“I have been waiting
patiently for the next
contest announcement…
ready for an assignment.
… LOL.” ~Dawn-B
With a grand total of 123 wonderful polymer clay bead photo entries submitted, the first bead giveaway contest turned out to be a huge success. But it was also a ton of work. So it’s taken a bit of time to get caught up to where Doug and I could do another one. Well the time has come to announce round two…
Cindy, any idea on when the next contest will be? I practiced all of the techniques in the first contest, but was not brave enough to submit a picture. I hope I will be a bit braver for the next go round! Looking forward to learning more, ~Tiffany-M
Many thanks to Cindy and Doug for this very inspiring contest and I hope when you recover your energy we may have another. ~Carole-H
I have been waiting patiently for the next contest announcement. Can’t wait! I’m ready for an assignment. LOL ~Dawn-B
When’s the next competition Cindy?? ;) ~Silverleaf
Recently there was a bit of chatter from some of you about my rather ambiguous reference to “Prizes” in the introduction paragraph of the recent spotlight feature articles…
Wait a minute! What does it mean in the article where it says, “And… there’s PRIZES too!” Does that mean we’re going to have another contest, Cindy? Is it going to be like last time? Or can we send any kind of project? I’ve just got to be a part of it this time! What is going on in that creative mastermind of yours, Cindy??? ~Phaedrakat
Yes, yes, yes, another contest sounds great. Thanks for speaking up, Phaedrakat. I missed it, must have been speed reading lol. ~Joyce-M
What if I told you that the next bead giveaway event is actually, already happening… right under your nose’s. Wouldn’t that be kinda fun to find out about? Especially for those of you who are already entered and don’t even know it yet :-)
Anyone care to speculate about what I might have up my sleeve this time? Surely some of you that have been around here for while should be able to figure out how my brain works by now. I’ll admit I’m a bit of a tease, but that’s just one of the quirky things that makes this community so darn fun to hang out at. At least that’s my opinion any ways :-)
Bet it has something to do with commenting on the Spots … and, you know, guys, we really should be giving good critiques … it is great to hear the compliments, but we can all improve in one way or another. Study the posts rather than just first impressions. Let’s hear some ways to improve also. Cindy has this concept down pat … she always gives a compliment on what is good while at the same time telling us how we could do something better. If you only point out the ‘bad’ it would be discouraging, but if that is tempered with something ‘good’ then all is well. ~Carolyn-F
I did spot the mention of “prizes” but was sure that Cindy would explain at some point and was willing to wait and YES I am interested in another competition. I too think it is to do with the great spotlight features and I agree with Carolyn that constructive criticism is always useful along with compliments of course! ~Susan-B
I would wager that the contest has something to do with the increased frequency of the “spotlight” sections. Noticed they were coming more frequently that in the past, but just thought you were catching up due to the overwhelming popularity of the “spot” segments. ~Ken-H
Yes, I think it has to do with the spotlights, as well — since that’s where Cindy’s mentioning the “and…there’s Prizes.” She’s done it several times now on spotlight pages. My guess is to enter you have to send in some pictures of your work for a spotlight article. And there’s probably some rule having to do with commenting as well. Hmmm, when will Cindy let us know for sure? ~Phaedrakat
Well, I’m all for a new contest! First one I could get in on — give us the details..we’re sitting on “pearls and lentils” here! lol — thanks Cindy, waiting to hear what’s up your sleeve now. ~Cheri-S
Well you guys pretty much got it. Here’s the rules and guidelines:
1) Every single Spotlight article from March 1, 2010 forward, counts as an entry into the new and improved, ongoing bead giveaway contest. Notice the date is retroactive? This means that some of you are already entered. You can submit as many spotlights as you like. Each one counts as another entry.
2) After 30 new Spotlights have been published, a winner is picked to receive a goodie bag of polymer clay beads made by me, The Polymer Clay Tutor. But rather than gift a whole pile of random beads like I did with the first giveaway, whenever possible I’m going to include a coordinated set of polymer beads that you can make into a piece of jewelry.
