December Monthly Contest: Decorating the Keep

[Naomi]

The Library is normally one of the more calm buildings to be found around the Keep. Today, however, it's filled with the sounds of excited conversations as you and your fellow Magi quickly claim seats at the many tables available. Naomi has asked for help, and while you are relieved to see no traces of dust bunnies, you're also excited to find out what's happening. As Naomi approaches the center of the room, something shiny catches your attention and you grin when you realize Alastair is proudly wearing a collar made of glittery gold and silver tinsel. Naomi claps her hands to get everyone's attention, and as the conversations cease you lean forward, eager to hear her speak.

"Thank you all for coming here and agreeing to help on such short notice! It's almost time for our winter celebrations and we need to decorate the Keep. We've many beautiful decorations and ornaments that have been created over the years, and we hope to add to our collection this year. We'd like you to make an original ornament, centerpiece, or some other kind of decoration inspired by our world. The top three entries will each receive a prize, so show us your skills!"


The rules:

• Craft a decoration of some kind that is inspired by Magistream. Your inspiration can be a creature, a story from the lore, or one of the many lands and cities shown on the world map.
• You must state what your entry is inspired by and how.
• Please photograph your entry with a piece of paper that shows your username and the year.
• This contest runs from December 5 until December 28, closing at (12:00 AM - midnight) Eastern Standard Time on the 28th.
• All forms of crafting are permitted, except the following: No baking, drawing, or items made from kits.
• There will be three prizes: First place will receive a Masked Stoat, second place will receive a Collared Stoat, and third place will receive the December mid month donation pet.
• Entries should be posted in the Competition Entries forum.
• You may enter more than one ornament/decoration, but you may only win for one.
• Members of the MS team are not eligible for prizes, but may enter if they desire. Previous monthly contest winners will not be eligible to win again for TWO MONTHS.

Please post any questions you may have in this thread, and feel free to ask for any clarification you may need. If you're not sure your chosen craft falls within the rules, please ask.

[yuniorzack]

No baking, drawing, or items made from kits? so, the rest is Gymsum, wood, soap, earthenware, and such?

[Radda111]

Can I use clay? And can you give us an example? What I mean is; Does it have to be Christmas orientated? Or can it be anything to do with magistream?

[georgexu94]

What does "items made from kits" mean, exactly. I apologise but I'm not good with deduction reasoning. At least give examples of what we can use.

I actually plan to make a painting but I suppose that classifies as drawing. I'm not going to use photoshop but I'm still asking nevertheless if we can use that and other photo-editing software, for the sake of others as well.

One more thing, can we use paper but like paper-cutting or such?

I'm so excited!

[Szarwas]

Hm, I have some questions, too. Regarding the 'no drawing' rule.

How about drawing (or painting) on a bauble? That is a 3D object, is it counts as a drawing?

And what about shrinkable plastic? You basically draw on it, but I would still not call it a drawing once it's finished (it can also be decorated in other ways beside drawing)

Thanks for the answers C:

[ShaiNeko]

yuniorzack: Ah, I'm not sure what your question is?

Radda111: Clay is fine. We'd like entries to be winter holiday themed. It doesn't have to be Christmas specifically, though. An example could be cutting snowflakes from blue paper to look like the snowflake on the collared stoats. You need to be able to tie your creation to something in the MS world.

georgexu94: There are kits that can be bought in stores that contain all the items to make a pre-designed ornament. We don't want people using those, we want to see original ideas. Something like painting a scene or painting the image of an ornament would fall under no drawing. We want to see actual items, not photoshopped or hand drawn images. Paper cutting would be fine.

Szarwas: It depends. Just drawing a picture of a rainbow on the side of a bauble and saying it's inspired by a puvia wouldn't be okay, but using paints, glitter, beads and other items to decorate the entire bauble to look like like a koi would be fine. For the shrinkable plastic, if you're using it as part of something it would be okay, such as drawing a pair of wings to shrink down and attach to a cat made of styrofoam balls. Just drawing an image alone would not be okay.

[georgexu94]

@ShaiNeko: Thank you so much for making the clarification and answering our questions.
I have one more clarification: Are members allowed more than one entry? It's not stated in the rules.

[Szarwas]

Szarwas: It depends. Just drawing a picture of a rainbow on the side of a bauble and saying it's inspired by a puvia wouldn't be okay, but using paints, glitter, beads and other items to decorate the entire bauble to look like like a koi would be fine. For the shrinkable plastic, if you're using it as part of something it would be okay, such as drawing a pair of wings to shrink down and attach to a cat made of styrofoam balls. Just drawing an image alone would not be okay.

Thank you very much

[ShaiNeko]

georgexu94: I suppose you could have more than one entry, but you can only win for one.

[Sourikus]

Ok... So are we allowed to make clay models of a creature itself, (which I doubt will win instantly) or must it be something more?