A few things to cover in this journal update.

Firstly, is anyone able to donate prizes for the February contest? The winners are all announced already, but a couple of the prize donors had to drop out because of the group hiatus and I've only found one substitute so far. Once I've got all the prizes confirmed it'll just take a few days for the winners to all pick what they want and then you can start making stuff.

Next, is anyone able to donate for the March contest? The contest will be announced asap (as soon as I've accepted the last couple of gallery submissions) and then there'll be 7-10 days for voting, then the winners pick what they want as before (to give you an idea of the timescale and when you'll be making stuff). I'd ideally like at least 8 prizes to give everyone a fair shot at picking something they'd like.

The April-May contest is going to be joint, as there were fewer gifts received in those months (mostly due to no profiles being assigned in late March-April). Ideally we would hold that straight after the March one since May will have finished by the time we've done all the March voting, but I guess it depends on how we get on with prize donations... I know I'm asking for a lot from you guys all in one go.

And finally, what do you guys think about the featured folder? At the moment it's got all the contest winners since we started in 2011, so although it's got a box on the #Artcrossing homepage, new winners don't have much chance of being shown on there as there are so many winners all in the folder. I was thinking of moving the 2011-2012 winners to their own folder so that the 2013 ones have more chance of being shown - what do you think?

What art can I send to people?
Anything, so long as it can be sent in the mail! Don't worry too much about the deviantART galleries, just create a gift - something you would be happy to give one of your friends for Christmas.

What should I write in my "profile"?
As much or as little as you like! This isn't an art request, so don't be too specific.
There's a full guide to writing a good profile here. Just the "The Basics" and "Address" sections are urgent if it's your first profile.

Is there a requirement for how active I am in the group?
No, not at all. You can sign up now and you don't have to request any IDs until you have time to make the art. We won't send you any profiles until you request them. It's entirely up to you how active you are. Just remember you won't receive any gifts until you've sent one!

How long should I spend on my gift?
You don't have to spend hours. Many of our members get really into it and spend hours on their gifts - it's completely up to you if you want to do that or not. But create something that you would be pleased to receive yourself and you shouldn't go too far wrong. And it would be better to spend half an hour making something that takes half an hour to make than to spend an hour making something that needs five hours for it to be done well.

What sort of thing should I make?
Like I said, don't be over-ambitious. But make sure that everything you've done is done to the absolute best of your ability. Create something you would love to receive yourself!
Examples of little gifts to send: [link] [link] [link] [link]
Or take a look at the gallery to see past gifts and get an idea from that

The profile I was given has no clues about what they would like!
Maybe you can get an idea of what they would like from their hobbies and interests. If not, just create something that you would be happy to be given yourself. If you're ever stuck on a profile, ~art-of-amie has had lots of practice helping people brainstorm ideas, so feel free to drop her a line.

What's this "Art ID" you keep going on about?
It's a sort of code which the artist includes in the parcel or envelope along with the gift (you are given this code when you request a profile). Because the artist and the recipient don't have each other's deviantART usernames, it is a way of uniquely identifying the gift. In other words, when the recipient tells us that they have received the gift and tells us the Art ID, we know exactly which gift they are talking about and can mark it as received, tell them who sent it and let the sender know that it's arrived.

Can I participate, but not by mail?
Unfortunately not. The mailing part is kind of the point of the whole project. If you want a similar exchange project that you can participate in only online, why not check out #PresentsFromSanta which is on at Christmas time or take a look in the Projects Forum.

Can I request to send things only to people in my own country?
Sorry but that's a no as well. Artcrossing is an international group, and if we let you only deal with members in your own country, it would be unfair to other members who send art worldwide. If you are worried about postage costs, there are some things you can do to lower the costs:
a) you can send gifts less frequently and save up so you can afford the postage or
b) you can see where they come from and make a lighter gift if they come from further away (e.g. a drawing, some earrings) or something heavier if they come from your country.
Please make sure you can afford to send a gift before you request a profile.

I just moved house or I want to change my profile
If you move house or wish to update your profile information please send us a note entitled "Address change" or "Profile change" and include what you would like to change it to.

Why are there limits on the amounts of gifts we can send at any one time?
We want you to spend time on each individual gift, rather than rushing through a bunch of them, so you can only make one request each week. (Weeks run Monday-Sunday.)
Additionally, to stop people from getting a big list of names (and addresses) and not actually making any gifts, we set a maximum of three you can have "in transit" at any one time. As soon as a gift is received and the recipient lets us know they have got it, it will be removed from your "in transit" count and you can send another one.