3) So how will each winner be picked? I’m actually going to let Google decide. When it comes time to give away another set of beads, it will be the Spotlight article with most unique page views that wins.
4) What’s cool about this approach, is that you can increase your chances of winning by posting about your Spotlight article entry at sites like Facebook; Flickr; Twitter; StumbleUpon; Your blog; Other forums that allow you to promote your work, etc., etc. Each new visitor that comes over to read your Spotlight Feature, gets tallied as a unique page view which Google tracks for me. Those visitors don’t even have to leave a comment to count. Pretty neat huh?
5) The other way to increase your chances of winning is to make sure your Spotlight write-ups are as engaging as possible… so that others leave comments and/or ask follow up questions. Sharing stories about lessons learned in a way that helps others to also benefit from your experiences, is always a good bet to get healthy discussions going. The more “activity” you are able to generate, the higher your unique page views will be.
6) Once any given spotlight article is selected as a winner, it cannot qualify to win again in a future selection process. That does not mean YOU can’t win more than once. Each of your spotlight articles qualifies as a separate contest entry. And remember, there is a new winner picked after each consecutive set of 30 new spotlight articles are published. So as long as your previously submitted spotlight article(s) have not yet been selected as a winner, they will continue to be in the running. As I said above, this is an ongoing (perpetual) contest.
Any questions? Comments?
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Clever, clever! Now to post a spot….hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Interesting! I’ve been meaning to submit more photos for a while so this is a good excuse to get on with it! I’ve had pretty much no time recently because I’m organising and cooking for food for my choir’s formal meal in a week (which needs a LOT of planning), I have my first craft fair in two weeks, and I’ve also been nursing a sick wild hedgehog (which those of you who know me of Facebook will be tired of hearing about by now). But once the madness is over I’ll get some pictures together.
So questions:
Do the pieces in the spotlight have to be based on one or more of your tutorials? Or is this a more flexible kind of thing?
If the winner’s announced after 30 spotlights, how long will that take, i.e. how many will you post per week?
Fantastic idea, I wanted to enter the last one but I could not find the creative muse for the techniques in the highlighted tutorial vids (she must have been hiding on me) :D
Finally got my hands on som GITD and can now try the jellyroll cane and see what I can come up with.
This is so cool! Thanks Cindy! I just love this website…I feel as if I’ve joined a big polymer clay family with all the comments and advice received in your blogs!
FABULOUS!
I like the idea of the Spotlight giveaway…clever idea. I’ve been meaning to send some pictures in as well…glow in the dark jelly roll cane, for instance. I really like this new bead contest. By article, what do you mean,…Do you want us to tell you how we accomplished our creation, why we picked the colors that we did, what problems we had, if we learned anything, etc.?
@Silverleaf: “Do the pieces in the spotlight have to be based on one or more of your tutorials? Or is this a more flexible kind of thing?”
>> The first Bead Giveaway Contest that took place back in Jan-Feb-2010, was more restrictive in that all of the entries were to be based on tutorials from the Vol-014 back issue videos. This “Phase 2” contest is MUCH more flexible. The introduction paragraph that I have been including in the recent Spotlight Features, provides some guidelines to follow…
>> “These “Spot” features are for you guys to display your accomplishments, share stories of inspiration and even ask for assistance with challenges that you may be experiencing. The projects are based on techniques learned from articles here at the blog, as well as from tutorials at the Polymer Clay Video Library. My hope is for these “Show and Tell” features to help everyone get to know each other a bit better, thanks to this wonderfully artistic medium of polymer clay.”
——————————————————————————
@Silverleaf: “If the winner’s announced after 30 spotlights, how long will that take, i.e. how many will you post per week?”
>> The answer to these questions really depends on how much interest you guys show in this contest. It all comes down to participation.
>> As was the case with the first bead giveaway contest, the main objective of this Phase 2 initiative is to provide inspiration, learning, support and community interaction.
