Wednesday 28 October 2015

CTS#146, Cat Lovers' Blog Hop and a Santa Card.






Hi everyone!!!


Boy, we had a hot day today!!!  At the moment it has cooled down a bit and it's lovely outside.  We are going to have a lovely evening - hubby and I will go for a long walk after supper to enjoy the summer evening!!!


The first card I want to share is one I made using the current sketch over at the CAS(E) this Sketch Blog.
This is the sketch:
 


and my take on it:




Bg done with drywall tape and watercolours.
Sentiment stamp from a local craft shop, Great Impressions.
Three hand punched flowers and some black plastic dots complete the picture.





The next card I've made is for the Cat Lovers' Blog Hop.  If you love cats as much as I do you would want to hop over to Janis at Her peaceful Garden and join in the fun!!!  Tomorrow, 29 October, is International Cat Day!!!   I got to know about this hop on my friend, Kitty's Blog.






So this is my card:




The sweet image is a free digi I got from Sliekje's Blog.  She has really got a lot of lovely cat (and other) digi's.
I did the colouring with coloured pencils.  I haven't got any fancy colouring pens - maybe Santa feels like dropping some down the chimney on Christmas Eve!!!!
Afrikaans sentiment saying: 'Happy Christmas'.




And then I've made a card just for fun!!!  This time I used a digi that the sweet Monika Reeck sent me!!!  A friend of her drew this lovely Santa image!!!  You can buy Santa at Monika's Etsy shop
I had such fun colouring Santa!!!







Afrikaans sentiment saying: 'Happy Christmas'.


The last two cards are so different from what I usually do, but I enjoyed moving a bit out of my comfort zone!!!


Thank you so much for popping in!!!!  Your visits and comments are always appreciated!!!







Monday 26 October 2015

Mojo Monday #421 and FMS#209






Hi everyone!!!



I made a card using Julee's sketch for the week over at the Mojo Monday Blog.  It's tall and skinny week.
This is the sketch:


 and my card:



Flower and sentiment stamps by Altenew.
Dragonflies hand punched.





I've also made a card to link at the Freshly Made Sketches Blog. 
This is what the sketch looks like:

 

This is my card:




Flower and leaves stamps and dies from Altenew.
Afrikaans sentiment saying: 'Congratulations'.





Thanks for spending some time with me today!!!



Tuesday 20 October 2015

CAS on Sunday #69 and Seize the Birthday





Hi everyone!!!


I've got a card to share that I will be linking at two challenges.  At the CAS on Sunday Blog you are to use washi tape on your card and at the Seize the Birthday Blog the topping is 'Splatters'.

For your blog



...this is my card:




The washi tape stamps are part of a set by Kaisercraft.
The polka dot strip is washi tape.
I've taped some of the polka dot washi to white cs and hand punched the flower.
Leaves stamp by PTI
Afrikaans sentiment saying: 'Congratulations'.



Thanks for visiting and have a great day!!!





Monday 19 October 2015

Another CTS#145





Hi everyone!!!


Second post for the day!!!

I've made another card to link at the sketch challenge over at the CAS(E) this Sketch Blog.
This is what the sketch looks like:


and this is my second take on it:




Flower die from Couture Creations.
Leaves stamp from PTI.
Sentiment stamp from Altenew.
As usual, finished it off with black plastic dots!!!!


That's it from me for today!!!


Thanks for popping in!!!

Mojo Monday #420




Hi everyone!!!


A new week and a new sketch by Julee over at the Mojo Monday Blog.
This is the sketch:


and my card:




Used Notebook Edge, Button and Star Stax dies from MFT.
Tim Holtz chevron die used.
Afrikaans sentiment saying: 'Congratulations'.
Added some black plastic dots and it was done!!!


That will be it for now!!!  Hope to see you again soon!!!



Sunday 18 October 2015

CTS#145 and VLV October Week 3






Hi everyone!!!


Joining two challenges this evening!!

This is the sketch up at the CAS(E) this Sketch Blog.



and the card I've made:



Flower stamp from MFT.
Afrikaans sentiment, computer generated, saying: 'Thanks, that was so kind of you'.
A one layer except for the three plastic dots.



This is the sketch for Week 3 of October at the Viva La Verve Blog. 



My card:





Patterned papers from PatternPaper.
Roses stamp and die from PTI.
Verve goodies used:  Borderline Stamp set, Charming Banner dies and a sentiment from the Friendly Phrases stamp set.


Hope you had a lovely weekend!!!!

Thanks for visiting!!!


Friday 16 October 2015

FMS#208



Hi everyone!!!



Joining in the fun over at the Freshly Made Sketches Blog, today!!!
This is the sketch for the week:


and the card I've made:






The vertical strip at the side I've done with scorelines and I also have scorelines on the small white square. These photos show the scorelines a bit better.





The colours I've worked with are navy and copper - not gold and black as it looks like in the photos!!!!
The flower and hello dies are from MFT.
Leaves stamps from PTI.
Completed the picture with some rhinestones.


Thank you so much for popping in.  Your visits and comments are always appreciated!!!

Have a wonderful Friday!!!


Thursday 15 October 2015

Two cards and a long story or two!!!











Hi everyone!!!


Hope you're all well!!!  Oh boy, I haven't been posting for a very long time, but I think most of you know that I'm somebody who enjoys many other crafts apart from card making, so you will know that I've been busy with other crafting and I have to admit that by times I have also been a bit lazy and just enjoyed sitting around and relaxing!!!  I've also enjoyed some sewing and crocheting and I'm busy making samples for wedding invitations for my niece who is getting married next year.  I've put a lot of time into that and I might share some of it at a later stage, with you.


