TBT’s Fourth Egg Decorating Contest

[Aquilla]

pressed flowers take weeks to dry anyway so if anything, it's always prepped in advance. _( :3」∠)_

Sorry about your cherry blossoms, that could've been so beautiful :C From my experience pressing stuff doesn't take very long. I've had decently pressed petals and autumn leaves after a few days. Maybe not bone dry, but flat and dry enough. I've also used a dehydrator for herbs before to dry some baby's breath.

I don't really consider dried flowers as prepped in advance, imo it's more of a "finding whatever is lying around the house and decorating with that" kinda deal. To me it's not different than using plastic straws and toothpicks - people have those at home too without it generally being considered "pre-bought in anticipation". But whatevs, water under the bridge.

 

[oak]

I decorated my egg after the baby chicken Easter egg collectable.

 

[g u a v a]

rip ehg

 

[kikotoot]

The egg that I made is the one on the right, but the egg on the left got a really cool accidental shooting star/galaxy effect so wanted to share it too! Both are sadly now destroyed from the egg wars

 

[.: Meri :.]

I painted Leif taking a happy little nap in a flower field on a wooden craft egg! The bush egg holder is made from an old sock, green felt, and colored with chalk pastels, and Leif is painted with acrylic paints.

Spoiler: progress pics

First I cut the toe and heel from an old sock, and colored them with a few shades of green chalk pastels.

Once they were fully colored, I sewed them together to create a round-ish shape to form the base of the bush and stuffed it. I pushed most of the stuffing to the edges and left the middle emptier, so there'd be a secure place for the egg to sit. The seam is a bit unsightly here, but it'll be covered up shortly.

Next I cut leafy shapes from some scraps of green felt, going over them with the chalk pastels for more color variation, and gluing them around the base of the egg holder.

The bush for Leif to have his nap upon is complete! It looks a little like the top of Kapp'n's head, but we're not going to talk about that.

And finally, here is my sketch of dear sweet Leif to act as my guide before I began painting!

 

[Lancelot]

They wouldn’t have allowed it anyway because you were preparing in advance, this event is kinda strict imo

Arguably making an egg a week before isn’t the same as using pressed flowers

 

[KittenNoir]

Godzilla Egg

​

 

[corlee1289]

Molang and Piu Piu

 

[Emolga59]

 

[Nika]

Sprinkle eggie :3 cx

 

[Mick]

i didn't have eggs (real or craft) so i decided to knit a dreamy egg with some yarn scraps i had. hope this is allowed lol

View attachment 549757

I have to applaud the creativity and the skills for knitting an egg, but given that we've already said no to creating your own egg out of things like clay and resin we're not going to be able to accept this, sorry!

---

Speaking of: we've noticed a bit of discussion in this thread and wanted to weigh in ourselves. The original intention of this event was to have it represent the more classical approach where eggs are simply painted. With this being a contest, it seems to have sort of escalated into a situation where people want more creative freedom to outdo the rest, or simply their own entries from previous years. We're going to see what we can do for that for whenever this event runs neggst, but hopefully everyone can see how it would be strange to change the event rules midway through (especially after others have already finished their entries)!

 

[Aerith]

When it's put that way, the restrictions make a lot more sense. Even though 'decorating' is the traditional term for egg painting, the use of that word does make it sound pretty open-ended, so it also makes sense for people to feel like their creativity is being stifled. Maybe two judging categories (painting and decorating) would be a way to make it fair for the future.

Anyways, I need to get to actually decorating mine!

 

[digimon]

 the moon rabbit takes flight! 

ruby has set her course and is on her way to venture off and visit the moon! i don't know how far she'll get using balloons and a swing as her method of transportation...... well, have a safe trip up there ruby ♡ i hope those balloons hold up okay on your way up there!​

 materials used:
✧ plastic craft egg
✧ air dry clay
✧ string
✧ acrylic paint
✧ mod podge
✧ glow in the dark paint which can't really be seen lol rip
✧ wooden dowels
✧ paper
✧ cotton balls

Spoiler: ✧ name card pic + progress pics ✧

 

[g u a v a]

I have to applaud the creativity and the skills for knitting an egg, but given that we've already said no to creating your own egg out of things like clay and resin we're not going to be able to accept this, sorry!

---

Speaking of: we've noticed a bit of discussion in this thread and wanted to weigh in ourselves. The original intention of this event was to have it represent the more classical approach where eggs are simply painted. With this being a contest, it seems to have sort of escalated into a situation where people want more creative freedom to outdo the rest, or simply their own entries from previous years. We're going to see what we can do for that for whenever this event runs neggst, but hopefully everyone can see how it would be strange to change the event rules midway through (especially after others have already finished their entries)!

Mick, what if I put an actual egg inside the knitted egg? Would it then be acceptable?

 

[duckykate]

I have to applaud the creativity and the skills for knitting an egg, but given that we've already said no to creating your own egg out of things like clay and resin we're not going to be able to accept this, sorry!

---

Speaking of: we've noticed a bit of discussion in this thread and wanted to weigh in ourselves. The original intention of this event was to have it represent the more classical approach where eggs are simply painted. With this being a contest, it seems to have sort of escalated into a situation where people want more creative freedom to outdo the rest, or simply their own entries from previous years. We're going to see what we can do for that for whenever this event runs neggst, but hopefully everyone can see how it would be strange to change the event rules midway through (especially after others have already finished their entries)!

isn't the entire point of a contest to do better than the rest? looking at entries from past years, we can see that the winning ones always go above and beyond just painting. i know it's all in good fun at the end of the day, but offering prizes to entries with the most votes and then seemingly criticizing certain people for "wanting to outdo the rest" doesn't sit right with me.

