For the Guys

Hey y’all! Thanks so much for stopping by to view this post about cards for the guys. One of my challenges for the Altenew Educator Program was to create a card specifically with the guys in mind. This made me look harder at the Altenew stamps I had on hand and what I could purchase to create a great card for an outdoorsy kind of guy. When I was thinking about the outdoors, I immediately thought about mountains and a big blood moon. While growing up, my dad loved mountains. This actually was a card idea I wanted to create for his Father’s Day card, but he passed away in May. I loved how this turned out to be a simple outdoors scene like you might find in Montana or Wyoming. Immediately, I thought about the Altenew Once Upon A Time stamp and die set and the Altenew To the Moon stamp and die set.

The final card is a top-folding 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 size card, which I used a 120lb cardstock. I started by creating the blue sky background. In order to quickly get the night sky, I ink blended various hues of blues on a gorgeous shimmering blue paper cut to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches. This works much faster if you are trying to get a darker color instead of using the white cardstock. I used ink blending brushes and started with Altenew Cloudy Sky Crisp Dye Ink. Then, I used Altenew Nimbus and Altenew Dark Night Crisp Dye Inks. I also added a bit of Stampin’ Up! Misty Moonlight and Night of Navy inks to get that deeper hue around the top and edges.

Once the sky was blended to the exact hue I wanted, I adhered it to the card base using permanent double sided tape. I intentionally left a lot of space at the bottom to have room for the mountains, trees, and pathway. Also, to save time, I only blended ink on the top of the paper.

Next, I began stamping the trees and mountains using the trees and mountain stamps from the Altenew Once Upon a Time stamp set. Once again, I used colored cardstock, which helped it to pop against the night sky. For the mountains, I stamped this four times using Stampin’ Up! Early Espresso ink. Next, I used a mini ink blending tool and Altenew Mocha and Rocky Shore Crisp Dye Inks to shade the mountains. For the trees, I stamped all three tree sizes four times using Altenew Evergreen Crisp Dye Ink. The pathway was stamped one time using Altenew Dark Chocolate Crisp Dye Ink.

Are you wondering what is up with the color of the moon? Maybe thinking…girl, I don’t see moons that are rusty colored? Well…that’s why I saved the moon stamping for last. I have to admit, the color pops against the night sky. I chose these colors specifically to mimic the most recent blood moon we had. If you don’t know about blood moons, or have not witnessed it’s beauty, look up images of it. I’m always fascinated by huge, bright harvest moons, but blood moons are ethereal. Blood moons are a rusty reddish brown color. I tried my best to copy it in my stamping. This Altenew To the Moon stamp set is really nifty in that when you stamp it using normal moon colors, it looks like the real thing! For the base moon color, I used Altenew Sunkissed Crisp Dye Ink. for the rusty color, I used Stampin’ Up! Cajun Craze ink. Then for the brownish spots, I used Altenew Dark Chocolate Crisp Dye Ink. I had to let this dry and it lightened up quite a bit from when I initially stamped it.

After I completed all the stamping, I began die cutting the mountains, trees, and the moon using the Altenew To the Moon and Once Upon a Time die sets. The pathway did not have a die, so I had to fussy cut it using my Tim Holtz Precision Scissors. These really are the best scissors with a sharp point to get into the small curves. Once I cut out the stamped pathway, I cut another pathway out of craft cardstock to glue behind the stamped image. This made it slightly thicker.

Then, it was time to assemble the stamped and die cut pieces to the card front. I glued two of the mountains to the card front using Gina K Connect Glue. I cut off the excess from the card to make it even. Then, I used my Tim Holtz Deckle Edge Trimmer to get a rustic look to the bottom of the mountains. Next, I popped up the middle mountain using foam dots. Once the middle mountain was set, I glued the pathway to the center of it. In order to contrast the pathway from the mountains, I placed the trees on each side of the pathway. On each side I had one tree to pop up using the foam dots while the other trees I glued to the mountain. Originally, I die cut the moon using the smaller moon die, but I had to go back and cut more because it was larger than I wanted. Once it was cut down to the size I wanted, I adhered it using the foam dots to pop it up.

I placed nearly transparent Stampin’ Up! sparkle enamel dots to create stars. While I did like how these looked on the card, the next time, I will use white paint splatters to create stars. The final piece was to stamp the U Rock! using the Altenew Label Love stamp set. First, I rubbed an antistatic embossing powder bag over the space where I was going to stamp. I stamped it using Versamark Ink. Then, I heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp white embossing powder. After cooling, I stamped and heat embossed it a total of three times to get this look. As a note, I had to use my craft pick to go over the U Rock! to clear out any embossing powder before heat setting it. Otherwise, once melted, the powder would cover the words.

I really enjoyed making this card and will look for other ways to spruce it up for the guys! Thanks again for stopping by to check out this outdoorsy card!