Twinkling Paper Studio 3rd Anniversary + AECP - For The Guys

I actually made these cards a few weeks back after watching the For The Guys Video Tutorials at the Altenew Academy for my AECP.  When I first started the classes for the program, I was having to watch on my phone, which was a little hard and I didn't go in order so I had to go back and look to see the order I was supposed to be working in.  Hooray for finally having Internet Service in my house! 

Some of you might have seen some of these photos on my Facebook Page, but I'll give you many more details here.  So if you go back to this link on my blog you'll see that I actually started with a class on Dynamic Die Cutting where I created this card using a technique called inverted die cutting.

For my For the Guys projects for today, I'll show you the card I made with all of those leftover stars from that card to create this one.

My husband, his twin brother and my grandsons, Lance and Chandler all have early August Birthdays so I didn't want to write this post until after a couple of the birthday's had passed.  I know the two grandsons don't read my blog so even though their birthdays are next week, I think it's okay to go ahead and write this post. 

Using all of the die cut leftovers from the first card which were all the white stars, I used a technique from another class called Impressive Heat Embossing.  I started by covering the white stars with Versamark and heat embossing them with Antique Gold Embossing Powder three times each for a really thick layer of embossing powder.  Now I admit, I am a very messy artist/crafter so I made sure to put a piece of printer paper underneath my embossing area so I could pour all of the excess back into the container.  Once those were done, I laid them out on my craft mat and heated them one by one again adding in sprinkles of Platinum Sparkle Embossing Powder on top for the two toned look.  After they were cool enough, I adhered them from largest to smallest with Multi Medium Matte and set a heavy piece of glass on the top while they dried. 

Guys always like geometric patterns and metallics in gold or silver so I decided to combine them.  I also went to my supply of Gold and White Cardstock to see what type of geometric print I had that would look good with the stars and decided on the one you see here.   I added foam tape to the back of each of the star stacks and stamped and die cut the sentiment adding it to a black banner the same width of the card.  As always, I was careful to use anti static powder on the area before the heat embossing part and then wiped the excess away with a microfiber cloth before adhering the die cut "wishes". 

When I showed this card to my husband, he asked me to send this one to his brother.  It was then that I decided to create something similar for my husband so I started die cutting a bunch of sizes of gold stars to stack on his card.  Because I didn't want the cards to be identical, I chose to go with a Black Kraft and Gold Cardstock for his background panel.  This particular paper pad came from Die Cuts With a View and the prints in it are fantastic and also, mostly Art Deco in style - which is one I love.

For the stars on this one, I added foam tape between each layer from largest to smallest and then added foam tape to the back of the star stacks as well.  I love using rich designer/foiled papers for quick cards. Everything else was the same as the one I sent to Wayne.

It's interesting to me that until I started making cards I would have thought my style was feminine with lots of flourishes and scrolls.  But I realized that mostly, I like very clean and graphic design with crisp lines, etc. 

One of the decisions we made when we were starting to move was to sell our old living room furniture and get new.  When we were talking with our sales person  about what style we wanted, I said, "clean lines, nothing ornately heavy, overstuffed or overtly feminine", nothing scrolly, or flourish-y" - maybe something with a mid century modern kind of vibe.  Let me tell you - she did a fantastic job and if you live in the Dallas Area and want furniture, you contact me and I will give your her name.  We even ended up going back for one more piece that we originally hadn't planned on because when we got a new TV for the living room, the table we planned on using and had been using, was too small.  Fayne is still working in Tulsa so he has a small place there where he is using our previous TV. 

This is our last house and I had my previous furniture for 21 years so I was ready for a change. The thing was, it was Clayton Marcus Furniture, so it was very well made and still looked like new.  But we felt the style and colors didn't go well in our new home. While we do have some very traditional elements in our home like the built in book cases I designed, the rug and some other things, we also have a lot of more contemporary pieces in things like our furnishings and our kitchen back-splash and our concrete and wood combination tables.  Here's a picture of our living room.  Don't mind the two cabinets laying on the living room floor.  They are for the bathrooms and will be getting installed tomorrow.

I hope you enjoyed my thought processes of how these birthday cards came together starting with the leftover bits and pieces from the previously made card for Dynamic Die Cutting. 

I have been blogging now for three full years.  In this last year, I have collaborated on two stamp sets with Tasnim at Altenew and it has been an honor!  Even though I haven't been able to do as much the past 6 months with the house and our move, I have still had over 75,000 visitors and more than 1000 comments in the past 3 years.  I hope now that I can get back to work on a regular basis, that you will keep checking in often with me here.  We still have a lot to do with the house but for his birthday, Fayne's driveway extension got done!  He's pretty excited to see that when he gets home tonight!  Tomorrow we celebrate Chandler and Fayne's Birthdays with dinner at our new house for the first time 

Have a great day everyone!  Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging in with me if you've read this far.