Stella Team Blog Hop

Hello, everyone~!  Welcome to our blog hop today to introduce the members of our new Stella Team to you.  The six designers are very excited and eager to meet you!  We have asked them to create on the theme of "Show Your Style" for today's blog hop and to talk about themselves so we can get to know them better.

Here's the quick 'map' of the blog hop today.

1 - Julie

2 - Sara

3 - RoRa

4 - Cristena

5 - Wendy

6 - Marion

All the ladies have created something new just for this occasion to show their fantastic style, and they will be talking about their projects as well as a little bit about themselves.  So have fun today with our Stella Team Blog Hop!

But before you head off to visit Miss Julie, please be reminded that our current fun challenge "Sprite Delight III" (with a freebie for all participants) will be coming to an end this coming Saturday, March 5 at 11:55 pm ET US.  If you haven't joined with your AW Sprites creation, be sure to do so before the deadline.  :)  This one is too fun to miss!  When you're finished with the blog hop and return here to this page, click on the "Current Challenge" tab found at the top to check out our challenge.  Five days is plenty of time to make something awesome!  Don't delay.  Download the freebie baby, create something with it, and JOIN!

The Stella Team will be presenting their first challenge NEXT MONDAY.  That's March 7th. And from there on, AuroraWings Challenge will be twice a month for twice the fun (and prizes~!!).  So be sure to come and see us in a week!

Click here to go to Julie's post (the first stop of the hop)!

Challenge #23 Sprite Delight III

Welcome to our 23rd Challenge here at Aurora Wings with the popular and well loved theme of Sprite Delight III.  We want to see one of Mitzi's adorable whimsical creatures gracing your project this time, and there are so many to choose from.  Don't have an Aurora Wings Sprite?  Please Scroll down for a fabulous surprise.

We're very excited to have added a new "Stella" team to the Aurora Wings family with their challenges beginning the first Monday of every month, while the "Aurora" team will continue our challenges on the third Monday of each month.  What does this mean for you?  There will be TWICE as many Blog challenges with separate themes and TWICE as many opportunities to win.    Each challenge will now end at 11:55 PM EST on the Saturday before the next challenge starts so Challenge #23 will close on Saturday March 5th.

PLEASE REMEMBER OUR RULES.  It breaks my heart when I have to delete a gorgeous creation for lack of compliance, but because we have a random winner, that's the only fair thing to do.  For this challenge you MUST use an  AURORA WINGS SPRITE and may enter up to THREE times.

Our prizes each month will include:

1 (one) Artist's Choice Award Winner to be selected from entries using Aurora Wings digis ($20 GC and Badge)

1 (one) Random Winner ($20 GC)

Top 3 Winners to be chosen by the DT ($10 GC and Badge)

Now here's some amazing inspiration from the team.

Joining us today as Guest Designer is Aletha J. Williams from AJ's Designs and the Aurora Wings Showcase Team.  We're so happy to have her.

Aletha using Ranunculus Sprite

We're also thrilled to announce that Silvia Sencaka, from the Aurora Wings Showcase Team will be joining the Aurora Challenge Team as a permanent member, as well.  A warm welcome to you, Silvia!

Silvia using Spiderwort Sprite

Silvia using Linnea Sprite

Laila using Tiger Lily Sprite, Fuchsia Sprite and Wild Violet Sprite

Laila using Jasmine Sprite

Debbie using Spiderwort Sprite

Charlene using Snapdragon Sprite

Karola using Lily of the Valley Sprite

Lorraine using Wisteria Sprite, Lily of the Valley Sprite and Jasmine Sprite

Donna using Honey Bee Sprite

Gloria using Wisteria Sprite

As a special gift, Mitzi has a brand new Sprite for you to use in the challenge if you wish.  Meet Pineapple Sprite.  Isn't she just yummy?  (Pina Coladas anyone?)

So for this challenge, we are accepting ONLY AURORA WINGS SPRITES and not those of any other stamp companies.  You may use any of the Aurora Wings Sprites and may enter up to 3 times.

Pineapple Sprite Digi is no longer available here.

Here's a little more inspiration to get you going.

Debbie using Pineapple Sprite

Silvia using Pineapple Sprite

Laila using Pineapple Sprite

The challenge will be open at 9:00 am EST Monday February 15th and close at 11:55 pm Saturday March 5th 2016. Entries posted prior to February 15th will be deleted. All entries must have a hand colored digital or rubber stamp on their completed project to be eligible. Please follow the chosen theme. ONE entry per person if not using an Aurora Wings image.  You may enter your project in as many other challenges as desired. Please link to your POST address, NOT your BLOG address and link back to the Aurora Wings Challenge Blog. We would greatly appreciate you removing word verification and switching to comment moderation if you fear spam. In fairness to all, those not following the rules will be deleted. Thank you for your understanding and please have fun. We look forward to your fabulous creations.