If you've got a minute of two to spare I would like to share a story with you of two orders of mine that went 'missing'!!!  In the beginning of March my DH said I could order some cardmaking stuff again, so I placed an order with one of my favorite shops, MFT!!!  That was on the 2nd of March and on the 7th of March my parcel left the USA on it's way to me!!!  I was so excited and knew I had to be patient for hopefully not more than 3 or 4 week, for the stuff to arrive!!!  And then the long wait began - after quite a few weeks the mail box was still empty!!!  By the beginning of June still nothing!!!  Living in a country where crime and theft are an everyday thing I started thinking that someone at the Post Office thought there was something valuable in the parcel and took it!!!  At the beginning of June I again placed some orders - another one from MFT, but this time I used the courier company to deliver my order, as I didn't want to take the chance to loose another parcel - within less than two weeks my order was delivered at my front door - I was sooooo happy!!!  At the same time I also ordered a MISTI from My Sweet Petunia and that arrived after four or five weeks!!!  I was really excited to have this lovely tool not go missing, too!!!!  I was the lucky winner of a $30 gift voucher from Altenew, on a blog hop, so at the beginning of June I also placed an order with Altenew, hoping that this parcel would arrive safely!!!  So at that stage I was waiting for my first MFT parcel and my Altenew parcel!!!!  As weeks and weeks gone by, I lost all hope to receive either of these two parcels!!!  I was so upset about all the money I lost, as apart from the money DH said I could spend I also used money that I got as Xmas and birthday gifts, from my DMIL.  When by the end of August, I haven't received either of my two parcels, I decided to take the matter up with the Public Complaints line at our President's office - I was hoping to claim my money from them as the Post Office is a governmental institute and they were the people having my parcels go lost!!!  A person high up in the Post Office contacted me and we figured out that the Post Office never got the parcels - it was the Customs and Excise department that never delivered the parcel to the PO!!!  International parcels go to Customs and Excise first to have the parcel inspected and to calculate the taxes that have to be paid and then they allocate a local tracking number to it.  A local tracking number was never allocated to my parcels, so we had to come in contact with Customs and Excise.  So back to the Complaints line again, but this time they didn't respond to my e-mails!!!  I sent numerous e-mails, but no luck!!!  I was very upset and by the end of September I still tried to get the Public Complaints line to tell me how to claim my money for the missing parcels!!!  And then, on Monday 5 October, I emptied the mail box and I found a slip for a parcel in the box!!!!  My glasses was in the car, so I couldn't read what the slip was saying, but I was sure it was the kind of slip you get when you can collect an international parcel at the counter!!!  As fast as I could, I ran into the PO, handed the lady my slip and when she came to the counter with my MFT parcel, I could not believe my eyes!!!  Could it be true - two days short of 7 months, after leaving the USA!!!!  I was over the moon to receive my MFT parcel!!!!  And then I had hopes for the Altenew parcel to arrive, too, but I was ready to wait another 2 or 3 months!!!  And can you believe this - when I emptied the mail box on the Wednesday, there was another slip in the box and this time I had my glasses and I could see that it was in fact my Altenew parcel that arrived - 4 months after leaving the USA!!!!  This might be a record for having to wait for parcels to arrive!!!!   So now I'm like a child with a lot of new toys - don't know which one to play with first!!!         



The first card I'm posting is for the Mojo Monday sketch for the week .  This is Julee's sketch on the Mojo Monday blog. 




I flipped the sketch on it's side.





I've used my new MFT Notebook Edge die.
Flower stamps and die from Altenew.
I used some of my new MFT ink pads to stamp the flowers. 
Sentiment stamp also from Altenew.
Rounded it off with some black plastic dots.




Next up is a card for the current CAS(E) this Sketch challenge.  This is the sketch:



and my card:




I used my new 'Hello' die from MFT - that's the only die available that is the same for Afrikaans and English so I had to get it!!!!
The little flower stamp is from Altenew.
Used my Tim Holtz lattice die to cut the diamonds from some of my new MFT cs.
Given the sentiment and diamonds some shine with my WOS brush.



One more thing I want to share on word dies.  Who doesn't love all the fantastic word dies that is so popular lately???  Well, of cause there aren't any Afrikaans dies available :(  and almost all my cards are Afrikaans!!!  For the samples of the wedding invitations that I'm making, I got the idea to have the names of the couple cut out and put on the front of the card.  I went to a friend and we tried to cut the names with the new Brother Scan and Cut, but unfotunatly it didn't work.  I also spoke to someone who has a Silhoette, but she too, said that if it's very fine letters I want to cut, it wouldn't work.  (I think part of the problem might be the local paper I'm using is not ideal for fine cutting - too many long fibers that doesn't want to cut nicely).  My friend was so clever to suggest laser cutting, so off I went to a laser cutting business in town and was I surprised at what they can do!!!  No problem cutting my fine letter!!!  I got the names yesterday and I'm really impressed and the cost is quite reasonable.  And now I'm going to have some Afrikaans sentiments cut so that I can use that on my cards!!!!  I'm so excited!!!!  (I am considering buying a Silhoette, although I'm having second thoughts about it now - would love you to tell me what your experience is with cutting fine letters and with using different kinds of paper)             



Before I go I would like to apologize for not commenting on any of your beautiful cards over the last few weeks!!!  I have visited all your blogposts and really enjoyed what you have made!!!!  I fell behind in commenting and in the end I was so far behind it was impossible to catch up!!!  I will be popping in and saying hello on your blogs, within the next day or two!!!


For those of you who are still here - thanks for spending some time with me and reading all my stories!!! 
Always such a pleasure to have you here!!!



Have a wonderful day!!!