It’s another proud day for me here on my blog, as I get to introduce you to my new Weekend Guest today. This probably isn’t a new face for many of you, as I invited one of the most talented cardmakers on the planet. I came across Amy Wanfords’ work very early on in my papercrafting career, and totally adore her simple and elegant style. So I just had to ask her to be one of my Weekend Guests. And I’m beyond happy she agreed. Here she is.
Hey!
Aimes here from Crafting Confessions gatecrashing the amazingly talented Els Brige’s blog. In fact, I’m not gatecrashing at all but beyond flattered to be asked on board as a Weekend Guest. I’ve been stamping with a passion for cardmaking since around 2008. By day I used to work in education but I’ve since taken a leap of faith and had a total career change now working as the Editor of the UK magazine, Simply Cards & Papercraft. The job is a dream come true to me and I have to pinch myself that I’m surrounded by my hobby both at work and at home. It’s steep learning curve (more like a cliff!) but I’m embracing the challenge and loving it. I’ve had the honour and pleasure to be on design teams in the past and currently design for Clearly Besotted Stamps and the CASE Study Challenge blog. In addition to designing cards, I’ve had my work published in various publications and I’ve also been fortunate enough to design stamp sets for companies – some of which are available at Clearly Besotted Stamps.
SCRAPBOOKING IN | (Well, it’s cardmaking for me!) Sheffield, England
WHERE I FIND INSPIRATION | Everywhere! I’m not kidding, from Pinterest to blogs an advertisement to a shop window. Inspiration strikes me all the time.
WHERE I CREATE | In my crafty corner. I share a room with my guy so it’s dedicated to music and papercrafts. It works and is nice to have a live musical accompaniment whilst I craft. 🙂
My blog: www.craftingconfessions.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amy.wanford
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AimesWanford
Instagram: http://instagram.com/aimeswanford
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/amywanford/
So, now I’ve made myself at home here, let me share a card with you. Cards for the guys is a toughie for me. I find it difficult to make things masculine, to resist adding bling or pretty embellishments but nothing is going to change the fact that I come from a male-dominated family. In fact, my guy’s family is just the same so you’d think creating cards for their birthdays would be easy-peasy but the truth is I still break out in a cold sweat when I have to create for them. August is especially busy for guy birthdays with not one, not two, not three, but FOUR to create for!
I’m sure I’m not alone in this mad panic I feel when it comes to creating for guys, so I thought I’d share one of the four cards I’ve had to create this month. Who knows, might help you if you feel stuck for inspiration. 😉
When it comes to masculine cards I follow a few, simple rules:
1. Keep it simple! Fussy designs risk losing their masculinity.
2. Love geometric shapes. I kid you not, stick with them and these babies will help you through. I used a basic circle-shaped focal point and triangle stamp for my design. That triangle stamp is actually a tiny stamp for a kite from Clearly Besotted Stamps’ Sky’s the Limit. I love getting another use out of a stamp. 🙂
3. Texture. Don’t be afraid to roughen things up a bit when it comes to guy cards. I added texture to this design by roughing the edges of the die-cut circle with a distress tool and using a stencil with clear embossing paste on random areas of the focal point. I also used an ancient embossing folder from my stash to give texture to the card base – it all helps!
This is a magic formula I’ll be following again as I create for the remaining guy birthdays in our families. It always seems to work for me and I hope that you find it might work for you.
Well, time isn’t going to stop for me so I best get busy creating those guy cards. Thanks so much to Els for having me today and thank you for reading my post!
Catch ya later!
Aimes 🙂
Well, thank YOU, Aimes, for being here today and giving us some tips on making male cards – they still scare me every time;). And thank you, readers, for stopping by again. Now hop on over to Aimes’ blog and social media to go and leave her some love!
Els.
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