Also, because of the difficulties we have experienced with Facebook entries, I regret that we will no longer be accepting them on the Challenge Blog.  I'm so sorry, but we do have our Enchanted Garden currently running on our Facebook Group page, so you are welcome to post your appropriate entries there through February 29th.  Thank you for your understanding. 

However, if you do not have a blog and would still like to enter this challenge,  please email me at donnamundinger(at)gmail(dot)com with your name, a picture of your entry and Aurora Wings Challenge #23 in the subject line, and I will add it to the Linky so you can participate. Hopefully this will accommodate everyone.  xx

Challenge #22 Winners

Well, hopefully most of the wintry weather many have experienced this this last month will soon be a thing of the past, but not before we announce our winners of our Ice and Snow Challenge.  Your beautiful creations gave us the chills (in the best way possible) and we thank you all for your continuing participation.  So without further ado...

The ARTIST'S CHOICE AWARD ($20 GC and Badge) chosen by Mitzi from among the entrants using Aurora Wings images goes to

#20 Cristena

In Mitzi's own words,"I love Cristena's take on the Spiderwort Sprite in shades of cool blue and silver. Unexpected, unique, and so beautiful!! "

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The RANDOM WINNER ($20 GC) goes to

#1 Treebug

And the Top 3 ($10 GC and Badge) in numerical order as they appeared in the challenge, chosen by the Design Team from ALL the entries goes to

#8 Aurora

#16 Erika Paws

#18 Annemis

A huge Congratulations to our fabulous winners! Please e-mail Mitzi at 

studiomiyabi (at) aol (dot) com, with subject line "AW challenge blog ACA winner/top 3/ random winner (*select one that applies to you)" with your list of LINKS (not the titles of the digis) to the digis you wish to receive up to the total amount of your prize.  (all values are in USD, and PLEASE no overages) to receive your prize.

PLEASE NOTE:  PRIZES NOT CLAIMED WITHIN A TWO WEEK PERIOD WILL BE FORFEITED.

Hope to see you all back for our 23rd challenge, which goes live at  9:00 am EST today.

Introducing Our New STELLA Team

Hi, everyone!  Glad you can stop by for our big announcement.  Lorraine, Donna, and I are very excited to reveal our newest design team, Stella!!  We received a lot of applications for this open call.  Thank you so much for your interest!   We liked everyone, which of course makes the process of selecting a team of 6 designers all the more difficult.  Please know that even if you weren't chosen this time around for our inaugural team of March-to-August-2016 term, other designers will have the opportunity to come on board in the next term or the one after.  Really, we'd love to work with all of you at some point in the future.  I thought I'd mention that right at the top.  And we thank you so much for responding to our open call.  We will hold onto your applications.  If you wish to reapply to our next open call, designers who have previously applied with FULLY COMPLETED applications will have the option of simply mentioning that.  Of course, if you have anything new to add to your application, you might want to just send in a new application the next time.

OK, I'm ready to introduce you to our new design team, Stella.  I'll mention something quickly here about the team name.  I didn't want to go with "number 2" or "B team" to refer to this new team, so I brainstormed a bit, and thought of the two letters at the beginning and the end of AuroraWings, A and S.  A for Aurora seemed like a given.  Also, I love thinking up titles in different languages, and one of my go-to languages is Latin (Not because I know much or anything... I'm fascinated by it.).  Aurora is "dawn" in Latin, and I thought about something that would compliment that, and bam!  Stella for "star".  Now you know the back story.

Without further ado, please welcome the members of Team Stella!!

Julie

RoRa

Cristena

Wendy

Marion

Sara

The entire AuroraWings family - Team Aurora and Showcase Team (and me!) - welcome the newest members.  We all look forward to getting to know everyone.  Stella Team will bring a new challenge on the FIRST Monday of each month, while your favorite designers from our Aurora Team will continue to bring a new challenge on the THIRD Monday as before.  Now with two challenges per month, we're doubling up on the FUN!!  While the new designers get ready for their first challenge, we will have our next regularly scheduled challenge start on the 15th of February.  Then, beginning in March, we will have both teams going.  What a great way to mark AuroraWings Challenge Blog's 2 year anniversary!  Thank you for being a fan of Aurora Wings digis and Challenge Blog.  Hope you'll join us in many of our upcoming challenges!