Hello lovely ladies and HAPPY NEW YEAR !
Its been such a while since I posted I nearly forgot how to do it ! The run up to Christmas and New year is always a busy and very hectic time for us at The Pap residence as we own a jewellery shop and I work with my husband. This year it was decided ( by someone who has never worked in a shop ! ) that all of the shops in Greece should be open seven days a week from morning until 9.pm for three weeks . Well that’s fine and dandy if you happen to have lots of staff but if like us and the many other small businesses in Greece it means you just don’t get a break . Food shopping is the worst, it’s always a mad dash at the last-minute to the butchers the bakers and the candlestick makers to see what I can rustle up as it falls to me to cook for all of the family Christmas day . Mr P and I are totally knackered were just too old for this palaver and I really don’t know how many more Christmases I have in me !
On to the matter at hand a brand new year has begun and its time for our first challenge at ATCAS. Our hostess for the next fortnight is the superbly talented and all round good egg Loll. She is one of the nicest ladies I have ever worked with and for those of you that are not familiar with her blog ( shame on you ! )I urge you rush on over as its jam-packed full of inspirational wonderment and such.
Now what did the lovely Lollypop choose as her code word
Well of course as soon as I saw it I did a couple of flick flacks and somersaults around the living room( well in my mind anyway ) . As my regular followers will know I LOVE my die cuts and I have all manner of Machines of the die cutting variety but what to do……so much to choose from…..I could do this , or I could do that , or even yes that thing that I have wanted to do for ages . I pored and pored over my designs and die cuts, I cut and re-cut until my desks were filled with all manner of the things and then it all went blank , I was suffering from die-cutting dementia I had all of these wonderful shapes but no clear plan and not even an unclear plan so what did i do ? well I just shoved them in a box and ignored the buggers until the deadline was upon me and I had to get moving.
After much ado and mess making, hair pulling and the gnashing of teeth ……..
I was inspired once again by the amazingly talented Mayuri of Candles in the Garden her card making is exquisite each piece a work of art.
I used my Cameo for the die cut which was really tricky as I use 350gsm card and it needed four passes to cut it cleanly and I had to have several attempts in order to get the result I wanted. I then took a piece of heavy card stock and sprayed it and half of my desk ( and yes I did have it in a box ) with some gorgeous Dylusions inks and then placed it under the die cut.
More Cameo creativity and would you believe that I lost the birdies eye in all of the chaos and couldn’t find a black pearl or my black copics.
I love the 3d aspect here, I cut the image twice and then rotated one of them placing pop dots underneath and adhering to the other to give dimension. I love how if you look closely you can see the shadow, looks a lot better in real life.
I would to add this last one to:-
ETA: Moxie Fab World Challenge Trendy Star Power Challenge
We are once again sponsored by Deedees’s Digis who is offering the lucky winner three sets of digis
We would love for you to join us at ATCAS for our first challenge of 2014 lots of amazing inspirational creativity by the rest of the amazing DT and we also have another treat in store , we are welcoming the lovely and very talented Nancy Littrell as guest DT member. Nancy doesn’t have a blog but you can see her fabulous work here at Splitcoast stampers.
Wishing you all a healthy and happy new year
MarieE
baileyrosy 
Wonderful cards, have a great 2014 and a good rest! Valerie
Oh my, Marie, this first card is breathtaking … the black against the gorgeous vibrant colours … wow, awesome! The wee bird is a little sweetie and the framed picture with the dimensional mesh is sooo cool! Hope you’re taking some time out to recharge the batteries! Anita 🙂
Love all the cards.. every card is unique in their own way 🙂 love them..
WOW………you’ve outdone yourself Marie…….the first one is stunning with the colours poking through; love the second with the sweet birdie and the intricacy of the third is amazing. Fabulous darling!
Hugs.
Karen xxx
You really are sooooo amazing sweet Marie. If I had to choose one I could not – all so beautiful. Do hope you have a well deserved rest now – the new law sound like something out of science fiction. Take care, rest up and have a wonderful 2014. xoDonna
Hello lovely Marie! Glad to hear you survived that gruelling three week schedule of opening hours and hope you managed to retain a small droplet of energy to enjoy Christmas with. Your die cutting is an inspiration to me and many other crafters and you’ve certainly disappointed with any of these amazing offerings! Happy new year to you too – and I really hope it is. Vicky x
wow Marie these are outstanding! The colours are what hits me….orange and black and hot pink and black, what is there for a girl not to love x
Awesome use of the die cuts! That first card’s background is just fabulous!!
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooooooooooooooo cool! LOVE these!
