Altenew Educator Certification Program: For The Guys

One of the classes that I recently had the opportunity to take at the Altenew Academy was called, “For The Guys”.

I think many of us struggle to make masculine cards.  It’s just so much more fun to make beautiful florals or cards with ballerinas.

When I make cards for guys I tend to stick to very neutral tones, nature themed stamp sets and no bling.

I threw that out the window today with my card project for this class!

Bling! Shine! Geometric design!

One of the class days focused on using geometric design to create cards for guys.  I realized that I had no geometric stamp sets!  Just as I was about to compromise and make a nature themed card, Altenew had their February release and THERE IT WAS!

The perfect stamp and die bundle: Trigonometry!  Two days later it was sitting on my porch just waiting to play with me in my craft room.  (Here is where the Snoopy dance goes.)

My plan stared out as a plan to use the stamps with the new Sweet Dreams teal ink set that was also in the box.  My plan changed as soon as I pulled the little die set out of the package.  I didn’t even cut them apart.

I lined those little dies still attached together along the side of a piece of white card stock cut at 3-7/8 x 5-1/8″.  I cut it twice to fill the edge and then layered it on top of Altenew’s Gold Mirror specialty paper to add the metallic touch.  This is a negative die cutting technique.  I didn’t use the triangle pieces, I used the piece they were cut out of.

This is not ordinary gold foil.  You can see your reflection in this!  (Taking the photos was a challenge!)  This is Gold Mirror specialty paper and it shines.

I attached these together and used some craft foam to add dimension and attached them to a piece of gold foil striped vellum in my scrap bin.  This was all attached to a white A2 sized card base.

It felt very plain.  I had a very thin strip of the gold mirror foil that I had trimmed from the piece I used on the card.  I added this to the right side of the card front and it felt like just the right touch.

The sentiment is from the same Trigonometry stamp set.  It is embossed in gold embossing powder and I’ve added the remainder of that left over strip of gold mirror to the sentiment piece.  This was added with the foam tape to give it dimension.

I considered added some gold sequins to the card, but I really like the open spaces on this card.  The white space balances the shiny gold.  This card “feels” done.

You know that we sometimes add that one step too many to a card.  There is a fine line between just right and over the line.

Here you can see all the stamps in this set.  I used the Happy Birthday sentiment along with the die set along the right.  It was actually a quick card to create and I have those left over die cut triangles to use on another card.

Even though I created this card for the “For The Guys” class, I think it works for everyone.  I do love the idea of using geometric patterns for masculine cards.  It’s not neutral, nature themed or without shine!

Thank you for taking time to stop by today!  If you find yourself in your craft room today, remember to embrace the imperfections!