Case Solved - Sandra the real deal!!

For the entire month Cést Magnifique is sponsoring CSI, for part of this sponsor we get to be guest designers so I would like to share with you the page that I did for Palette 19. 

There is a little bit of a story to why this page came about. I'm sure most of you have noticed that I have a Chat Bar on the side of my blog, I thought it would be something fun, you know if your friends just wanted to say hi whilst they were checking out your work. Well, it was fun up until a few weeks ago, when someone by the name of Sandra Gierke said Hi. Well, it just so happens this is the same name of a good friend of mine, someone I have known for nearly 10 years and lives about 2kms away. Normally, we catch up weekly but she has been busy working so we had been catching up via Facebook. Sandra is also a scrapbooker but only participates online as a spectator. Like all good friends, she checks out my blog to see how I am doing and supports me with regular comments & visits. So, as you can imagine, why would I think that this person Sandra G is anyone in my chatbar other than my friend Sandra Gierke.

First it was just a simple hi, then a comment about how the feed-it bar is great because she can go to all the great places that I visit (okay nothing strange about that) then she discloses to me about how she had been hit by identity fraud. Now, I thought that was odd because my friend is not a big computer buff and does not hold a credit card. Under normal circumstances, I would have phoned her straight away but it was a case of, I was busy and instead let cyberspace play its part and just replied in the chat bar. If I hadn't been so busy, I would have thought it strange that my friend Sandra would even mention that in such a public place. A week or so later, I decided to leave a message in the Chat Bar as I have had a couple of people stalking me via cyberspace. Since I could see them ‘on-line’ I left a message saying “You still there". This was just to let them know that I can see when they log onto my blog and download my pages.

Well, Sandra G left me a reply. She responded by saying she was upset with me about asking her “why was she online”. This comment was really out of character for my friend as she knows me well enough - that even if it was directed at her - she would not take offense (like I said she knows my character well enough that this would not upset me). It was then I decided I to telephone her asking to drop in after her school run, have a coffee so that we could catch up. I hit her up about the identity fraud, where her reply was “she has no idea what I was talking about”. After a quick explanation of what was happening on my blog, she said it wasn't her response and by now was a little worried that maybe someone REALLY had stolen her identity.

Whilst Sandra and I were having coffee this other Sandra came online. I tried to explain to her my confusement, not realising that there was two Sandra Gs. She then in turn accused me of calling HER a fraud (this was not mentioned at all) and thought it was strange that someone would get so defensive about a simple mix up (especially since I have a friend with EXACTLY the same name). I wasn't trying to be rude, I just thought it was odd that some stranger would just start telling me her personal details in an online chat bar - especially for everyone to read. Also, this person has the same name as one of my good friends and yet does not have a blog, no online gallery's and was not a follower of my blog. I'm sure if that person wasn't trying to trick me into thinking they were someone else, they would have been quite understanding, rather than trying to make me look rude on my own blog. The sad thing is, I know exactly who it was because whist we were chatting online, I was able to grab there IP address, then matched it to their emails (all emails have an IP address as well) and discovered it was most definitely not my friend Sandra Gierke or any other Sandra G. 

Thankfully, these people know they have been caught out and have finally stopped their stupidity. So with that said, I now have to moderate both my blog comments and the chat bar. This is such a shame because these people were once considered friends and I cannot believe they behaved like this. People should be aware that IDENTITY FRAUD is serious business and people can track you through your IP address, it can't take you to their exact house number but it can take you only streets away.

Well for those that did read all the way through, sorry if I have bored you but sometimes stories need to be told, so many judgements are made on people without the full story, as I always say there is 3 sides to every story, theirs, yours and then the truth and really no one should make a judgement when they only have one corrupted side.

Okay now on to the fun stuff.  I used a some older products mixed with new products.  I had fun creating the little hidden journaling block, tongue in cheek, I had to redo 2 before it folded out the right way, lol I then added two eyelets on either side so that the ribbon could be threaded through so it could secure the journal placement.

Product use:  MM Alphas stickers, Kaiser die cut, Prima & Kaiser Blooms, Websters Alpha stickers Websters & Cosmo Cricket Papers, Nestabilities die cut shape for matting photo, Basic Grey Chipboard Stickers, Cosmo Cricket Chipboard Stickers.

Thanks for looking and if you haven't checked out the Cést Magnifique website pop on over and say hi, even if your not up for a kit there are some fantastic products  in store such as the beautiful La Blanche Stamps. I found these really hard to find and if you can't see what your after drop Leslie a line as she is very accommodating.   When I get a chance I will try and photograph  my newly acquired collection of these stamps.

Have a great week, xox