Saturday, March 13, 2010

Polish or Perish Banner Contest Results!


The response to our banner contest was amazing! We received 107 entries in all from approximately 45 people. We were overwhelmed by the skill, time and effort people put into creating banners for us. It is truly an honor to have such a talented readership.

Though we were unanimous in our agreement on our ultimate choice for our new banner, there were many gorgeous, creative banners that we felt could have been wonderful for Polish or Perish. Before I show you the winner, I want to showcase some of our Honorable Mentions and, of course, our Runner-Up.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)

From Jessmoberry:



From The Nail Ninja:


From Cordy:



From Toxin:

Toxin deserves a special thanks for submitting the most banners out of anyone who entered the contest. She had many wonderful banners and this one was one of our favorites!

And now... drumroll please...


Our RUNNER UP PRIZE goes to SNAPHAPPY, who used her gorgeous photo of a mixture of OPI Mad as a Hatter and Absolutely Alice.



And finally....


Our GRAND PRIZE goes to HEIDI, who submitted this stunner:

We all voted this one in as our absolute favorite. It expresses who we are perfectly. These are the degrees we either have or are aspiring to... including our "basecoat" of bachelor's degrees. We are thrilled to know that when we visit our blog, this banner will be the one greeting us. (Heidi, if you're reading this, please check your email and tell us which four of the six prizes you want!)


Over the next couple of weeks, we will be working on a new layout for the blog to match our brand new banner. (Say buh-bye to the nice teal color...) We hope to debut our new look in mid-April! Hopefully without too many glitches...

Thank you again to all the people who submitted entries to our contest. We are so grateful to have such a brilliant audience to whom we can show off our nail polish. :)


Like this? Click below to let us know!

23 comments:

MeganChair said...

Congrats the the winners!! They all look great. I can't wait to see the new theme to go along with the new banner. :o)

~Elizabeth aka Lacquered Lizard said...

Wow, some great entries! Love the winning entry, it's perfect! Congratulations to the winners!

Rhea said...

They are all amazing! love the winners' and the first one!

Stephanie said...

I love the winning banner! I'm an MA-aspirer too ;)

Piff said...

Congrats to the winners and the notables! Big thanks to all who entered. It was fun to see all the entries come in!

mKat said...

Congrats to the winners and honorable mentions. Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry. It's great to know we have such talented and dedicated readers.

Hopefully our new theme will look just as good as our new banner (and I second Flinty's hope that it gets executed without too many problems.) ;)

kittytokaren said...

Another congrats from me!! We got so many awesome entries and it was just flattering to see that that many people put time and effort in!!

What I love most about this blog is the interaction through the comments that we have with our readers - I think having a reader-made banner is the perfect representation of our blog! I second mKat in saying that we are lucky to have such talented readers!!

Fingers crossed that the transition goes off without a hitch...

<3 kittytokaren

Janice said...

Dear Polish or Perish Bloggers, Thank you so much for the 2nd Place Prize!!!! I am beyond excited! The other banners you posted all look amazing! The grand prize winner was so creative to label the polish with your degrees and I think that banner will look perfect on your blog! Congrats to Heidi and the Honorable mentions!

Unknown said...

Those banners are amazing! What amazingly talented readers! I wish we could see them all! I am working on a new banner for my blog - can't wait to reveal it.

amusedPolish said...

wow, there are really great entries, can't wait for the new layout and your new banner to debut :)

Unknown said...

EXCELLENT entries, I really love Heidi's - very creative - and SnapHappy's beautiful glittery creation. These look great :D

Apriltini said...

If you don't mind my asking, what are the degrees, so I(we) can marvel over them. :D

daydream222 said...

Another thanks and congrats from me! :)

Piff said...

Apriltini - BA/BS = standard bachelor's degree, MS = master of science I believe, MBA = graduate business degree), PhD = standard doctoral degree, JD = standard law degree in the US, EDM = no idea (can anyone enlighten me?), MA = master of arts

I think flint my have all of them :P

kittytokaren said...

I've got the BA/BS, the MS and working on the PhD *sigh* too much school...

Anonymous said...

Thanks to everyone!

I really enjoyed making the banner after I thought of the concept. My husband helped a little with tweaking the photo so it was a group effort, but he says the nail polish is all mine. :)

Now I can't wait to see what the new blog will look like.

Heidi

kittytokaren said...

*bows down* seriously amazing banner Heidi!!! Say thanks to your husband for us, but it was a seriously genius concept :)

mKat said...

@Heidi: We seriously can't thank you enough. (We can't thank all of our readers enough!)

@kitty... I think school is BS any way you look at it. :D :P

@Apriltini: In answer to your question (though there are two ways to interpret your question and Piff and Kitty got them both) I've got an Honors Bachelor of Arts (BA), a Master of Arts (MA) and I'm working on the PhD. (I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I didn't know what the acronym meant until I neared the end of my MA). For anybody else who might be as out of it as I am :P, it stands for Doctor of Philosophy but applies pretty broadly to most of the humanities and social sciences as an advanced academic degree.

@Piff: The EDM is the Masters in Education. I actually know it as an M.Ed.

Fun reading for everybody!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_degree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_degree

mKat said...

P.S. I didn't think of the BA/BS image in the banner as "basecoat" degrees until Flinty mentioned it... but that's brilliant, deliberate or not.

flinty said...

@mKat: yup, it was deliberate, as far as I know. :D

And yes, EdM is master's of education. It can be either EdM or MEd. (It says "EdM" on one of my diplomas anyway.)

The PhD is a research degree for any academic field so you can be a chemistry, history, art or psychology PhD -- it indicates the type of work you do (research, as opposed to practice). For example, I'm going for a psychology PhD but it means I do research, not treatment. If I wanted to do treatment, that's totally separate training I'd have to go through...

Anyway, by the end of this whole haul, I should have a BA, EdM, MS and a PhD. Tooooo many. I guess I don't need the MS but if it's basically writing an extra paper, why not?

Justine said...

I love Jessmoberry's entry. I agree that Heidi's is perfect for this blog.

Unknown said...

What awesome, entries! Well done everyone!

Arrianne said...

That's cute how they did that with the BA and BS for the basecoat. I like the winner a lot.

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