You say boo-tique.
      We say bow-tique.

I recently made a purchase from eBay, that I swear caused an ovary to burst when I opened it. It was just. that. cute. So I immediately begged the seller to do a guest post post here, and thankfully she obliged. Introducing Stacy Murphy of The Girlie Girl Bowtique…

My name is Stacy Murphy I am a a full time mommy and wife. My daughter Robyn is 16 and my son Colin is almost 5. They keep me very busy and I love it.

The Girlie Girl Bowtique has only been in business for a year! I’m an Interior Designer by profession, but chose to stay home with my kids so that had to put that on the back burner for now. As some time passed I really needed a creative outlet. As full as my life was I felt something missing.

On that day I happened to be going through my Grandmother’s old picture album. I have a natural love and obsess over anything vintage whether it be a piece of Jewelry, hats, or a pair of vintage Channel shoes . I love all vintage things… The next picture was of my Great Grandmother wearing a swim cap, You know the kind women use to wear back in the days as to not get their hair wet. This particular cap caught my eye. My Great Grandmother had stuck a bunch of daisies in it. She told me that she did that to catch the eye of this man – and she did. That man was my Great Grandfather. They laughed over this cap for many years until they both died on the same night. My daisy cap was inspired by my great grandparents. I one day decided to make these caps for photographer session props. Took some time but they caught the eye of many, MANY photographers and they and all my other flower caps have been HUGE hits.

Everything else in my Cute Bowtique is all made and designed by me. Every week there is a new design as my mind never stops. This is my outlet my hobby my passion. I love what I do and I would do it for free! (Although making some money for myself is nice too!)

I sell quality crochet flower hats , four different styles of headbands , clippies, and of course my famous flower caps — lots of MOMS shop in my store but I mostly sell to photographers as they love to use my designs for session props. I am proud to call myself a “Photo Prop Designer”. No longer the Interior Designer…which is perfect.

As a special treat for Paperie Boutique readers, if you will mention that you found Girlie Girl Bowtique on Paperie Boutique, you will get 10% off your purchase in my store. Just please make sure to contact me before making your final payment during the checkout.

And one lucky winner will get the thing that started this all – a daisy cap! Here’s how to win:

First become a fan of The Girlie Girl Bowtique on Facebook. You’ll get in on Facebook-only giveaways and promotions there.

Next, To win just go to your blog, Facebook account, Flickr account, or Twitter account and post the following:

I want a daisy cap from Girlie Girl Bowtique / etsy.com/shop/girliebowtique – win at Paperie Boutique / paperieboutique.com by @shutterblog

Post the URL(s) to your link(s) in the comments for THIS ENTRY. Comment(s) must be posted here by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 14th.

Please note: The link you post must direct to a public account. We cannot verify links on private, friends & family only, or passworded accounts and they will not be eligible to win this item. If we have to subscribe to your feed or page or request permission to see it, you will automatically be disqualified.

You can enter up to four times total – one entry each per public, non-private blog URL / Facebook / Flickr / Twitter account.

You have four chances to win but only one chance PER LINK – please do not post the same link multiple times – duplicate links will be removed. And post your 1-4 separate links in separate comments to have multiple chances to win!

Comments are moderated and may be slow to be added today but they will be added by late afternoon or early evening.

Comments on this entry will be numbered in order of posting. The winning number will be chosen by Random.org, and the winner will be contacted within 24 hours of contest’s end to claim their prize. Good luck!

UPDATE: The winner has been announced here – congrats!

Thank you so much for today’s guest post, Stacy! Make sure to visit the Girlie Girl Bowtique on Etsy and also stop by her personal Facebook page to say “hi” and “thank you” as well!

Don’t forget the big Kelly Moore bag giveaway is going on through Friday night at 11:59 p.m. EDT!

your connection to the party line

We have a winner in the Go{4}Pro iPhone case template collection giveaway! It’s Rebecca Strang of Wise Idea Portraits:

Thanks again to Go{4}Pro, congrats to Rebecca, and a huge thank you to everyone who participated as well!

And don’t forget, Paperie readers have one more day (through Monday, May 17th) to use the discount code Paperie to get 10% off the iPhone case template collection at Go{4}Pro!