——————————————————————————
@Lupe Meter: “By article, what do you mean… Do you want us to tell you how we accomplished our creation, why we picked the colors that we did, what problems we had, if we learned anything, etc.?”
>> Yes :-) Be creative. Be informative. Be inspirational. Be entertaining. Be helpful. Teach. Seek help for a specific problem you may be having. The best way to get a feel for the concept is to read what other members have already submitted.
>> All of the most recent Spotlight articles are graphically identified with a red triangle framing the word “Spot” in the upper left corner of the top photo for the post. And, the title for each Spotlight post ends with “[Spotlight]”.
>> You can follow someone else’s lead when structuring your entry… or do your own thing. LOTS of leeway here!
Wow!!! What a great idea. It’s wonderful specially to hear from all of you when our piece is featured in the spotlight. Praise and critique is good. It’s very encouraging and most of all we are learning from each other. Cindy, you are an absolutely fabulous teacher; not only with the wonderful, clear way you impart your knowledge but also the encouragement and the motivation you give to all of us. I am so glad i came upon your site.
@Cheryl Hodges: Thank you so much for the kind words :-) :-)
Regarding the Facebook question… you would not post your spotlight article there. Simply upload photos of your work to your Facebook Profile or Facebook Page, and then in your comments, link back to your Spotlight post here at my blog.
If you use Facebook as the keyword in the search box at the top of this page, you will find some references to several helpful tips that other members have provided on how to upload photos to Facebook. The link by my name will take you to where Phaedrakat was instrumental in helping Helen-S through some of the technology issues she was having.
@ Cindy – How do I post the Spotlight entry in Face book?
What a neat concept! I have to get going on a new entry! I have a faux dichroic glass pendant I would like to show. If only there were more hours in a day…. :)
This is super Cindy. I really like the idea of outside hits being key to winning. That will spur us on to telling others about your great blog – and your tutorials, too. Our community will continue to grow through this, both in number and in expertise as others give us honest opinions about our work and helpful answers to our quandries. Thanks so much, Cindy!
I love it! This is a fantastic contest for everyone! For the contestants, you’ve made it pretty easy — we make what we like, based on your tutorials, postings, or even the inspiration we get from this blog and community. It’s great for you and this blog too! More people will come & see what a huge benefit membership & watching your videos can be. At least I hope that’s what happens. You and your tutorials can really help take someone from beginner to awesome polymer clay artist! Thanks!
Hi all this is great will make more people enter the Spotlights.
as Im sure some have been hanging back.
Will have to get into this soon.
I always try to remind my followers on my blog,about Cindys great tutorials anyway. escpecially if I do something right that I have seen in the Videos.
Bye
Elizabeth.
Oooo, this is so exciting…not only do we get to see more of everybody’s creativity, but a chance to win some of Cindy’s beads too! Woohoo! I just love our clay community, you guys are the best – and once again a big thank you to Cindy for bringing us all together, from all over the world. Being a part of this community really helps me battle my depression, so thank you clay family, you brighten my gloomy days..!! :)
Keep on Claying,
~Lisa :)
A BIG THANK YOU INDEED Cindy you and Doug are so thoughtful and giving. I love that the two of you make such a wonderful team. I probably would be on to another craft by now if it wasn’t for the two of you. Now I just have to take those good days and turn them into clay days. With this type of timeline even those who don’t have many good days still have a chance to get into this contest. You have thought of everything.
Many Hugs and Uuuuuugggs to you and Doug from the bottom of my heart.
Peggy
I think your mail box may be bulging Cindy! Looking forward to seeing what everyone is up to and might just try and send in one of my own
@Cara: I’m pleased to tell you that you already have one spotlight entry posted with a whole bunch of nice comments waiting for you to respond to. The link by my name will take you there.
@cindy: I posted a link back to the my spotlight. Are they able to post comments? I’ve have gotten responds on my fb but not on the blog. I just figured out this weekend that I had jewelry in the spotlight. That made my day :)
Sure Brenda. Your Facebook peeps are more than welcome to leave comments at your Spotlight article.