NDC Round 3: Winners

[Maurine Stettler]

I'm so proud of everyone who participated -- especially in this round with no CU resources except your own! Really fantastic work...and good luck to those moving on to the final stretch! : )

[msbrad]

Congratulations to all who participated. What a challenge and no CU----and y'all shined with your creativity and talents.
Looking forward to your lovely creations in round 4.
Best of luck.
m

[littlespooky]

I was scared to look too..weeee!! now for a palette and a theme and an alpha!!! ugh!! alpha..waaahhhhh!heehee!!

[Enchanted]

so many fantastic kits and designs! Congrats to all who finished!
Good Luck to all whom have moved on to the final round!

[btmo-Pat]

Congrats Round 3 girls! Way to go.
Awesome work by all!

[tailz61]

May I ask but will those who didn't get thru to Round 4 be given any feed back as to why they didn't. I'd be interested and I know earlier in the contest I believe it was stated that in future rounds there would be feed back...good or bad I don't mind but I would like to know what was the deciding factors in those that made and those that didn't

[Ambowife Designs]

I can't speak for the other judges but I went firstly on whether the kit looked good quality, then preview appeal, scrapability, wow elements and papers etc.

Quality is always my first priority but I know with a lot of people it is the preview that makes all the difference. This round was very difficult to judge too.

things that I found in quality checking all the kits. NO I didn't do a quality report on them all. but I did make notes by my side. Quality checking was not part of the judging for the other designers, and I didn't tell them what I found, I'm just picky I guess LOL

stray pixels, - you can find them by applying a stroke in your styles palette to the layer, then delete them with the style turned on, once you've deleted all the strays turn off the stroke style and save the element

jaggies - to get rid of elements I use a soft brush set to 0 spacing to erase the edge and smooth it a little

blurry images - to sharpen an image multiply the layer and change the blend mode to soft light, zoom in to 100% to see if it's still blurry, if it is try running sharpening on the duplicate layer.

rough extractions - When I extract I use a soft small brush set to 0 spacing, sometimes I use a mask to erase the background, that way I can paint back stuff if I overdo it.

wrong resolution, but it was higher than 300 so I guess that's okay. - if you uncheck resample image you can change the resolution to 300 without effecting the size of the element or paper.

Other things I check for with quality ( but didn't necessarily find in any of the kits this week)

• tou and preview in all folders
• preview is 600pixels or less and 72ppi,
• overlays that don't reach the edge leaving a solid line,
• Zip files not RAR files
• contents in a folder, then zipped up,
• file names consistent with designername_kitname_description
• correct file format, png, jpg where appropriate,
• patterns used on elements and papers are not blurry or jaggie
• size on page is realistic, a button should be the size a button would be if you laid it on a piece of cardstock 12"
• elements and alphas should be on separate files (an extra full page alpha is acceptable but only as an extra)
• trimming, elements should be trimmed of unnecessary excess space,
• No shadows outside elements unless it's appropriate, like on a lifted element or something with glow, or punches like stitching, staples etc.
• Recoloring - I look to see if they missed any spots when coloring over an overlay or grey element, or coloring in doodles
• Styles, if a style is used I check to see if it's showing seams on any pattern in the style.

I hope that is helpful to some of you as you move forward with your designing

[Chrismar]

First of all, congratulations to the 10 ladies who made it to the last round! You deserve it!. To the ones who fell out after each round, we will all try again next year, no doubt about that! This experience meant so much to me and I'm not giving up so easily.

Then, thanks to Tracy for clarifying her judging process! This really means a lot to me as I am determined to make it in the digital design world. It's the little things that makes the difference in the end.

[tailz61]

Thanks Tracy that's very helpful indeed

[Ambowife Designs]

I'm glad hun, we all started with nothing knowledge-wise in this business and if you are a sponge and soak up all the things you learn along the way I just know you will get there girls keep honing your skills and growing your design style

[vickyday]

CONGRATS to all the winners!