Onwards and Upwards Welcome and Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}!

Hello, and welcome to my Onwards and Upwards weekend! I am really happy you’ve stopped by, and I hope you enjoy all the inspiration and giveaways!

If you haven’t previously heard about this event, here’s how it works: This weekend (10th – 12th May 2013), from 4pm – 10pm Friday (today), and then 10am – 10pm Saturday and Sunday (BST), there will be posts going live every hour. There will be tips, tutorials, challenges, a variety of crafts including scrapbooking and cardmaking, a blog hop, and lots of giveaways! Also, if you feel like chatting to me and other participants, you can come and join the Facebook Group!

The giveaways {ALL NOW CLOSED} will stay open until Monday 13th May at 10.59pm BST, so if you can’t manage reading it all in a weekend you have Monday to catch up!  The challenges {STILL OPEN} (there’s four of them) will stay open until next Sunday (19th May) too. All giveaways and challenges are open internationally.

The theme of the weekend was originally based on my work of the year, ‘progress’. But Onwards & Upwards is about all kinds of things, including: hopes and dreams, resolutions and goals, uplifting quotes and sentiments, travel, trying new things, positive reinforcements, finding direction, or just looking to the skies for subject matter or embellishments (clouds, planes, birds, hot air balloons, and more)!

To begin the fun here comes the first giveaway… The Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}!

The prize includes (worth over £40):

4 Sheets of My Mind’s Eye Find Your Wings and Fly‘Sky’s the Limit’ Paper (‘Look’, ‘Ballon Parade’, ‘Pick a Card’ and ‘No Limit’)
‘Sky’s the Limit’ 12×12 Sticker Sheet, Brads, and a three sheets from the Alpha/Word Stickers Pack
3 Sheets of Amy Tangerine Yes Please Paper (‘Thoughtful’, ‘Share’, ‘Currently’)
Yes Please Noteworthy Sticker Book, and Goodness Printed Chipboard Thickers ‘Watercolor’
5 Sheets of Elle’s Studio Serendipity Paper (‘Treasure’, ‘Lucky’, ‘Chevron’, ‘Flowers’, ‘Cherish’)
Serendipity Pennants, Labels, and Tidbits
American Crafts 5/8″ Glitter Tape ‘Peony’, a pot of Crystal Stickles, and a handful of co-ordinating Buttons.

A lot of the goodies in this giveaway are great for this theme – there’s clouds, encouraging phrases, and hot-air balloons (I couldn’t believe how perfect the Sky’s the Limit collection was when I saw it was being released!) But of course the supplies can be used for all kinds of projects, and I chose pretty coral-pinks and turquoises that will be lovely for spring and summer crafting.

So how do you get the chance to win these goodies? By commenting! You could just leave a comment on this post – that will give you one entry into the draw. But every comment on any post that goes live this weekend will count as another entry into the draw!

You will only be entered into the Grand Giveaway if you have commented on this welcome post. That way if you don’t want to win the prize – maybe you already own all these goodies (?!) – then don’t comment here, but you can still comment on all the other posts this weekend (including all the other giveaways) without being entered. Does that make sense?!

And to tempt you to enter, and show you what can be done with some of the items in the prize pack, here’s a card I made using some that I bought for myself (couldn’t resist!):

The only things I used which aren’t part of the prize were the 6×6″ card base, a piece of lace, some twine, some My Mind’s Eye enamel dots, and some Hero Arts clear gemstones.

Be Inspired:

Use a piece of twine to break a border in your background

Add some Stickles or glitter as ‘highlights’ on an object

Cluster some buttons and gems

Don’t forget to comment here to be entered into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}! The giveaway is open internationally, and it will close at 10.59pm (BST) on Monday 13th May. Make sure you check back to see if you won, or leave me a way to contact you if you win – I’ve had to re-draw prizes in the past because winners haven’t responded!

I see you again at 5pm!

P.S. In case you missed the previous discussion about comments – you can now comment here by signing in with WordPress, Facebook or Twitter, so your avatar appears with your comment. Just click on the button for the social link you want to log in with. You can also log in with Google, but this doesn’t usually bring an avatar up.

If you’d like an avatar to appear and you don’t have Facebook, Twitter, or WordPress accounts, then you could sign up for a Gravatar Account: http://en.gravatar.com/. If you sign up there with the email address that you usually input when you comment here, then you avatar will appear with all your previous comments too! Of course, if you’re not worried about having an avatar next to your comment, you can just fill out the boxes as usual (this doesn’t mean you are signed in to anything, it’s just takes your info to make sure you aren’t a spammer!).