Thanks for all the comments!! Glad Merlin is so well received
Everyone's stuff is just fantastic!!!!!!!

Daenerys/Cara: You've got some fantastic coloring in you stuff! especially the hobbits avis and banners. and I mean, Richard? Obvious awesomeness there!!!!

Ariadne394: I love the soft colors you use! and you use some unique parts of picture for avis! love the Cate banner! The blends and wallpapers are fantastic!

Nurr: I mean, how many more times can I tell you your stuff is awesome fantastic epicness? I'm particularly drawn to you blends - the Lord Elrond of Rivendell one is probably my favorite piece!!!!! and your Gandalf blend is my second fav

Shadowcat; awesome awesome lighting on your avis and banners! and I love love love love love love you Theoden & Theodred blend. just yeah.

Feanor: I feel like I'm being redundant, but it's always true-great coloring! love the soft rainbow-ish look and feel. i particularly like you arthur banner, galadriel blend, and aragorn wall.

Maneth: holy wow those light textures on you blends! O.o i always have such a hit or miss hard time with those & your's are wow.

Aranel: wow. O.o love the...clarity(?) i can't come up with the right word right now, but i love it lol

Darkheart: there's a certain....theme(?) again wrong word but it's right up there with Aranel's that i love. i particularly love your bookmarks. the red riding hood (i'm assuming?) is my fav.

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Bob Seger 11/19;Celtic Thunder 9/29
Gettysburg 150th!!!

So, the main method of inspiration for me right now is to go to a LotR screencap site, click on a random set in the gallery, and save some pictures to make things. Guess what I managed to click on on the first try? Frodo telling Sam to go home. Now I want to cry. (Not helping that I'm listening to the RotK soundtrack and just finished with Pippin's song.)

If anyone else is wanting to try my method, I'm using the screencaps from here.

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going on a journey through my old claims

aww talk about timing.

I haven't been clicking a random page, I've just been going through the scenes...which is why most of my LotR stuff is FotR. Your method is more fun though so I'll probably give it a try

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Bob Seger 11/19;Celtic Thunder 9/29
Gettysburg 150th!!!

Cara/Dany: I love your new blend for the challenge with Smaug! It's wonderful!

Ari: Ack! Han Solo! Sean Bean! Your Hobbit artwork blend!

Skitty: Your Elrond banner is lovely, and I really like what you've done with the challenges!

Feanor: I really love your Eowyn banner. It's just gorgeous!

Maneth: Oooh, Jensen Ackles blend! Nice!

Nel: I love your Gandalf & Beorn blend!

Darkheart: That's a fantastic colorization!

Damson: WHOA explosion of graphics! It's all awesome (but I think my favorite stuff is still your Merlin work - it's all magical)!

Harthad: Can't wait to see what you post!


Bit of a few slow days for everyone, eh? (Except Damson, apparently. )

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going on a journey through my old claims

That's cause I'm like you - no life and looking for jobs lol and it's really just a bunch of quick avis
And I feel the need to explain my challenge 5 banner - I picked pictures with completely opposite color schemes (instead of sticking to close schemes), fooled around with colorization and contrast and curves more than I ever have, and I didn't use a texture (I can't recall ever not using a texture on a banner).

Cara/Dany: I agree with Nurr about your Smaug blend! and I love you Hobbit banner!

Ariadne: I love your new additions, the Sean, the Viggo, Harrison Ford... and your artwork challenge blend is wonderful!

Nurr: again, do I need to repeat myself? lol really love the Gandalf/Balrog banner and the Mirkwood blend

Shadowcat: absolutely love love love the "kingdom of Gondor" banner! and love the coloring of the Elrond banner

Feanor: love your 2 Hobbit banners (unexpected journey & bilbo) and your artwork challenge blend!

Maneth: i'm not a huge evangeline lily fan, but love your blend! and love the fire accent on you challenge banner!

Aranel: I 2nd Nurr's comment! and you artwork challenge blend!

Darkheart: I love your blends! the 2 with the blonds are my favs (sorry I don't know names :/)

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Bob Seger 11/19;Celtic Thunder 9/29
Gettysburg 150th!!!

I've been gone most of today and yesterday... so yeah didn't get the chance to make many graphics.

Cara/Dany: (so do you prefer Dany now? ) Love your Smaug blend! It's awesome! And not just cause Smaug is in it. Also like the colors on this blend, it's so pretty.

Ari: Really like your recent challenges! Especially the Hobbit poster and the illustration blend. They're great!

Nurr: The Aragorn blend is awesome! And the Gandalf one is done really well. I'm not even going to mention how many graphics you made... nope. Wait... oops... that was mentioning it.

Shadow: Love this banner!

Maneth: I have no clue who the girl is, but I really like this wallpaper of yours! It's so cool!

Aranel: Your stuff is so awesome! Love your Arwen banner and this one!

Darkheart: Your bookmarks are really nice! Especially that one at the end... not sure who it is, but it's a pretty bookmark.

