This One is For The Guys: AECP

Most of us, including me struggle from time to time to make masculine cards, but if you stop over thinking them they can be really fun to make. I think of my husband as a large child with more expensive toys, and that’s how I approach making cards for him most of the time. He really gravitates to anything space related, meat related, simple patterns, and primary colors, so the For the Guys class from Altenew was made for me (making cards for him). For the Guys is part of the Altenew Educators Certification Program and is made up of 6 lessons taught by Jennifer Rzasa. This class is also available as an individual course and I highly recommend it if you need help creating one of a kind masculine cards.

I was very inspired by the galaxy lesson and just had to make one for myself. The key to making galaxy backgrounds is to not be afraid to keep going. These backgrounds always look bad before they get better, in fact I almost threw this one away. Typically you will see these done in water colors, but they are easily obtained with inks. Let’s take a look at the finished product before I scare you with the beginning stages.

I used distress oxide inks for my background, but Altenew Crisp Dye inks would work just as well. I started by blending Candied Apple, Scattered Straw, Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon, and Wilted Violet in a loose fashion just getting it down on the paper.

Once getting the initial layers of ink down I added Black Soot and lightly spritzed with water. After drying that layer, I repeated adding the colors, mostly the Wilted Violet and Black Soot until I was happy with the blend. I probably did this a total of three times. Finally I added shimmer spray, and white acrylic paint splatters to get the galaxy effect. I laid that aside and let it dry while I worked on the moon.

I stamped the To the Moon image with Altenew’s Citrus Burst in the most solid layer, and the second most solid layer with Fresh Lemon. The third layer was stamped with Woof from Simon Hurely Ink. I then die cut the moon, as well as the die cut word. I love dimension on my cards so I stacked the sentiment with three layers and applied Glossy Accents to it. While that dried, I stamped the sub sentiment and heat embossed it with white powder. To add a little more interest to my background I used a white gel pen to add more stores and few shooting stars.

I chose this sentiment because it’s going to my neighbor who just graduated with teaching degree. He also happens to be a huge Star Wars fan, so I think he’s going to love it!

Like I said this class has made making masculine cards so much easier, so I just had to make one for my hubs. My honey eats more red meat than anyone I know, so the Raise the Steaks stamp set was perfect for him!!! Pop culture was a focus of lesson 5 in the module, which is known for primary colors and clean lines and simple patterns. I chose to make a 5.5 x 5.5 inch square card for this because lent well for the 4 squares in design. Let’s take a look…

Raise the Steaks is a three layer stamp set, so I started out by stamping the outline image and then followed with the solid stamp. I chose a lighter color for the solid layer and then followed with a darker color for the second. I chose not to add the third layer which would be the grill marks, but it would have been darling! My next step was die cutting 4 scallop squares and then adding a white layer before adding the fussy cut steaks to them. I added foam tape layers to the scalloped squares and the steaks, which caused me to quadruple up the thickness of the sentiment banner. I think the dimension has really made these images pop! For final embellishment, I added trios of enamel dots.

I think this is perfect for my husband… and now I am hungry!!!

Just a small disclaimer! All items used in all of my projects are (or have been) purchased with my own funds, but this does not include design team items that I have received or otherwise stated

Until next time… keep crafting!!!