12 Days of Christmas Contest

Tldr; everybody loves Christmas (and I will fight you if you say otherwise), and I've been thinking about wanting to do a fun thing for that on dA for a while. And then it came to me. Why not host an almost insanely complicated series of competitions and entirely overwhelm myself over the holidays? And so, I present to all of you: Autumnstar17's 12 Days of Christmas Contest!

(Buckle up, friends, because this is probably going to be a little lengthy~)

OVERVIEW: This competition will not have just one prompt, but TWELVE that you can pick and choose from! Each person can submit ONE singular entry to EACH individual category, and a winner will be selected from each of them. It is POSSIBLE to win more than one category, in which case more than one prize will be offered. The 12 prompts are going to be of various natures, so whether you are or aren't an artist/writer/whatever, no worries! Some of them are actually Christmas-related, some involve gemsona stuff, some have nothing to do with anything, they're kind of all over the place I don't know.

TO ENTER: You don't literally have to be following me to be allowed to enter the contest(s), but I would greatly appreciate it and it can't hurt your chances of winning
Submission rules may vary depending on the category, but generally, you should upload whatever entry to your deviantart account and MENTION ME in the artist's comment and state WHICH CATEGORY THE SUBMISSION IS FOR (regardless of how obvious it should be). If you'd like to enter but don't have an account for whatever reason (???), email your submission to eclaus@cca.edu

PRIZES:
It's Christmas, whether you personally celebrate it or not, and for that reason I'm going to actually let winners PICK THEIR PRIZE from this list that I've compiled:

-->PERSONALIZED CHRISTMAS CARD: It'll come after Christmas sadly, but I will send you an IRL Christmas card with a personalized letter from yours truly. I might throw other things in as well, art, candy, idk you'll just have to wait and see. (note: you'll have to provide me with a mailing address if you want this one)

-->FREE COMMISSION: Amount of effort put into this will vary depending on how many people select it. No real strict guidelines, maybe just go through my gallery to see if there's a certain style you'd prefer, since I'm rather inconsistent. I'll give more details about this when it's relevant.

-->SKYPE DATE: Ever secretly wanted a private skype call with me? Then this prize is for you! (kianamai is possibly available to join the call upon request and if I ask her nicely enough)

-->WILD CARD!!: You tell me what prize you think you deserve! I'll let you know if I agree or not, but I'm a bit of a pushover so convincing me of your idea shouldn't be all that difficult.

DEADLINE: All entries must be submitted BY THE END OF CHRISTMAS DAY (for me - so 12am December 26th Pacific Time). I will announce the winners probably a week later.

THE CATEGORIES:

1) RAFFLE! This is the easy one. Literally all you have to do is favorite this journal to qualify. I'll randomly draw a number from the amount of favorites this gets.

2) DOLL IT UP! Look guys there's this nifty gemsona maker on Doll Divine! I tried to make Tiger's Eye on it but was disappointed that I couldn't really get close to my design. For the contest, however, your challenge is to make a fusion of Tiger with your own gemsona via the doll maker (and be sure to include a link to your gemsona in the artist's comments as well, so I can see what the fusion is made up of). BONUS POINTS: depict both individual gems on the maker as well.

3) GEMSONA CHRISTMAS CARD! Draw a Christmas card involving Tiger and/or one or more of my friends' gemsonas (more reference pics can be found in my gallery). You may include your own gemsona(s) if you like.

4) CHRISTMAS CAROLING! Rewrite the lyrics to a popular Christmas song to be about any fandom that I am a part of. (Feel free to ask to double check that I'm in the know about particular fandoms before you begin.)

5) FAN COVER! As many of you know, a little while back I wrote a Steven Universe fan song, Fuse With You. Your challenge is to perform and record a cover of the song. You can use instrumentals or go acapella, use any all or none of my own recording, have just yourself singing or include other voices, or even add or remove parts of the original. Basically free reign.

6) DESIGN ME A PONYSONA! This is partially a joke but also I'm kind of serious. I'm not a part of the "herd," MLP isn't my "thing," but Kilala and her friends are really into it and I'm legit curious about what you guys come up with. The one I made myself was a bit of a gag. Name suggestion: Night Stream (from a conversation Kilala and I had about the livestreams we did).

7) HOLIDAY SELFIE! I'm willing to bet all of you guys have cute faces and I wanna see 'em. Take and post a holiday themed selfie. Not entirely sure how I'm gonna judge this one, so maybe see how creative you can get? If possible make me laugh or die of cuteness overload. Or both, if possible.

8) DRAWING PROMPT! There's this neat mini scenario generator I know of. Simply put my user, Autumnstar17, into the first one and yours into the second and draw the first scene it generates for us! Or the first interesting one you get. Be sure to include a screenshot of the generated prompt in your drawing.

9) NAUGHTY OR NICE! Draw any of my characters interacting with one or more of yours. The interaction can be "naughty" or "nice," but either way they'll have to sell it. I have a lot of them mentioned here if you need a place to start, and feel free to ask if you want more reference of any character in particular.

10) WRAPPING PAPER DESIGN! It can be Christmas-y, but it doesn't have to. Complicated or simple. Just make an interesting design that can be tiled as if it were made to be printed on gift wrapping paper.

11) IN STYLE! Draw any of your OCs in my style, whatever you conclude that that is.

12) MY GIFT TO YOU! Open-ended competition: is there anything else you'd like me to see that isn't included in one of the prompts above? Awesome! I'll pick a winner out of the compiled misc submissions too!

BONUS ROUND: See if you can guess my favorite Christmas song! PM me your guess, and if you get it right and are chosen as a winner, you can pick an ADDITIONAL PRIZE.

Don't forget to favorite this journal (for an automatic raffle entry and your own reference) and help spread the word!

Merry Christmas everyone and good luck