Oh Happy Day!

Hey there fellow stamp lovers!  Today is a very special day for me.  Today I get to share an amazing opportunity that was given to me by Dina Kowal, one of the lovely ladies at Splitcoaststampers and fellow Bloom Brigader at Power Poppy.

Today my tutorial goes live for… well… click the button below to find out!!!

To celebrate today, I'm giving away two sets of wonderful Power Poppy stamp sets, for a total of 2 winners!

All you have to do to win is leave a comment below and tell me if you've ever used my colouring technique on a card or project before?

I will post a winner next Wednesday, August 13th so you have until then to post a comment below.  Good luck!
 
Also... don't forget to check out the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges over at Splitcoast.  They're going on right now! 

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

~ Ally ~

SURPRISE!! Happy Birthday Christine!

IT'S A SURPRISE PARTY!!! Grab a handful of confetti, a bright balloon and come along for a fun birthday blog hop to celebrate a special birthday for our dear friend, Christine Okken!  One thing about birthdays, is that you always hope to spend time with those you care about and that's why we're here!  At Flourishes, we're just one big family... so we just wanted to celebrate a wonderful day with one of our loved ones.

Even though we're a day early, we'd like to say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINE!

Join along with members of the Flourishes family today and share some fabulous birthday inspirations, many happy celebratory birthday wishes and maybe even a slice of cyber cake.

I'd like to take a moment to say a few words to Christine...

Congrats Christine!  I hope you have a fabulous birthday. 

I can only hope that the next year is even better than the last

& that the love that you share with all the special people 

in your life continues to grow more and more!  

Many happy returns my friend!  Sending you the happiest of birthday wishes!

Hugs, Ally.

Here is the card I created for Christine.  I sent it off to her last week in the hopes that she might get it in time for her actual birthday tomorrow.

There is nothing I love doing more than playing with LOTS of different stamps sets on one project.  For Christine's card, I used Thank You for the script writing on my back ground, From the Heart for the banner shape for my sentiment, Vintage Postcard for the subtle back ground postage marks, Fanciful Flourishes for the delicate butterflies, Botanical Bookplates Vol. 1 for the birthday greeting, and the Antique Map for my teal background.  The inks I used were Memento's "Rich Cocoa", Ranger's "Vintage Photo", "Tumbled Glass", "Antique Linen" and "Peacock Feathers".  I used Flourishes Classic Ivory and Classic Kraft cardstock for my entire card.

Here's a close up of my back ground before I put my die cuts on the top of it...

 

In honor of Christine's birthday celebration, we're giving away a special birthday present or two of our own!  Hidden among the Design Team’s blogs today is a Mystery Blogger. Comment on her blog and you could be chosen as one of our birthday prize winners! The more you comment, the better your chances of winning.

As well as one lucky commenter, we're having a birthday challenge too!

THE OFFICIAL RULES:

• Simply create a NEW birthday themed card or project.
• Entries need to be in by Friday November 1st at 6 PM EST.
• Those entries using Flourishes stamps will be counted for 2 prize ballots!
• You must link your creation in our InLinkz Widgit to be counted.
• You must have a link to our challenge in your blog post or gallery post.  Please feel free to use our Birthday Graphic too!
• If you upload to SCS please use the keyword:  FLLCWISH
• We’ll announce the winners on Saturday on the blog on Saturday November 2nd, so check back then to find out if you are a winner!

Hop along with our Flourishes family today.  Don't forget to leave some love for our fabulous designers today for a chance to win...

Aleksandra Mihelič
Allison Cope
Cheryl Lea
Deborah Anton
Dina Kowal
Heather Jensen
Jenny Gropp
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Maki Jones
Meredith MacRitchie
Naomi Gong
Stacy Morgan
Silke Ledlow
Tosha Leyendekker

Don't forget to stop by Christine's blog, HERE, and send her some birthday wishes too!

~ Ally ~

Sponsored by:  Flourishes LLC

Supplies:
stamps:  Flourishes (Thank You, From the Heart, Vintage Postcard, Fanciful Flourishes, Botanical Bookplates Vol. 1, Antique Map)
cardstock:   Flourishes Classic Ivory & Kraft
die cut shapes:  Spellbinders
ink: Memento, Ranger Distress
pearls:  Recollections.

