After a year off, the birthday contest is BACK!

This will be the 5th contest that I've held, going all the way back to 2009. Seems just the other day I was getting strange looks from my mailman as he delivered yet another stack of post cards. Before we get into the details of this year's contest, lets take a quick look at the previous years:

2008-2009 - Random draw. When I held the first contest in 2008 it was simply "sign up to win". All you had to do was create an account on the Enchanted forum (a great forum created by ED fans for ED fans) and make at least one post to be eligible. This saw a boom in the forum activity for the month of March, and hopefully a few new members stuck around a bit longer. The contest was announced in 2008 and the doll was awarded on March 16th, 2009.

2010 - Birthday Gifts. After the first year I decided to mix it up. Anyone can fill out a form and enter a contest, but for 2010 I wanted to put people to work. The contest that I came up with was a "gift for a gift" (I never really came up with a proper title). Entrants had to create something and send it to me. I wanted it to be open to as many skillsets as possible so I didn't limit it to drawings or paintings or anything particular, it just had to be something you made that you sent to me. Well, I received a wide range of gift, including embroidery, a sculpture of me and Chad, and even a full Imperial Concubine Costume. You can see all the amazing entries here.

2011 - Design a Doll, Win a Doll. After an overwhelming response in 2010, I wanted to focus the entries into a common theme. The contest was to design a doll. Come up with a concept for a doll, and the one that I found most interesting would win. This way people didn't need to mail anything, as all the entries were digital. There were so many different doll ideas being submitted: Warriors, Goddesses, Oracles, Violinists,  and many many more. It was great to see all the ideas people were coming up with.2012 - No Contest. I turned 30 that year, but that had nothing to do with the contest being postponed.

2013 - Wanderlust. One of my favourite things after dolls, is traveling. For this contest entries were in the form of a post card.  The point of the card was to inspire the craving for travel. An image, handmade or found, that when looked upon made one want to drop everything and travel to that location immediately.  There were hundreds of entries from all over the world. You can see the top 50 here. I wish I had the time to go to every place depicted on the cards. Unlike the 2010 contest where people had to find ways to ship objects from all over the world, this year's contest struck a balance of physical medium that can be easily sent through the mail. And who doesn't love receiving post cards from exotic locations? Our mailman was impressed with all the international friends that we had as he'd hand over stack after stack of post cards every day.

2014 - Another year without a contest. Sometimes you can get overwhelmed with deadlines and time slips away. I always feel bad about that.

2015 - ....

For this year, the contest is to design a tattoo for an Enchanted Doll.

I've been tattooing dolls for some time now, but now it's your turn! Is the tattoo a stand alone design? Is it part of a bigger concept/costume? Is it part of a series? These are just some questions to help get the creative juices flowing. Remember, the tattoo is for an Enchanted Doll, it should fit with the aesthetics of the doll. Don't let the size of the doll limit your designs, remember there is a large Enchanted Doll out there with plenty of porcelain to play with.

Your designs must be original artworks - no plagiarism, please! The tattoos can be sketched, painted, photoshopped onto existing dolls, any way you need to render it, as long as you can send me a digital image of it. If your design requires a short description (less than 200 words), please include it in the email. I am the sole judge, and will pick the winner. All the entries will be posted for public viewing. Any entry found to be plagiarizing another work, will be disqualified from this and all future ED contests, because plagiarism is a hurtful and dishonourable crime and I despise it.

Entries need to be size appropriate for emails and submitted to contests@enchanteddoll.com. If you have an attachment that is too large, add a link in the email to where it can be viewed/downloaded online.

Entries need to be submitted by March 13th, winner will be announced on March 16th. One entry per person (a tattoo series is considered one entry). 

Grand Prize: A Resin Enchanted Doll.

Good luck everyone.- Marina