How do I know how many gifts I have "in transit"?
Look for your name in the members list and there should be an up-to-date count that lets you know.

It says I have a gift in transit, but it's not in transit, I've got it right here!
The wording is a bit confusing, but "in transit" means you have been given the profile, but they haven't got the gift yet. So maybe you've sent it or maybe you're still making it. We keep track of what's been sent in a different place. (This and other numbers used in the members list are explained a bit more at the top of the members list too.)

Can my group affiliate with #Artcrossing?
Sure! We take affiliate requests from similar groups. Just be sure to include in the request what your group's about and why you think we should affiliate. If our groups have nothing in common, though, it will probably be declined.

For those of you that weren't aware, I have not been on dA for some time, so many group activities are behind. I know there were a bunch of you who were aware and were worried, and I'm sorry for being the cause of that anxiety If you want to know the reasons for my absence, they're on my own journal - it seemed a bit personal/unprofessional to put them on the group page so I put them there instead.

I have messages from as far back as March that I need to catch up with - I will start this in earnest from Monday. I know also there are a bunch of you waiting for gifts to be sent to you in return for those you sent out - I will get that arranged as well, but in order to do so of course I need people willing to make and send the gifts. (Here's the Send Art how-to if you need it.) I might assign a few over the weekend but a lot of them will probably wait til Monday too.

If you've sent something and want to know if it got there, or received something and don't know who it's from, please be patient and I'll get through all those updates as soon as I can (starting from Monday or Tuesday, depending on how much of the other stuff I get through on Monday). It'll be more efficient if you let me inform everyone of the stuff they don't know has been received and then if you haven't had a note ask me where it is, rather than asking me now if it's been received or not.

What else? You can resubmit deviatons to the gallery and so on, but they probably won't get accepted til later in the week next week (it'll need to come after I update the "gifts that've been received" blog, which will come after I've gone through all the notes saying what's been received and have updated all those people). Join requests are back on again (they temporarily stopped). Um... that might be it?

Thanks everyone for your patience whilst we get things back on track. Particular thanks to ~art-of-amie for doing her best to hold the fort whilst I was gone.

Whoops, I counted up all the winners for the February contest but forgot to actually post the blog telling you all who they were!

Here we go...

Most popular gift
With 33 votes, Whiskey and Timhop by =tiny-tea-party was overwhelmingly popular.


=tiny-tea-party, you have won

• 150 points from *UnSeelieScarlet^†
• 100 points from ~Zhiah
• 50 points from *ChaoticSkye
• First pick of the prize list below
• Fifth pick of the prize list below
• 15% off coupon for #GlowDen's store
• A permanent place in the Featured folder (also featured on the #Artcrossing homepage)
• Features from #Artcrossing, =Lucky101212, ~psto1464 and ~art-of-amie.

Joint second most popular gift
~Zhiah's Bunny plush  and ~fungostine's Butterfly sketchbook were joint second with 10 votes each.


~Zhiah and ~fungostine, you have won

• 100 points from *UnSeelieScarlet^† (each)
• 25 points from *ChaoticSkye (each)
• Second and third pick of the prize list below (since ~Zhiah's total votes on all her gifts was higher than ~fungostine's, she picks before fungostine)
• Sixth and seventh pick of the prize list below (order as above)
• 10% off coupon for #GlowDen's store
• A permanent place in the Featured folder (also featured on the #Artcrossing homepage)
• Features from #Artcrossing, =Lucky101212, ~psto1464 and ~art-of-amie.

Fourth most popular gift
And finally in fourth place was ~Kaninano's Artcrossing gift from Kaninano (kindly submitted by ~peanutjester) with 7 votes.


~Kaninano, you have won

• 50 points from *UnSeelieScarlet^†
• Fourth pick of the prize list below
• Eighth pick of the prize list below
• 5% off coupon for #GlowDen's store
• A permanent place in the Featured folder (also featured on the #Artcrossing homepage)
• Features from #Artcrossing, =Lucky101212, ~psto1464 and ~art-of-amie.

