My Christmas Card Entry #71 won an Apple iMAC in Sulit.com.ph

After a long period of Christmas Card Making Contest in Sulit.com.ph, finally winners have been announced last night, December 14th. This time I want to introduce you to the Grand Prize winner of an Apple iMAC , my Entry #71:

All rights of use toward this image are given to Sulit as it is now an official property of Sulit.com.ph.

I want tell you my whole story behind this winning entry of mine. Just like other participants, I have given full effort, time, and prayers for my entries.

**Warning: This post is quite long. Prepare yourself first before start reading. Grab a tea, coffee , or something to eat. So, the story begins with:

The Contest. It was all started last October 26, 2010 when Sulit launched the holiday contest called “Sulit.com.ph Dares you to Create Your Own Christmas Card and Win Fabulous Prizes”. By instinct, I said to myself “I will join and I must join!”

Submission of my Entries. After such announcement about the contest, I was not able to create and submit entries immediately because of some commitments prior to such event. It was almost in the second week of November when I submitted my very first entry, my Entry #71. And before the deadline of submission is over, I managed to submit eight entries in all.

Calling for Viral Posters. This was one of the hardest and scary part of the contest for me. Why? Because this was my first time to call for help to support my entries and be posted in blogs. I was scared then not to get any viral posters since I posted my entries that late but I was so happy when some of my fellow bloggers responded to my call.

First Screening for TOP20. Can you imagine that 306 amazing entries have been submitted and declared as official entries? For the first screening, 20 entries would be chosen to be on TOP20 who will undergo for a week of voting among Sulit members for the People’s Choice Award. Last December 3, Sulit Admin announced the lucky TOP20 and guess what…I almost fell down to my chair in the office when I saw that not only one, not two, but five among my submitted entries have made it to be on that TOP20 slots. Inside of me I was screaming, butI could not shout because I was still at work when Sulit made the announcement. The only thing I remember which I kept on saying was “oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” I immediately called my husband to bring the good news.

The Campaign and Voting Period. The announcement for TOP20 was only the beginning of such contest. All chosen entries were given one week to campaign for the members to vote. Me and my friend Mhel (blankpixel) had a little hard time talking which one would be the best one to endorse in the campaign since I have 5 entries to choose from. It tremendously brought a division of votes on the part of my entries. But in the end we have decided to push the Entry #71 for the reason it was very close to the theme, a very nice artwork, catchy animation, and in general it was really my favorite.

Again, I started to shout and post for help about supporting this Entry #71. Sis Mhel (blankpixel) did all her best to campaign for my entry. We posted the call of course in Sulit’s forum, in all our blogs, in our Pinoy Bloggers Group in Facebook, in Twitter, in our Adgitize network, and even posted a shout in the Yola forum (my webhost for my digital Scrapbooking website).

I even made some campaign banners and posted in the Sulit forum. I also managed to re-designed my card into a printable version and did sample prints. You can see my blog post here regarding this call.

(click the sample print image for larger view)

Moshpit (Grand Prize winner in the Banner Making) and of course sis Mhel (Grand Prize winner in the Blog Writing) also made some campaign materials for me. But still after such full effort we have made and done, at the end of the voting period my Entry #71 was in the 5th slot among the chosen 20 entries.

I felt sad about my votes but thinking that I got 455 votes for my Entry #71 plus the votes on the rest of my four entries, it gave me hope that these people who voted for my entries were hoping that for entries to win so why should I feel sad about it. Wake up, Grace! It was just votes and besides it was stated in the mechanics that the # of votes would not determine the overall winners. That was a pretty relief on my part.

Announcement of Winners. This was the moment, the moment that every participant was waiting for…the announcement of winners. It was only yesterday, around 7:00 o’clock in the evening when Sulit finally announced the winners. I was expecting that the winners will be announced on the following day since it was already off-hour work. I was at home that time and I immediately opened the computer (like I used to do) while preparing to cook for dinner. And when I saw that Admin finally posted the link to all the winners, the truth, I did not click that link right away. I felt nervous! My heart was beating very fast. My hands were sweating. What I did was, I sat down beside my bed and I prayed to please give the best result for my entry. I spent several minutes away from the monitor, taking a deep breath while praying for the good news that might come my way.

After one click, tada! (click the image for larger view)

I shouted. I screamed. I ran, I jumped. I refreshed my browser for almost several times. This was real and it is indeed real! After a long period of waiting, praying and hoping, all the efforts and tough time I had encountered during the contest, my Christmas Card Entry #71 managed to be on top in the final round. Until now I cannot imagine the success of my entry.

With this very quick idea on how I made my winning Entry #71:

1. I made the concept first before looking for graphics to use.
2. I used licensed graphic elements with full access to the original file.
3. The hopping Santa as you can see is also an illustration but I made him felted to have texture and add little shadow for variation.
4. I manipulated the graphics usingIllustrator CS3 and managed the design of the card itself in Photoshop CS3.
5. Animation was simply made in Photoshop CS3. This animated version consists of more than 50 timeframes with multiple layers (a little complicated).

If you want to know about what I am talking about timeframes, you can make a quick look in my tutorial about Making a Simple Blinking animation with Photoshop which was posted last year December 31, 2009.

Before I finally end up my very long post for this day, I want to give thanks again to all my fellow bloggers and fellow sulitizens who supported my Entry #71. Aside from them, I have one certain person who made a great effort as much as I did and without her, my entry would never come this far. Everybody knows her; everybody loves her for being witty, smart, supportive, and fabulous young lady….the blankpixel herself, sis Mhel! Yey! Sis how could I ever replay you for all your knowledge, effort, time, money, etc. I also offer this success to you. You have guided me so well. You have directed me to the right path. You have given me everything what you could give just to support me all through the way. Oh my gosh, you are really one of a kind. Although we have known each other for not that long, I have a sense of feeling that I have known you for veryyyyy long time.

Whew! Hope you did not get bored reading this endless post. So, the bottom line for the success of my Entry #71 is this big "thank you". I will bring all your support and appreciation for the rest of my life. And I will never get tired of showing how much I give thanks to Sulit.com.ph for making my dream come true. Even in my wildest dream I don’t have any chance of having an iMAC, even iPhone or iPAD I am not capable of owning any of these latest gadgets. Only with Sulit that made it into reality. (Photo from Sulit)

I have never seen any online community who offered such opportunity to members. For Sulit, with your awesome generosity you bring happiness to most Filipinos who are just hoping for something big and different in life. More power to all people behind Sulit.com.ph and more contests to come. To all my co-participants who were unable to be awarded, just remember that you are all winners already. Before Sulit announced the final winners, we are already declared as winners since everybody made effort to participate in this event. Don't feel sad and don't feel bad either. Everyone has its own time, it's just happened that this time is my time.

Merry Christmas to all and give love on this holiday season! Thank you again, Sulit.com.ph.

P.S. A day before I declared as the Grand Prize winner for this contest, I was awarded as the 2nd Place winner in Yola's Christmas Webpage Designing Contest. Read the details here.