Blog Candy Winner!

The WINNER of my Blog Candy Giveaway is... comment #26...

Angie1:34 PM     I shared you on my fb page. Here is my link: https://www.facebook.com/angela.bode?fref=ts

Congrats Angie!!!  Please email me with your full name and mailing address!!!

~ Ally ~

Happy Birthday Blog Candy!

CONTEST CLOSED!!

 

Howdy all!  Since this month is my birth month, I thought I'd give a little gift away of my own.

Here how you can earn ballots to win my Birthday Blog Candy:

1. Become a Follower of my blog.  Leave a comment below stating you have become a Follower.  If you already are a Follower, thanks, and post a comment indicating so! (= 1 ballot)
2. Post the image above on your blog and link it back to this post.  Leave a comment below with a link to your blog post. (= 1 ballot)
3. Post the image above on Facebook or Twitter and link it back to this post. Leave a comment below with a link to your Facebook page.  (= 1 ballot)
4. Post the image above on Pinterest and link it back to this post.  Leave a comment below with a link to your PIN.  (= 1 ballot) 

Please post one post per item above; Follower = 1 comment.  Blog Link = 1 comment, etc.

This prize package contains:

• a 6x6 pad of Bo Bunny "Prairie Chic" papers
• a "Bees & Blossoms" stamp set from Flourishes and
• a "Happy: Inside & Out" stamp set from Flourishes
• plus a few other bibs and bobs!

This giveaway is open to all international participants.
A randomly chosen winner will be announced on June 29th!

Good luck!
~ Ally ~

Timeless Tuesday ~ Reminds Me of the Sea!

 

Hello Flourishes Fans!  Did you a load of all the new and fabulous stamp sets released last week?  They're all amazing.  Did you know that you can also purchase the...

The New Release Bundle includes ALL four of our new stamps sets at 10% off the total price of buying all four separately!  WOW... what a savings!!!  You have to act fast, however, to cash in on this deal. This offer only lasts through May 17.  Happy shopping!!

I also want to take a moment to honour one of our fabulous Friends of Flourishes Team members... Cindy Haffner!  Cindy has been a part of the FOF team for 5 years and this week she has decided to step down from the team.  She is off on a new life adventure, to a new home and to lots of other fun firsts!  I wish you all the best Cindy!  I sure hope you'll join us for the odd TTC!!!  Best wishes Cindy!!  I'm going to miss you!  Big hugs!!!  Safe travels!

Welcome to this week's edition of the Timeless Tuesday Challenge!  This week's challenge comes to your from our super talented hostess, Broni this week!  She is challenging us to create a card or project using the colours... blue and green (FTTC220)!  And I have to tell you... these are my favourite colours for creating cards so I was tickled pink this week to be using this colour combo for my project.  It reminds me of the sea...

I started off my card this week by die cutting one of our Perfectly Pierced Classic Window die shapes from our delicious Flourishes Classic White Cardstock.  Leaving my cardstock in my die, I stamped my rose and rosehip image from the NEW "Old Tea Rose" stamp set using Memento "Black Tuxedo" ink.

Then I created a mask as seen below.  Typically, I like to create masks for stamping out of Post-It Notes.  This allows me to create a mask that isn't too thick as to distort my inking along its edges.  Sometimes I use just good copy paper like I did for today's mask. First I took the copy paper, fussy cut out my stamped images and then ran it through my Xyron Sticker Maker with Repositionable Adhesive in it. Works like a charm for making masks!!!  Instead of throwing this out, I put my masks back on their waxy paper backing and slide them in with my stamp set... ready for next time!

After I carefully laid down my masks over my stamped images, I loaded up my Copic Airbrush with just two simple markers (BG01 & BG13) and worked my way around my image.  Once my colour was laid down, I left on my masks just a little longer and inked up one of the sentiment stamps from the same stamp set, "Old Tea Rose", and stamped it across my images.