Damson: ahh so many graphics! lol those Leon avatars are so funny... Your avatars are great!

Thankee!

Ari: Love your challenge poster! Especially the use of that Gandalf pic.

Skitty: Your new GoT blends are GORGEOUS m'dear. I especially love the Lannister one.

Maneth: That Gondor banner is freaking awesome.

Nel: Your artwork blend is beautiful!

Damson: Aw, Angela Lansbury! Excellent!

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going on a journey through my old claims

Liv Tyler

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Seriously?! *looks at pic again* I should have known that!

yeah! its from the photoshoot of Irresistible Electric Rose, plus the style I used can make it dificult to recognize her lol

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It's past time I wrote up a few more comments, so here goes! I've been out of town, so sadly I haven't made much, but now I can get back into things because I'm home.

Dany: The Day 4 challenge looks beautiful! I also really love the latest Daenerys banner.

Ariadne: I love the style you've been using for your wallpapers! I think the Elrond one is my favorite.

Nurr: See, you've not only created a massive ton of graphics, but all of them are amazing too. This is heartbreaking and beautiful and I'll just go home now.

Feanor: I adore the Eowyn wallpaper! Such a beautiful color and the blending looks great!

Maneth: Your last row of banners--Dany, Cersei, and Gondor--is gorgeous. And the blends! It's too hard to pick a favorite.

Aranel: Your coloring is absolutely flawless. As is your blending. I keep trying to choose a favorite but every time I end up trying to decide between four or five different things. Although, I will say, I'm quite partial to the Arwen banner.

Darkheart: I don't think I've mentioned yet how much I love the Bilbo-in-the-TARDIS blend. It's perfect. Also, the bookmarks look great, especially the black-and-white-with-a-touch-of-color ones.

Damson: All of your wallpapers are lovely, but this is my favorite. The colors look excellent, and the blending is fab.

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

Cara, your smaug blend is amazing - it's very atmospheric, and of course I love the Enchanted Prairie Dog font.

Nurr: So many avatars! I especially like the grungy effect you used on some of the new ones. Also, your first Elrond blend is amazing - I like the coloring.

Shadow: I love your Hobbit challenge poster! I might buy that if I saw it at a sale, it's so good. I also really like your Faramir and Arwen blends.

Feanor, your wallpapers are brilliant! (Especially Aragorn and Eowyn.) Your Eowyn sig set is also well done - very nice blending and picture choice.

Maneth: Your Misty Mountains banner is beautiful, as are your new wallpapers.

Aranel: Your Hobbit blend is great! I also like your Hunger Games banners.

Darkheart: I like the mix of b&w/color on your bookmarks - it adds a lot of interest.

Damson: I spy White Collar avvies! Love! Neal is smexy as ever. Your blends and wallpapers are absolutely fabulous, and I like your Hobbit poster as well.

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

Welp, that's the end of the cookoff for me. Great jobs everybody, I hope you learned something new during it! I'll be getting info out for judging pretty soon.

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going on a journey through my old claims

Judging: Daenerys

Best use of texture:
First: I think that your best use of texture goes to the Sansa banner and blend. It works in perfectly: it doesn't take away from the image, but adds a lot to the atmosphere of the piece.
Second: I also really like the unique texture placement in your Merry avatar and Merry and Pippin blend - it's something you don't usually see done.
Third: This one is masterful - it adds the right amount of interest, but doesn't look like it's overdone.

Best use of color:
First: This definitely belongs to your Smaug blend.
The contrast between the green and red is brilliant, and the colors are very bold in general. It is really very eye-catching!
Second: I really like the soft background color in this one. It's not distracting, and it balances the lighter color of his face.
Third: The blue sunburst in this avatar caught my eye right away, plus I like the colored edges.

Best composition:
First: Your first challenge blend is great. It feels like it's the same image, and I love what you did with the cutouts in the center - this also works as a unifying technique.
Second: I love this blend; each image flows smoothly into the next and it feels very unified.
Third: This one is also great; I like to see that you were playing around with an effect we used for the challenges.

Most unique graphic:
First: I really like what you did with your Kili challenge banner. It was a great idea to emphasize his eyes with a new layer over the first as you did; it's a technique I've never seen before.
Second: The image placement in this banner is very unique. It looks interesting without looking awkward, which can sometimes be a challenge.
Third: I think that it's neat that you flipped the same image in one banner. That's also something I haven't seen previously, and it looks very nice.

Best overall graphic:
First: I think your Game of Thrones blend is wonderful. The blending is fabulous, the coloring is very uniform, and the text placement makes sense. Well done!
Second: I have to mention this one again... I just love the coloring, the effects, and the use of the circle, which you always do very well.
Third: You can't beat Smaug! I think that what really makes this graphic are the bright colors and the perfect text placement.

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

(By ranking 1-3 I meant like in contests, where you'd have top 3 texture, top 3 composition, and so on. Sorry if that wasn't quite clear. )

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going on a journey through my old claims

Oh, that makes sense now. I'll edit my post.

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012