so low as to suggest that if they put the effort into making a card, they might get some bedroom time).  The guys were great.  The 5 minute activity turned into an hour activity.  Here's what the card was supposed to look like (minus the rhinestone...one husband insisted that he needed a jewel in the flower)

 I kept calling the heat tool a power tool to go with the whole dude theme but of course that just started a whole round of hooting and jokes because frankly they thought that it was a fairly lame power tool.  One husband even said"power tool? this is a heat gun".  Can you believe one guy made jokes about it being a hair dryer???  You could set your hair on fire and burn your head with the heat tool.  Give me a break.  It is nothing like a hairdryer.  Humph.
What cracked me up is how creative the men were.  I expected that they would just follow the sample and get out of the craft cave as quickly as possible.  No no no.  One man wanted a jewel (aka rhinestone), another one wanted different colour ink, another one wanted more sentiment options.  He started by using my teeny tiny wishes stamp that says "hello baby"  and then just kept stamping obsessively.  Here's his card:

By now, I was spending most of my time laughing hysterically.  In fact, even as I type this, I am giggling to myself. 
Here's someone fascinated by the wild wasabi embossing powder.  He's making lines and talking about cocaine. 





I don't have a picture but one husband used one of my punches to create leaves around the flower.  This was his idea, not mine!
Now my husband went all out and asked me for sponges and brown ink.  I offered him the sponge daubers and he turned his nose up at those.  He wanted the "other"sponges.  I couldn't believe he knew the difference.  Here's his card. (I suppose he put the beer bottles on either side to attest to his masculinity despite the fact that he had made a card).  He kept calling his technique "ripping" even though I kept insisting it was called "tearing".

Here's what my craft table looked like after the "dudes" were done.

I was able to clean up quickly and the guys stayed in the craft cave to play poker.  It was really a neat evening and I know the guys had a fun time too.

So, the moral of the story is: stamping parties are fun for everyone.  Even dudes.