2012 Grand Photo Contest Starts Now!

So yep, we are doing a new photo contest. 

And here is the big explanatory post that kicks it off. ;-)

Prizes: There will be six winners in total. The first prize winner will get a doll - either McKenna, Lanie, MyAG #26, or MyAG #55. His/her choice. All of the dolls are brand-new and in their boxes with their books or Innerstar U items. 

The five other winners will each receive a $20 American Girl gift card.

For this contest anybody can enter, you don't have to be a blog follower or even be in the USA -- but if you are younger than 18 please get your parent/guardian's permission to participate, and if you are younger than 13, please get your parent/guardian's help with participation.

So here is the outline of the contest: three activities, and a final round....

Activity One: Winter Wonderland

What does "Winter Wonderland" mean to you? Show us in an awesome pic with one or more dolls. Let your mind run wild. Snow. Snow Angels. Snow Men. Shoveling snow. Igloos. Huskies. Hot cocoa by the fireplace while looking at snow falling through the window. Skiiing in Alaska on steep rocky slopes. Hibernating in a cave full of bears. Lots of stuff happens in the winter - so think hard and come up with a great photo!


And if you are like "I want snow in my pic but we don't have snow here right now." Fake snow works just as well. Paper snowflakes. Polyfill. Random white fluff. Etc. Etc. AG doesn't photograph their doll pics with real snow. Be creative!


Email us the photo at nora.demington@gmail.com. And include some info about your ideas for the picture. Due Date: Saturday January 21st-- A little over a week from today!
Then there will be a week of voting, after we manage to post everyone's pics and info here on the blog. (You can vote for more than one photo.)


Votes will then be calculated and Penny will choose 2 winners from those people in the top 50%. So if there are 18 entries, for example, Penny will look at the 9 people with the most votes to pick two winners. The winners will be entered for the special "Final Round" and will have a chance to win zee doll. Ooooo!

Activity Two: Holiday/Celebration

Show us your doll(s) celebrating and having some happy good times. Your pic can be related to a holiday - any holiday from throughout the year and throughout the world. If you want to show us a pic about Halloween, or Kwanzaa, or the Chinese New Year - go for it! Any holiday works! 


Or you can show us any type of celebration - like a birthday, quinceanera, graduation, wedding, etc. Show us what is special about the holiday or celebration you have chosen!


Email us the photo at nora.demington@gmail.com. And include some info about the holiday or celebration you chose. Due Date: To Be Announced (about a week after our voting for Activity One is complete.)


Then a week of voting will commence, Penny chooses two winners from the top 50%, and those peoples will be entered in the "Final Round." (Same schtick as for Activity One.)

Activity Three: Being Charitable

Here is your opportunity to highlight a cause close to your heart. Step One: Pick a charity! Step Two: Show us a picture of your doll(s) doing something to help that charity or related to it in some way. We don't recommend having your doll just holding up a sign for the charity - be creative peoples!

For example, you could choose World Wildlife Federation as your charity - let's help endangered species get back on track! You might show your doll being smothered in a sea of panda goodness. Or maybe just feeding a baby panda. We recommend using a stuffed toy for that. China doesn't lend out baby pandas for doll photo shoots. We already asked.

But of course your charity can be anything. Curing cancer. The Hiefer Project. AIDS Awareness. UNICEF. Doctors without Borders. Animal Rescue. Juvenile diabetes research. Habitat for Humanity. Foodbanks. Natural disasters aid. Teach America. Sierra Club. Ronald McDonald House. The list is endless. 

If you don't already have a charity in mind - do some internet research, ask your friends and family for their suggestions. There are so many great causes out there to support.

Email us the photo at nora.demington@gmail.com. And include some info about the charity you chose to support and your ideas for the photo. Due Date: To Be Announced (about a week after our voting for Activity Two is complete.)

Then a week of voting will commence, Penny will choose 2 winners from the top 50%, and those peoples will be entered in the "Final Round." (Same schtick as for Activity One and Two.)


As a special bonus we will make donations to the two charities represented in the winning photographs from Activity Three. :-)

The Final Round: Your Creativity!

The winners of the three previous rounds will be asked to submit a final photo for a chance to win a doll as the first prize. This photo should showcase your creativity. It is sort of like AG Playthings "Anything Goes" round. It has to be something different than your previous photo entries, and since there aren't really any "instructions" it can be a little more challenging. It's a chance to put your thinking cap on and go "outside the box." 


Email us the photo at nora.demington@gmail.com. And include some info about your ideas for the photo. Due Date: To Be Announced (about a week after our voting for Activity Three is complete.) 


Penny chooses a winner from the six entries (no voting this time, ooooo). Then that person will be asked to choose which doll they would like as their prize: McKenna, Lanie, MyAG #55 or MyAG #26. The other 5 people will win the $20 AG gift cards, as we explained above. Exciting!

Things to Keep in Mind:

The picture can be any size, but 400 pixels wide or wider is recommended or else your pic will be very small on the blog and difficult to see. Every pic we personally post here is 500 pixels wide, so that is what you should be aiming for as well.


Using Photoshop and other photo editing programs is fine.


You can include more than one doll in your photos. Your dolls do not have to be AG dolls.


You do not have to enter all of the activities, you can do one or two or all. But if you win an activity we do want you to participate in the Final Round.


If you win one activity, you can still enter the other activities and get votes -- but each person who enters can only win one activity -- that way we have 6 different people in the Final Round.


If you miss an activity, that is fine -- you don't have to participate in all three activities to be in the contest -- but doing all 3 does increase your chances of getting into the Final Round.


No human faces in the photos please -- remember: privacy is important! Hands are okay -- but no actually identifiable people.


Our email address is nora.demington@gmail.com. You will be using this to send in photos and to vote. 


If you are younger than 13 have your parent/guardian email the photos to us (remember: internet safety is important!).


We will be posting the photos here at The Doll Wardrobe - so make sure your photo is something that you don't mind if the whole world sees it. (Again, this is why you and/or your family shouldn't be in the photo.)


Readers will be asked to vote for their favorite photos. They can vote for more than one photo. Voting will be done by email -- to vote you just email me at nora.demington@gmail.com and say something like "I vote for photo #8." Everyone will have a week to vote, from the point when we post the photos. You can vote for yourself.


The Doll Wardrobe does not share or sell your email to anyone. Only Penny sees your emails. 


At the end of the contest we will email the winners for her/his shipping address. (This is why it is important you have a parent/guardian's permission to enter if you are under 18).

Any questions? You probably have some -- so feel free to ask! :-D

And remember, if you want to participate in this contest, 

the Activity One photo is due Saturday, January 21st!

Please email your photos to nora.demington@gmail.com.

The best way to send them is as an attachment.

It gives us a better quality pic to post on zee blog.

Good luck everyone!