Creative Comping

I just love creative competitions; they are my all-time favourites. So I was elated when I found a colouring-in competition in a recent That’s Life magazine: a colouring-in competition for adults! It was just my cup of tea, so I enthusiastically coloured away for an hour or so and sent it off with the required entry coupon just a few days before I found out I was a runner-up winner in the ‘Wild and Free, Sunshine Me’ competition run by MamaPajama with a drawing I had submitted months earlier.

I realised how much I love creative competitions last summer when I woke up one morning bored with all the usual WOL, Rafflecopter, Gleam, Facebook and Instagram competitions. I felt like trying something a little more engaging, something creative, something a little ‘crafty’ perhaps – and so I immediately sought to dig them out. It didn’t take long before I came across a model building competition being run by the Spirit of Tasmania.

It looked interesting with a variety of prizes including iPads and packs of colouring pencils. The competitions was divided into age groups so at first I thought, ‘this is just for children’ but when I looked further into it I spotted the last age category which was simply 15+. ‘Well’, I thought ‘I am definitely 15+’ so I decided to give it a go.

The idea of making a model of the Spirit of Tasmania although fun looked a little daunting but luckily there was also the option of doing a drawing of it. So, a drawing it was going to be and after dabbling for a while with some coloured pencils, I scanned and uploaded it, had a cup of tea and forgot about it until the winners were announced (with my fingers crossed).

No, I didn’t win but as they seem to have theses types of competitions fairly regularly I made a mental note, checked out the winning entries and resolved to do a better and more creative job next time. While I was getting over not winning that one I came across another ‘crafty’ competition but this time it was the prizes that were ‘crafty’ – five large packs of scrapbooking supplies.

As there was the option of mailing in the 25 WOL answer, I decided to try that for a change, rather than just rush to the website and fill in a form. I created a handmade personalised postcard and put my answer along with a sketch on the back. It went off into the nearest post box quick smart and because of my extra effort was duly rewarded with one of the prize packs. The third one I entered around that time was a Facebook Back-to-School competition run by Scotch Tape.

The idea was to use some of their ‘Expressions’ tape to decorate some back-to-school items. OK, I don’t often break my rule about not buying anything to enter a competition, but in this case, I did. As there was six weeks of prize draws and six iPads to be won, I thought my odds might be reasonably good if I could get my creative juices flowing. It was certainly worth a try, but even though I didn’t win this time around, there is always the next one! And I am a little more experienced now.

Crafty, creative competitions like these may not be everyone’s cup of tea but they are enjoyable and on top of that can be easier to win than many of the others as most people are likely to give them a miss. Of course it does help if you have a little talent and are a little ‘crafty’ or creative yourself. So it these sort of competitions sound interesting – keep an eye out for them and at least give them a go. You may even surprise yourself!