Ok, I've created an simple little image it's a 32x32 pixel image with a white background in MSPaint.  then I created a second image this one is a copy of the 1st image only any part that had color was replaced with white and the rest of the image was filled in as black.

Do I need to do something special to either image within the image editor? would I need to install something like GIMP to do so? or is MS paint in windows 7 capable of something that advanced?  I uploaded the images into the program with SOIL.  source: http://www.lonesock.net/soil.html

Image loader function:

bool MPlayer::LoadObjTexture(char *filename,int slot)
{
	char *index = strchr(filename,'.');
	char *mask= new char[0];
	strncpy(mask,filename,index-filename);
	mask[index-filename]='\0';
	strcat(mask,"_mask.bmp");

	if(MObject::LoadObjTexture(filename,slot,false)&&
	   MObject::LoadObjTexture(mask,slot,true))
		return true;
	else
	{
		MessageBox(NULL,L"Hero Sprite failed to Load",L"GAME ERROR",MB_OK|MB_ICONEXCLAMATION);
		return false;
	}
}

bool MObject::LoadObjTexture(char *Filename,int slot,bool isMask)
{
	if(isMask)
	{
		mask[slot]=SOIL_load_OGL_texture
			(
			Filename,
			SOIL_LOAD_AUTO,
			SOIL_CREATE_NEW_ID,
			SOIL_FLAG_INVERT_Y | SOIL_FLAG_MIPMAPS|SOIL_FLAG_NTSC_SAFE_RGB
			);
		if(mask[slot]==0)
			return false;
		else return true;
	}
	else{
		sprite[slot]=SOIL_load_OGL_texture
			(
			Filename,
			SOIL_LOAD_AUTO,
			SOIL_CREATE_NEW_ID,
			SOIL_FLAG_INVERT_Y | SOIL_FLAG_MIPMAPS|SOIL_FLAG_NTSC_SAFE_RGB
			);
		if(sprite[slot]==0)
			return false;
		else return true;
	}
	return false;
}

Edit: glEnable(GL_BLEND) was declared in my initGL() function which is called at the start of the program. currently I've had no reason to disable blending

Ok, I've created an simple little image it's a 32x32 pixel image with a white background in MSPaint.  then I created a second image this one is a copy of the 1st image only any part that had color was replaced with white and the rest of the image was filled in as black.

Do I need to do something special to either image within the image editor? would I need to install something like GIMP to do so? or is MS paint in windows 7 capable of something that advanced?  I uploaded the images into the program with SOIL.  source: http://www.lonesock.net/soil.html

Image loader function:

bool MPlayer::LoadObjTexture(char *filename,int slot)
{
    char *index = strchr(filename,'.');
    char *mask= new char[0];
    strncpy(mask,filename,index-filename);
    mask[index-filename]='\0';
    strcat(mask,"_mask.bmp");

    if(MObject::LoadObjTexture(filename,slot,false)&&
       MObject::LoadObjTexture(mask,slot,true))
        return true;
    else
    {
        MessageBox(NULL,L"Hero Sprite failed to Load",L"GAME ERROR",MB_OK|MB_ICONEXCLAMATION);
        return false;
    }
}

bool MObject::LoadObjTexture(char *Filename,int slot,bool isMask)
{
    if(isMask)
    {
        mask[slot]=SOIL_load_OGL_texture
            (
            Filename,
            SOIL_LOAD_AUTO,
            SOIL_CREATE_NEW_ID,
            SOIL_FLAG_INVERT_Y | SOIL_FLAG_MIPMAPS|SOIL_FLAG_NTSC_SAFE_RGB
            );
        if(mask[slot]==0)
            return false;
        else return true;
    }
    else{
        sprite[slot]=SOIL_load_OGL_texture
            (
            Filename,
            SOIL_LOAD_AUTO,
            SOIL_CREATE_NEW_ID,
            SOIL_FLAG_INVERT_Y | SOIL_FLAG_MIPMAPS|SOIL_FLAG_NTSC_SAFE_RGB
            );
        if(sprite[slot]==0)
            return false;
        else return true;
    }
    return false;
}