What a challenge!  I do not like making cards for males (little boys birthdays are fine).  Several factors go into play in my mind.  Dull colors, boring images, and the number one factor.... in  my experience, they open the card, read it, and promptly throw it out!  The "For the Guys" course was not one I was looking forward to.  I really do not have masculine stamps, especially from Altenew.  Thankfully the class had great inspiration.  Now I just had to embrace it.  I must admit I had some seriously UGLY cards.  I thought that as long as I used drab colors it would be fine.... nope, not the case.  Even my husband said "yeah, that is not nice looking... if that was what you were going for, you nailed it".  Another card I was told, "that mandala still looks like a flower to me".  Back to the art table for me.  I did come up with two cards.  They certainly do not say "wow" to me.

This card is made with Alenew's "Bird of the Woods" stamp set and matching die.  I love this stamp set.  The card is top folding, 4 1/4" x 5 1/2", mounted on "Neenah Solar White" cardstock.  I used two patterned papers, gold and translucent washi tape, Lawn Fawn inks, and hot foiled the sentiment with my "Spellbinder's Glimmer" machine.  It got a nod from my husband... not quite sure what that means.

  My second card is also top folding measuring 5 1/2" x 4 1/4".  The card base is a rust colored cardstock.  I stamped a background stamp onto kraft paper and heat embossed it with a bronze embossing powder.  I used the "Trigonometry" stamp set by Altenew to mimic the background stamp on a larger basis.  It was stamped onto a heavy kraft cardstock of a different shade and heat embossed with Ranger's "Chunky Rust" embossing powder.  The sentiment is from Altenew's "Sentiment Strips" set and heat embossed in fine detail white embossing powder.  Once again, mimicking the triangles I cut the banner with slants on each edge and popped it up for more dimension.  

 Thanks for looking!