You also have until 11:59 p.m. EDT Sunday night to win a $50.00 gift code from Jamie Schultz Designs. Get to it!

let Phreedom ring

Another post…another guest post / give-away! This time it’s five free forum memberships for a new online forum by Heather James Photography. Read on for more details…

I’m so excited to be back on PB, this time as a vendor! When I started my photography business one of the places I looked to was forums to meet other photographers and brainstorm new ideas & concepts. As my time on these forums progressed I found something that I felt was holding me back from sharing unrestricted on the forums – competition lurking around every corner. It seemed like wherever I went, one of my local competitors was also there. Although I’m very friendly with many other photogs in my area, I didn’t want to share every detail of my marketing and promotional campaign with them. That’s where the concept of developing the Phreedom community took its shape.

The Phreedom Forum is a community of photographers reaching up to 170 cities/regions of the country all with 1 common goal: to share freely with others from around the country so we can share success in our businesses together! We take out the competitive nature of most forums by only allowing 1 member from each city/region to join. We also ensure that each city/region of the forum is at least 1 hour in driving distance from one another as well. By taking out the competition, every member can feel comfortable and confident in asking questions and sharing the strategies that have worked for their business.

For 2010, our annual membership is $30 which includes unlimited access to the Phreedom Forum. We’ll be bringing on partners to share exclusive access to branding & marketing materials & product discounts. We’re even working on building an exclusive webinar series sure to help you build your client base and increase sales.

As a special offer to PB readers, I’ll be offering FREE memberships to the first 5 sign ups. (UPDATE: All five free memberships have now been awarded.)

I’ll be offering a special 25% discount on any other PB signup now through March 1, 2010! Mention Paperie Boutique in the “How did you hear about us” section of the sign up form.

To find out more about the Phreedom community, check out our site at phreedom.heatherjamesphotography.com.

We can’t wait for you to join the face of new forums!
-Heather

Thank you so much for such an amazing offer for the Paperie Boutique readers, Heather! Stay tuned…it’s just getting started around here this week!

If you’re interested in having your own business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured please contact me (my e-mail is in the sidebar and is robyn @ this domain – or you can leave a comment).

but wait…there’s more!

The last 12 hours have been incredible for me. First I found out I’d got a little “ProDPI Love!“. Then it was announced I’m the “February Guest Photographer” over at Prop Insanity.

And just because I care, if you head over to Prop Insanity this little surprise is available for (FREE!) download from Paperie Boutique—a Moo MiniCard template I hole punch a corner of and use as a gift tag.

Anyone out there going to WPPI in Vegas? If so, and you’re interested in posting a recap for the rest of us (similar to this one from Imaging USA), please get in touch with me!

And in case you missed the last entry, this week there’s a chance to win a fabulous (free, year-long) prize from Clickin’ Moms*!

Clickin’ Moms* is one of my guilty pleasures these days during that rare thing known as free time. Directly from the website: “We are a community of women who have a passion for photography. Some of us are amateur photographers who just want to take better pictures of our family, some of us are hobbyists, and some of us are seasoned pros. We learn from each other and help each other…this is a safe place to share your photos and chat about photography. Our forums and galleries are closed to non-members. Our site features great and easy to understand tutorials, lessons and challenges. All of the contributions are from fellow members who are more than happy to help and give advice to one another. We host amazing photography vendors who offer us discounts and group buys on their products…we have great bunch of women that enjoy hanging out with people that have a common passion – photography!”

* Clickin’ Moms is hosting an affiliate referral contest and the link I am posting will help this site in the contest.

All new Clickin’ Moms registrations sent from Paperie Boutique though midnight March 31, 2010, will receive 10% off new member subscriptions by using the coupon code FRIEND at checkout.

Clickin’ Moms has also donated one free year’s subscription to a Paperie Boutique viewer.

To enter, go to your blog, Facebook account, Flickr account, or Twitter account and post the following:

Get your cameras clickin’ with paperieboutique.com & @clickinmoms / clickinmoms.com – pass this on and win a year’s subscription!

You can enter up to four times total – one entry per blog URL / Facebook / Flickr / Twitter account. Post the URL to your link(s) in the comments for the last entry (NOT this one). Comment(s) must be posted here by 11:59 p.m. EST this Sunday, February 21st.

Comments on the last entry will be numbered in order of posting. The winning number will be chosen by Random.org, and the prize code will be e-mailed to that person within 24 hours of contest’s end.

More prize giveaways are in the works for this month so stay tuned… I want them for myself!

If you’re interested in having your own business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured please contact me (my e-mail is in the sidebar and is robyn @ this domain – or you can leave a comment).