 

[jadetine]

Can we construct the egg itself? (Like out of clay or resin)

I misread this as "Can we produce the egg itself?" and I was like... what? Like you, Firesquids, lay the egg? Or start your own chicken operation?
I need new glasses, lol!

 

[Aurita]

isn't the entire point of a contest to do better than the rest? looking at entries from past years, we can see that the winning ones always go above and beyond just painting. i know it's all in good fun at the end of the day, but offering prizes to entries with the most votes and then seemingly criticizing certain people for "wanting to outdo the rest" doesn't sit right with me.

agreeing with this sentiment. I think discouraging or criticizing those who put in “extra” effort on their egg is harsh and unfair since the rules encourage adding craft material (which yarn & clay would fall under) to the egg.

also it’s stated “Please put effort into your submission. If we think your entry lacks effort..” in the rules…extra effort shouldn’t be penalized if effort is “required”. Is there a “goldilocks” amount of effort that we should aim for?

In the future, if the contest is geared towards only painting the egg with minor decorations, I’d hope it states so more explicitly

 

[Sharksheep]

Sorry about your cherry blossoms, that could've been so beautiful :C From my experience pressing stuff doesn't take very long. I've had decently pressed petals and autumn leaves after a few days. Maybe not bone dry, but flat and dry enough. I've also used a dehydrator for herbs before to dry some baby's breath.

I don't really consider dried flowers as prepped in advance, imo it's more of a "finding whatever is lying around the house and decorating with that" kinda deal. To me it's not different than using plastic straws and toothpicks - people have those at home too without it generally being considered "pre-bought in anticipation". But whatevs, water under the bridge.

It really isn't any different from using whatever crafting materials you have lying around. People buy or make pressed flowers for crafting as well for like journals or make these herbarium bottles. Or even for miniatures. Just because it's not something you expect to find in like a 3rd grade classroom doesn't mean it's not a crafting material.

 

[Mick]

Mick, what if I put an actual egg inside the knitted egg? Would it then be acceptable?

Unfortunately not! We've disallowed this concept in the past: like was stated here a few egg contests ago

isn't the entire point of a contest to do better than the rest? looking at entries from past years, we can see that the winning ones always go above and beyond just painting. i know it's all in good fun at the end of the day, but offering prizes to entries with the most votes and then seemingly criticizing certain people for "wanting to outdo the rest" doesn't sit right with me.

It was not meant to be interpreted as an accusation at all, my apologies to anyone who read it that way. It was rather our observation of something we perhaps should have seen coming that led up to the conclusion: we absolutely do need to reconsider the rules, which we will be doing as already stated. We will need time to discuss and write a well thought out list before we can use a new ruleset though. We will not be making any alterations to this years rules, as the event is already well underway and users have submitted their entries. Next time, for sure!

agreeing with this sentiment. I think discouraging or criticizing those who put in “extra” effort on their egg is harsh and unfair since the rules encourage adding craft material (which yarn & clay would fall under) to the egg.

also it’s stated “Please put effort into your submission. If we think your entry lacks effort..” in the rules…extra effort shouldn’t be penalized if effort is “required”. Is there a “goldilocks” amount of effort that we should aim for?

In the future, if the contest is geared towards only painting the egg with minor decorations, I’d hope it states so more explicitly

I strongly believe that 'all art is good art' and would never want to penalise an entry just because someone is less artistically inclined. As long as you're genuinely trying to enter, all will be good! This particular rule is meant to prevent people from like, taking a pen and drawing a zig-zag scribble on their egg, then submitting it for easy participation points.

 

[Aurita]

Unfortunately not! We've disallowed this concept in the past: like was stated here a few egg contests ago


It was not meant to be interpreted as an accusation at all, my apologies to anyone who read it that way. It was rather our observation of something we perhaps should have seen coming that led up to the conclusion: we absolutely do need to reconsider the rules, which we will be doing as already stated. We will need time to discuss and write a well thought out list before we can use a new ruleset though. We will not be making any alterations to this years rules, as the event is already well underway and users have submitted their entries. Next time, for sure!


I strongly believe that 'all art is good art' and would never want to penalise an entry just because someone is less artistically inclined. As long as you're genuinely trying to enter, all will be good! This particular rule is meant to prevent people from like, taking a pen and drawing a zig-zag scribble on their egg, then submitting it for easy participation points.

thanks for the insight, @Mick. While I appreciate the elaboration on the effort sentiment, none of us mentioned penalizing an entry for being low effort (which totally should is justified), but more on the “outdo the rest”. I think mods should be a bit more careful on expressing such sentiment as you all are ultimately judging the entries.

changing gears, I also think it is unfair to enforce a rule from a previous egg contest (from 3 years ago) since not everyone may be familiar with previous years (nor have participated)

I would like to note in this year’s FAQ:
Q. What can I use to decorate my egg?
A. If you really want to make your egg stand out then glitter, craft paper, pipe cleaners, stick-on eyes, cotton wool, and similar items are all acceptable to add to your egg.

Q. What can I not use to decorate my egg?
A. If it's not a traditional craft material or you didn't make it yourself by hand then it is prohibited. e.g. if you were to glue a toy hat on your egg then this would not be okay because you didn't make the hat yourself. You may not use stickers (beyond stick-on eyes) or anything that has been made digitally. If you're unsure about a material you wish to use then feel free to ask.

this allows the attachment of cotton wool (which crocheting falls under) and does not state anything relating to disallowing crochet or knitting covers for the eggs. I think if this past rule is being enforced as a rule for this year’s contest, it should be added here for fairness.