I used the following Copic Collections to airbrush and colour my card:  BG01, BG13, T1, T2, T3 and T4:

 

I hope you've enjoyed my creation today.  Make sure you take a moment and stop by all of our fabulous Friends of Flourishes Team members' and guest designer's blog today...

• Allison Cope
• Broni Holcombe
• Deborah Anton
• Denise Marzec
• Jenny Gropp  - welcome Jenny!
• Judy Rozema  - welcome Judy!
• Katie Sims  - welcome Katie!
• Iulia Pasca, our May guest designer

I'm also giving away some Flourishes BLOG CANDY!  Take a peek HERE! *NOW CLOSED*

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Ally ~

Supplies:
stamps: Flourishes (Old Tea Rose)
cardstock: Flourishes Classic White Cardstock, Bazzill
die cut shapes: Flourishes (Perfectly Pierced Dies)
ink: Memento, Copic
tools:  Tim Holtz (Piercing tool & ruler).

Happy Mother's Day Blog Candy!!!

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!

Wishing all of your fellow Mother's out there today a very Happy Mother's Day today!!!  I hope you all get pampered today!

In honour of this special day, I have a small giveaway today for one lucky commenter...

This little package contains die cut and stamped images from 3 of the 4 new releases from Flourishes this past week.  Each one is stamped onto Flourishes Classic White Cardstock using Memento "Black Tuxedo" ink. PLUS... I think I'll also throw in a mystery Flourishes stamp set or two.


All you have to do to win is leave a comment below telling me:

How did your children/grandchildren/nieces/nephews honour you today?

 Leave your answer below along with your email address and I'll pick one random winner on Wednesday.

~ Ally ~

GIVEAWAY!

,It's Giveaway time!!!

It's my son's birthday next week and he's going to be SIX... boy time flies! He's grown from the blondest baby ever to the blondest almost 6 year old ever in such a short time. So I'm celebrating this week with a giveaway!

I have some adorable products from the new Fancy Pants Designs collection, "Baby Mine" to giveaway this week!

Glitter Cuts

Design Embellishments

Filter Paper Embellishments

Here's how to be entered:

1. Leave a comment below and tell me about a memorable childhood birthday.
2. Please ensure I can contact you. Link your blog in your comments or register at WeScrap.com and leave your username with your comment.
3. You will have until Sunday July 17th at 12 noon MST to leave your comment. A winner will be announced within a few days on this blog.

Good luck!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Mission to Create!

Welcome to Mission to Create's

First Birthday
Blog Hop!!

Mission to Create is celebrating our first birthday.
What better way to celebrate than with a blog hop to revisitour favourite missions
and there will be presents too along the way :)

Each design team member has chosen their favourite mission from this past year and created either brand new layout or card with it.

Wanna see?
Go hop on over to each design team members blog to see what they did.
To be entered to win a fabulous prize, be sure to comment while you are there, become a follower, and then come back here to let us know. Don't forget to become a follower of Mission to Create (if you aren't already).

Here is the complete list of blogs to visit:

Nicole
Andrea
Jocie
Eva
Vanessa
Allison (you are here!)
Deborah
Jessy
Mission to Create
(if you haven't already been there)

You have until October 11, 2010 at 4pm Central time to visit, comment, and follow the blogs to be eligible for our prize.

I went back to almost the start of Mission to Create and chose Mission 0004:

Deborah - Use a children's book title as your title

Jocie - Use a "creature" on your page (deer, owl, bird, etc.)

Nicole - Use this advertisement as inspiration

Vanessa - Use mini alpha's (stamped or stickers)

Lynette - Use the color combo blue/green/orange

Here's my take on Mission 0004:

supplies: patterned paper, die cut shapes, Crate Paper; sticker letters, October Afternoon; cardstock, Bazzill; button, Basic Grey; twine, The Twinery; gems, Micheal's Craft Store; other, thread, Stickles by Ranger.


Thank you so much to everyone who visits our blog and creates along with us.
We appreciate your support over the past year and hope that you've had as much fun as we've had!!

We look forward to your participation in the coming months to lead to our 2nd birthday bash!
Enjoy the hop!!

