Friday, April 13, 2007

The American Quilter's Society is holding a contest and expo on August 25-27, 2007 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN. Prizes to be awarded in the contest are as follows:

$7,500 Best of Show Award

$5,000 Best Hand Workmanship Award

$5,000 Best Machine Workmanship Award

$3,000 Best Longarm Workmanship Award

$3,000 Best Wall Quilt Award

With additional prizes in each category of:

$1,500 First Place

$1,000 Second Place

$750 Third Place

The categories are:

Quilts (in bed or wall size)

A. Quilter's Choice Quilts

B. On the Wall Quilts

C. Made by Machine Quilts

D. The Ultimate Guild Challenge Quilts (submitted by quilt guilds)

E. Needlework, stitched with yarn, cloth, or thread

Two entries are allowed per person, with an entry fee of $10 for AQS members and $30 for non-members for each entry. Quilts must be available for judging and display August 5 -25, 2007.

Even if you aren't a quilter, this show would be fun to attend just to see the artistic works of these talented quilters!

For complete rules and information, follow this LINK

SA Candle Star Sweepstakes

Family Circle 2007 Fiction Contest

This year fiction writers (or those who aspire to be) can once again test their skills in writing short stories and enter for prizes in the Family Circle 2007 Fiction Contest. This contest is open to amateur writers who are legal residents of the U.S. or the District of Columbia, and are over the age of twenty-one.

Judges are looking for original fiction in the form of a short story with 2,500 words or less. Stories are to be original and unpublished, and are not to have previously won any prizes or awards. All entries become the property of the Meridith Corporation, and are not returned.

Stories will be judged according to the following criteria:

25% Sustained Writing Ability

25% Topic Creativity

25% Originality

25% Overall Excellence

Submissions are to be typed on 8 1/2 X 11 paper with your name, address, daytime telephone number, and email address (optional) on all pages. Entries must be postmarked by August 31, 2007, and received no later than September 7, 2007. Mail up to two unique submissions to:

Family Circle Fiction Story Contest

c/o Family Circle Magazine

375 Lexington Avenue, Ninth Floor

New York, NY 10017

On or about October 15, 2007 judges will choose one grand prize winner and two semi-finalists. Grand Prize winner will receive $750, a gift certificate to a mediabistro.com course of the winner's choice, a one year mediabistro.com AvantGuild membership, and possible publication in Family Circle magazine (priceless?). Total Grand Prize package valued at $1,490.

Runners-up will receive $250, a one year mediabistro.com AvantGuild membership, and possible publication on FamilyCircle.com, with a total value of $299.

This contest may have a good number of submissions, however, if you have a quality story, it is well-worth entering.

If you''d like to learn more about this contest, you can find the official rules Here .

See last year's winning entries Here .

By Jennifer L. Thompson

Photos by Wonderwolf

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The Sundance Channel is currently sponsoring a contest called "What's the Big Idea?" This is a contest where entrants are asked to submit a one minute video describing a "big idea" for an "environmental initiative that would lead to sustainability of life and resources on our planet", according to the official rules.

Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

~ 25% Creativity/Originality

~ 25% Appropriateness to Contest Theme

~ 25% Feasibility of Idea

~ 25% Presentation/Expression of Idea

The first leg of this contest ends April 30th, 2007, making it a good choice for creative entrants as the total entry time is less than 30 days. Daily entries are also allowed to increase your odds, though each submission must be unique. In other words, if you come up with more than one idea, you can submit them all as long as you submit no more than one video per day for the duration of the contest.

Upon the close of the entry portion of the contest, up to 25 qualified entries will be chosen as semi-finalists whose entries will be posted on the Sundance Channel's website, where visitors will vote for their favorites. The five entries with the most votes will then move on to the final round, where the judges will then choose the grand prize winner, to be announced on or about May 25, 2007.

The grand prize winner will then be awarded $10,000 in the form of a check (with hopes of getting your green idea started), and a one-year lease for a Lexus vehicle (total ARV $19,000) with four semi-finalists receiving a GREEN bag filled with selected items of the sponsor's choice (ARV $100).

This is an amateur competition, so all entries must be original, non-published material that has been produced without professional-level assistance. Only video files of less than 100MB which are compressed to a 320x240 screen size, with a 4:3 aspect ratio, will be accepted. Entrant must be a resident of the 48 contiguous United States, and be a licensed driver over the age of 18. Release forms will also need to accompany the entry if anyone other than the contest entrant is featured in the video, or if someone else's artwork, etc. is featured.

Realistically speaking, if you can create a clear, concise video with an original idea, I would definitely recommend entering this one.

You can view the contest rules and upload your videos Here .

By Jennifer L. Thompson

Win a PS3 Superbundle!

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