Masculine cards (1st part of 2nd level challenge)

In front of me is the last step of the 2nd level Altenew's educator certification program. I received a challenge to make four masculine cards for different occasions: encouragement, birthday, love and anniversary.

Usually is for us, crafters pretty hard to do masculine cards. But I think that we are complicating too much. This time I had in my head my husband and things he likes. He loves nature, ice cream, simple and cool things, and he has also some Mexican blood. And that was my inspiration for cards. Sometimes is really good to know some things about the person we are making card for. Then everything is easier.

My red thread in this challenge was courses With a twist, Impressive heat embossing and In the mood for color.

  

We learn different techniques in these courses. In first one With a twist we learned how to use our dies and stamps on many ways and how to extend their use. Impressive heat embossing course teach us how to use heat embossing. And In the mood for color is all about colors and how to use them.

I love all the courses, there is a lot to learn or refresh the memory.

Let's look cards now, I will introduce them by the theme.

Words of encouragement

These words are important in every single life of species on this planet. Every one needs a little bit of extra courage and good words sometimes. We also love to hear approval from others. All of this gives us some extra wind in the wings.

For this card my inspiration was nature. I went through all my Altenew stamps and only two sets are masculine. Then I say to myself: "Why would not I use something else and make card for men.". And there it is. I use those beautiful feathers from Happy dreams set. I heat embossed whole background with gold feathers. And then colored them with watercolor in dark green color called Hunter green from Altenew's Green Meadows set.

Because background was a little to white I took brush and go really lightly through all the surface. Then I cleaned it with paper towel, because some color stays on the embossed lines. To make card more interesting I cut bottom. I glue bottom on the card base, upper part I glue with foam. Bottom piece I colored in same color as I use for feathers. For a little bit more interesting look I use little gold twine and black banner with gold embossed "You are my hero" sentiment which I also put on foam for more dimension. And the card was ready.

You can find step-by-step tutorial for card here.

Birthday

Everyone has their own day, some even celebrate more than one day. Birthday is always something to celebrate. If we don't want to celebrate let's atleast be grateful for one more year we had. If we celebrate it or on is always nice to get some special card and note on birthday.

For this card my inspiration was Mexico and those wonderful cacti. My husband have also some Mexican blood, he also loves Mexican food and other staff from there and this would be perfect card for him. 

Here I started with background. I heat embossed those clay pots with black embossing powder through all the surface and then colored it with Distress ink called Fired brick. Then I stamped those gorgeous cacti from Altenew's Be Strong stamp set and colored it with different green colors from Altenew's Green Meadows and Spring Bouquet ink sets. For their background I took some beige paper and punch border. For more interesting look and to add even more green I embossed arrow border from Basic borders stamp set. Then I cut out cacti and glue them on the beige paper. My collection of the Altenew's stamps and dies is not so big, even if I bought in those few months almost everything I could in Slovenia. So I combine different stamps sets together. And for this card I found this pretty banner and sentiment in Baby balloon set. I embossed both in black that stand out more, put it on the foam and put it into the center of the card.

Love, love, love...

Love makes world go around. I think that we should always say what we feel, specially when we have good feelings like love. Life goes by to fast. Be good with each other and let's show love to each other.

For that card I get inspiration in ice cream which my husband adores. Any kind, any shape, any flavour. I took Way to sweet stamp set from Altenew and for some time I was just watching it, how to use it for masculine love card.  I decided to embossed in black lollipops with love sentiment on background and colored them with intense red color called Crimson from Pretty in Peach ink set from Altenew. I wanted to make this card different, so I decided to make shaker card. In this set are also nice little harts which I stamped and cut out to use them for shaker element with blue sequins. Then cross my mind to try heat embossed on the foil, it came out very good, just gun have to be hot enough to melt powder quick. I needed to color ice cream and cut it out. I cut out also frame in white for a little bit of contrast. And all that was left was to put card together. I glue foil on frame and put foam on the background of the frame. Then put hearts and sequins on the card and glue frame down on the background paper with lolipops. Then I glue the ice cream in the middle and put everything on the card base and card was ready.

Ice cream is always good on sunny days like that one.

Anniversary

In few months there will be my second wedding anniversary. So I was thinking about card for that. My husband likes simple staff, but there have to be something that sparks. And I came with card below.

I used my favorite stamp set again. I am using it for a lot of masculine cards. It gives so good look and with it is easy to create any kind of cards. This stamps set is called Basic borders from Altenew. Absolutely love it! Almost as much as roses.

First I cut out half of circle from light blue paper and card base. Then I took blue paper and heat embossed in silver three borders. Because it is an anniversary card I use heart border too. I put stamps on my stamping tool and emboss every three border separate that I saw where I can emboss next one. Then I emboss on cut out half of circle measuring tape from Best dad stamp set. On that tape is sentiment "endless love" which goes great with this occasion. Then I cut out some gray paper and heat emboss in black "happy anniversary" from Mega succulent stamp set. This I put on foam and put on card that one corner was in the cut out piece. Piece with measuring tape I glue on the card base. For a little extra look inside I also stamp stars on corner which looks throughout.

For step-by-step tutorial click here.

These cards were all made with thoughts to my husband. But they can also be given like a gift. I took one clear plastic box in which I receive some diary, decorate it and it's perfect for store cards in.

So these are my cards for final challenge on level 2 at my Altenew's educator certification program.

My altered project for this challenge you can find here.

Which card you like the most? What kind of masculine cards you prefer, only with straight masculine content or a little more "free" like these? Please let me know in a comment below.

Thank you for taking time and stopping by,