WANNA WIN SOMETHING?!?!?!
I'm also offering up a gift certificate for myStampBOX to one lucky commenter this weekend! Leave a comment below answering the question below to win:
How to you plan to celebrate your next birthday?


Leave a comment, become a follower and then you are off to Deborah's blog next!

April BLOG CANDY!

It's April and time to start giving away some monthly stamp sets again!

For this month's blog candy, I'm again offering up ANY stamp set of your choice from myStamp BOX (valued at $19.99 CAN or less) again. Yippee for FREE stamps!!!

To have a chance to win a stamp set of your choice, you must:

(PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! Any comments in this post not containing your name & basic location will be rejected.)

1. Leave a comment below with your first name and last initial and your city and province/state of residence. *Open to all!*

2. Post something on your blog (if you have one) to indicate to people that I'm giving away FREE stamps and send them here to this post. In a separate comment below, post a link to your blog post. This second comment will also get you another ballot into my draw.

If you DO NOT post a comment below, your blog posts for the month will not count towards ballots for a free set of stamps so make sure you at least leave one comment below with your required information.

To increase your odds of winning, for EVERY comment you make on my blog throughout the month of April (including all the April posts up to here!), will earn you an additional ballot for your chance to win the set of stamps of your choosing.

Good luck!

Blog candy is open to all participants... Canadian, US and international people!

Note: prize must be claimed within 30 days of winner announcement.

Let's Move it... Move it & BLOG CANDY coming up!

Today's my day on the mSB blog and I have some fun interactive cards to share with you! Come and found out what my two little sneak peeks below are all about right here!!

We are going to be very busy in the next little while at my StampBOX. We have two blog hops coming up in the next few days.

On April 2nd, Good Friday, we are joining our Partner Company PK Glitz on their blog hop. Make sure to stop by and get some glitzy inspiration. There will be plenty of fun Spring influenced or Easter themed projects to feast your eyes on. Come and visit the mSB blog for some our design team's work.

The next hop, on Monday, April 5th, will start here, on the myStampBOX blog and will introduce all new Design Team members in depth. You will visit all returning Design Team members’ blogs and get some eye candy. There will also be a stamp set offered to one participant, who leaves a comment on all participating blogs . We hope to see you there!

Looking forward to having you over for these events!

Happy stamping!

A ROYAL Giveaway & a WINNER!

Last week I offered up some lovely St. Patty's Day blog candy. Let's find out who won my envelope full of stamps and die cuts from MME...

And the winner of my goodies is comment #1:

Paola said...

Hi there.. I already posted a comment at mSB Blog! :) Pretty cards!

Congrats Paola! You now have 30 days to email me with your mailing details to claim your prize!

And you might want to check out the myStampBOX blog today! Bettina is giving away a yet-to-be-released alphabet stamp set today! Comments must be in no later than March 28th. Good luck!

Follow to WIN & a FUN Contest!

Let's Capture our Memories is having a FUN challenge for the next few weeks. It's called the Random Hearts contest. See more details about it here!

WINNER, Winner... Chicken Dinner!

I realized that I hadn't announced the winner of my November RAK. So let's do that now. I threw all the names that left comments in the List Randomizer and this is what is spit out at me...

List Randomizer

There were 24 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. KimR
2. KimR
3. Carol

Congrats KimR! You will have to email me since I have no way to contact you. You have 30 days to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone who left comments last month.

November BLOG CANDY & a Winner!

THIS WILL BE MY LAST MONTHLY GIVEAWAY.

I plugged in all the valid comments for October's blog candy and threw all the names in the Random.org list randomizer and this is what it spit out for a winner....

There were 60 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Mary
2. Pryn
3. Victoria

Congrats Mary! Please email me at sosketchy@live.com with your stamp choice from myStamp BOX and your mailing information.

Now on to this month's BLOG CANDY...

For this month's blog candy, I'm again offering up ANY stamp set of your choice from myStamp BOX (valued at $19.99 CAN or less) again. Yippee for FREE stamps!!!

To have a chance to win a stamp set of your choice, you must:

(PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! Any comments in this post not containing your name & basic location will be rejected.)