^{†These points have been donated in advance and will come from `Itti.}

Art prizes
As well as the points and features mentioned above, the following prizes will be divided amongst the winners, with first place picking first, second place picking second, etc*. If there are more prizes than winners, everyone gets to pick once before starting again from the top.
Since these gifts are all handmade, and people offered the prizes in March when they may have had more time, this list is subject to change. I am going to check in with all the donors to see if they are still okay to make the prizes. Offers of backups might be nice, just in case.
(still ok) Crochet prize from ~Vivacia18 (either amigurumi or small clothing/accessory)
(not ok) A guardian plushie from ~Chelliusbee - examples [link] [link] (you can choose from dragon, bear, cat or rabbit)
(not ok) Handmade soap from *LaJolieFille - [link]
(still ok) A surprise craft based on your profile from ~Zhiah
(still ok) Candies from *amour-interdit
(still ok) Crocheted goods from ~wingedalchemist2961
(still ok) A full coloured animal drawing from =Lucky101212 - examples 1 2
(still ok) A handmade bookmark from *RedFieldsOfNone
(replacement) A handmade hat from ~Mellowed-Mushroom (your choice of about 5-6 already made - here are a couple of examples [link] or [link] )

^{*If you win a prize but take more than 10 days to get back to my note asking which prize you would like, you may be skipped over and the next person gets to pick before you.}

Big thank you
A big thank you to all prize donors

Donations needed! We currently only have four prizes on the art prize list. I would like to have at least six to give to the winners Donations for the next contest (March) are welcome too if you're a bit busy this month. Winners will be announced in a couple of weeks from now for February contest and around 16-20 April for the March contest. Features are also very welcome


Any new members who don't know how our contests work? It's pretty simple. Everyone who made a gift that was received in February is automatically entered - and winners are voted on by you guys!

What to do

1. Visit the February gallery folder and take a look at the deviations you like.
2. You have five "votes" which you may distribute as you like between any number of deviations across both gallery folders: five votes to one; one vote each to five; two each to two and one to another; three to one and two to another, or whatever.
   (You don't have to use all your votes, but if you don't want to use them all it helps to say that it was deliberate.)
3. Send a note to #Artcrossing entitled "VOTE FEB" with your list of deviations and the votes, e.g.

   Something by ~someone - 3 votes
   Snowman by =Santa - 1 vote
   Llama by #fella - 1 vote

4. You may vote until March 17th.
5. You can't vote for yourself - although you can of course vote for gifts made for you! Voting is open to all members

Past winners:
Dec-Jan
For 2012 winners see list here
For 2011 winners see list here

Prizes!

All winners:
A permanent place in the Featured folder, which is also featured on the #Artcrossing homepage.
Features from #Artcrossing, =Lucky101212, ~psto1464 and ~art-of-amie.

First place:
100 points from *UnSeelieScarlet^†
100 points from ~Zhiah
50 points from *ChaoticSkye
First pick of prizes from the Art Prize list
Fourth/fifth/sixth pick of prizes from the Art Prize list (depending on how many runners up there are)

Second place:
100 points from *UnSeelieScarlet^†
30 points from *ChaoticSkye
Second pick of prizes from the Art Prize list
Fifth/sixth pick of prizes from the Art Prize list (depending on how many runners up there are)

Third place:
80 points from *UnSeelieScarlet^†
20 points from *ChaoticSkye
5% off coupon for #GlowDen's store
Third pick of prizes from the Art Prize list
Possible further pick of prizes from the Art Prize list (depending on how many runners up there are)

Runners up
Fourth/fifth/etc. pick of prizes from the Art Prize list

^{†These points have been donated in advance and will come from `Itti.}

Art Prize list

To be split between all winners (first place gets first pick, etc.)*
Crochet prize from ~Vivacia18 (either amigurumi or small clothing/accessory)
A guardian plushie from ~Chelliusbee - examples [link] [link] (you can choose from dragon, bear, cat or rabbit)
Handmade soap from *LaJolieFille - [link]
A surprise craft based on your profile from ~Zhiah
Candies from *amour-interdit
Your choice of either crocheted goods or a byzantine stainless steel bracelet from ~wingedalchemist2961
A full coloured animal drawing from =Lucky101212 - examples 1 2

^{*If you win a prize but take more than 10 days to get back to my note asking which prize you would like, you may be skipped over and the next person gets to pick before you.}

Not eligible? Start making gifts and you will be entered in the next contest!
Donations for the next contest are very welcome, just let me know what you can donate!