A fantastic selection, love the bright colours against the dark bases.
Hope you have a good 2014 after you have had a well deserved rest.
Yvonne x
WOW WOW and many more WOW’s these are amazing cards, I’d love just a tiny part of your imagination.
It must have been very hard to work all those hours, the joys of being self employed ay? been there got the T shirt, not much fun sometimes.
Hope 2014 is a wonderful year for you and much better health wise, look forward to seeing what you create this year.
hugs xx
So many wonderful cards, fantastic techniques.
Wishing you all the best for 2014.
All three are so creative Marie!! I am amazed at what you make with your Cameo – truly inspiration for all of us! LOVE the intricate designs and the gorgeous colors from your dylusions sprays. Loll xx
OMG Marie…your Cameo’s are absolutely Amazing…ALL of them! WOW! BTW, I did see the cool shadows in your last sample. All these gorgeous samples and after you and your DH have been sleep deprived, exhausted, etc for the last month. Hopefully next year it goes much better for you.
Thank you so much for the sweet welcome as your GD for January. I am still thilled and can’t wait to make my next challenge card 🙂 Hugs, nancy
Oh Marie these cards are gorgeous (and the bird one is cute)! I especially love that last one with the delicately cut out background!
Don’t read other comments so someone else may have come up with this but you could have used one of the black pieces from the die cuts if you wanted a black eye.
All are really fabulous and I love your bright bold colours.
Poor you having to work such long hours.
Happy New Year to you hope you have a fab 2014
Kath x
What an amazing array of cards to showcase your cameo. I love them all! I hope you went and saw a chiropractor after tumbling around your room…. I need you in tip top shape!! Hope things have settled down for you and Mr P!!! Happy New Year, my friend xx
Wow – all of these are awesome projects! I really love the first one – reminds me of peacock feathers!
Hi Marie, fabulous cards, I love all of them especially the last one.
xxx Hazel.
Wow Marie – what stunning creations – you certainly know how to work those dies and cutting machines! Love the black with the gorgeous inky background – absolutely stunning!
Hope 2014 will be a very happy year for you and yours.
Sylvia xx
Hi Marie and a very happy new year to you too! Stunning cards, the first one is so eye catching I love the 3D effect on what looks like a spiders web to me:)
Hope you have recovered from your busy retail period which no one appreciates unless they have experienced it themselves! May have to enter this challenge as surprisingly I got a couple of new dies for Xmas:)
Val x
My goodness! what wonderful cards using dies! Great bright colors and designs!
Wowzer Mrs P and a Happy New Year to you! You are certainly a master of the old Cameo machine. I think my fave is the birdie one, but they’re all fabulously arty farty! xx
OMG Marie, master pieces 🙂 love every single one of them, how do you do it 🙂
Awesome cards! I really like the black with the pops of color. The way you used the negative for your die cut card is just ingenius! Love it!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Marie! I miss you when you aren’t here! That law about the shops should take into consideration the size of the business. It’s ridiculous to carry on that way for three whole weeks. I imagine it would make me hate Christmas!
Your posts are always a riot to read! I could just see you and the hamster you have in your head (my little guy says “hi!” to yours!) excited at the challenge word and then ending up with full-blow die dementia. I’m so relieved that you recovered without medical intervention and electric shock treatments! The end results, however, make me wonder if perhaps you didn’t actually have the treatments, they are that electrifying and genius!!
You really, really do the world a disservice by not creating and posting more often!! BTW, I can clearly see the shadows on the 3D design! That is to say, I COULD see the shadows until my eyeballs popped out onto my desk.
Be well until I see you again! Hugs, Darnell
Wow Marie, you are an absolute genius with your Cameo – I love how you took one of my cards as inspiration to create your first card – it is gorgeous, and seriously way more creative! Thanks so much for the shout out – your support is grately appreciated 😉
My goodness! What striking and gorgeous designs! Thanks for the inspiration!!!
Holy cow–I have never seen die cutting like this. Absolutely amazing projects.
Hello Mrs. P. I hope you have both recovered from all of the Christmas activities and work load. Beautiful cards as always. Really stunning. The first one reminds me of peacocks. Nice idea to use the D inks.
Take care
Gorgeous, stunning and so creative! I really love all of these works of art!
Your cards are as gorgeous as ever, Marie!!! Love the first one most – reminds me of a peacock! Sorry for missing several cards since autumn 😦
Have a nice day! Uli
Some absolutely lovely cards, Marie!
Thanks for linking up to the Moxie Fab World challenge! I am glad I stopped by!
Teru
Lovely work!
Laura