1. Leave a comment below with your first name and last initial and your city and province/state of residence. *Open to all!*

2. Post something on your blog (if you have one) to indicate to people that I'm giving away FREE stamps and send them here to this post. In a separate comment below, post a link to your blog post. This second comment will also get you another ballot into my draw.

If you DO NOT post a comment below, your blog posts for the month will not count towards ballots for a free set of stamps so make sure you at least leave one comment below with your required information.

To increase your odds of winning, for EVERY comment you make on my blog throughout the month of November (including all the November posts up to here!), will earn you an additional ballot for your chance to win the set of stamps of your choosing.

Good luck!

Blog candy is open to all participants... Canadian, US and international people!

Note: prize must be claimed within 30 days of announcement of winner.

October BLOG CANDY & a Winner!

I plugged in all the valid comments for September's blog candy and threw all the names in the Random.org list randomizer and this is what it spit out for a winner....

List Randomizer

There were 48 items in your list. Here they are the top three:

1. Victoria
2. groovyscrapbooker
3. marit
   

Congrats Victoria! Please email me at sosketchy@live.com with your stamp choice from myStamp BOX and your mailing information.

Now on to this month's BLOG CANDY...

For this month's blog candy, I'm again offering up ANY stamp set of your choice from myStamp BOX (valued at $19.99 CAN or less) again. Yippee for FREE stamps!!!

To have a chance to win a stamp set of your choice, you must:

(PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! Any comments in this post not containing your name & basic location will be rejected.)

1. Leave a comment below with your first name and last initial and your city and province/state of residence.

2. Post something on your blog (if you have one) to indicate to people that I'm giving away FREE stamps and send them here to this post. In a separate comment below, post a link to your blog post. This second comment will also get you another ballot into my draw.

If you DO NOT post a comment below, your blog posts for the month will not count towards ballots for a free set of stamps so make sure you at least leave one comment below with your required information.

To increase your odds of winning, for EVERY comment you make on my blog throughout the month of September (including all the September posts up to here!), will earn you an additional ballot for your chance to win the set of stamps of your choosing.

Good luck!

Blog candy is open to all participants... Canadian, US and international people!

Note: prize must be claimed within 30 days of announcement.

Congrats goes to....

As part of the ABC Blog Hop for myStamp BOX, I promised to give away a free Rough Copy stamp set.

I asked my Dad, who is visiting along with my Mom this past week to give me a random number between 1 and 34 and he picked #12. The 12th comment belongs to...

Shirley said...

That Halloween card is my fav but the others are just as cute too! Thanks for a fun blog hop! Tracy's banner was so adorable I'm going back to take a second look!

Congrats Shirley! I will leave a message on your blog for you to contact me with your mailing address!

If you'd still like to win a FREE set of myStamp BOX stamps, you can play along with my monthly blog candy for September. For further details, see here.

September Blog Candy and a WINNER!

I plugged in all the valid comments for August's blog candy and threw all the names in the Random.org list randomizer and this is what it spit out for a winner....

List Randomizer

There were 50 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. jessica
2. victoria
3. joann

Congrats Jessica! Please email me at sosketchy@live.com with your stamp choice from myStamp BOX.

Now on to this month's BLOG CANDY...

For this month's blog candy, I'm again offering up ANY stamp set of your choice from myStamp BOX (valued at $19.99 CAN or less) again. Yippee for FREE stamps!!!

To have a chance to win a stamp set of your choice, you must:

(PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! Any comments in this post not containing your name & basic location will be rejected.)

1. Leave a comment below with your first name and last initial and your city and province/state of residence.

2. Post something on your blog (if you have one) to indicate to people that I'm giving away FREE stamps and send them here to this post. In a separate comment below, post a link to your blog post. This second comment will also get you another ballot into my draw.

If you DO NOT post a comment below, your blog posts for the month will not count towards ballots for a free set of stamps so make sure you at least leave one comment below with your required information.

To increase your odds of winning, for EVERY comment you make on my blog throughout the month of August (including all the August posts up to here!), will earn you an additional ballot for your chance to win the set of stamps of your choosing.

Good luck!

Blog candy is open to all participants... Canadian, US and international people!