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!!!