For the Guys

Howdy one and all!  I'm here today with my latest submission for the Altenew Educator Certification program.  The class I just finished was called For The Guys.  Yep, cards for the boys/men in your life!  This is an area that I definitely struggle with so I was thrilled to see it on the list of classes to complete!

There were lots of great suggestions in the class that I am filing away in my brain.  I decided to run with the idea of using a geometric pattern.  It sounded so easy when I came up with the idea!  Here it is...

I inked up another stamp set that has been sitting around waiting for me to give it some love, Trigonometry.  I thought this would be just the perfect set to use for a guy card.

I started by picking the spot on my cardstock where I wanted the bottom of the triangle to be.  Basically I just moved around one of the stamps until I felt it looked right.  Then I used a T ruler to draw a top and bottom line.  I needed these as a reference point to keep me going straight.  This is when I dug out my mini Misti.  I'm not sure I could have completed this card without it!

I used two different Altenew inks for the triangles, Desert Night and Dusk.  I placed my cardstock in the Misti, lined up my first stamp, inked it up and stamped.  Whew.  So far so good!  Then I cleaned off my stamp and turned it upside down, lined it up, and stamped the Dusk triangle.  I repeated the process until I had a strip all the way across.  

Let me interrupt with a little secret, I actually had to stamp this card out four times.  Yep.  It was a little tricker than I thought to get the spacing between the triangles just right.  Not to mention keeping them straight!  I persevered though!!  Once it was done (and dry!) I went back and erased my pencil lines.  

Next I came in with a copic safe black marker and a T ruler.  I wanted to add that extra bit of detail the black lines would add.  Then I used some gray copic markers to create the appearance of a shadow.  I used N3, N1, N0 and colorless blender.  I like how it makes it appear as if I have multiple layers but it is only one!

I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from the same Trigonometry set with the Desert Night ink.  I also rubbed some of the Desert Ink onto a piece of white cardstock.  I wanted to have a dark blue layer to go between the sentiment and the cardstock.  Once that was done, I cut the pieces down to size and glued them onto the cardstock.

For the final touch, I cut off about a 1/4" from the bottom of the cardstock and mounted it to a dark blue card base.  This lets just a little bit of the blue base show at the top and bottom of the card.  I think it makes the blues pop!

Now it's time to move on to my next class.  See you soon!

~Kristina