I'm just awestruck at how wonderful each of them is... beautiful, delicate work. :)

Well, looks like everyone is done posting.. so... On with the voting. Please select your three favorites. 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices. Good luck everyone!

If we've entered the challenge, are we allowed to vote too? Wasn't sure of the rules so I thought I'd ask. :o) Helen

1st gunsan 2nd anniemation 3rd chohol And yes shemia you can vote :O) Sandy

Ohhh . . . so many great entries . . . 1st TwoPynts - I know the photo of your daughter isn't for the challenge but you are getting a vote for it anyway! Wonderful effect. 2nd Shabetei - both an image and writing, the image made me think of the Velveteen Rabbit, great job! 3rd FractalChemist - wonderful photo.

Hmm.... Decisions, decisions..... 1st anniemation 2nd shemia 3rd TwoPynts (bottlebrush tree) Good luck all!

Shemia/Helen, Of course you can vote. Most of our votes come from those who've entered. :) Always nice when you can see how your works impress/inspire your peers.

1 - gunsan (pick one!) :) 2 - anniemation 3 - chohole Tough choices, they are all worthy.

Great challenge, terrific entries.....difficult choice. OK I will go this way. 1st Gunsan dragonfly 2nd Netsia Dance of the air 3rd Twopynts Bottlebrush tree. I got it down to 5 and then threw them up in the air and picked 3. :-)

Forgot to say which one on Gunsan lol it is the first image :)

1 gunsan's 1st post 2 chohole 3 mommavelvet9999

This one is just too hard...everyone did such delicate art! I will be content with whoever comes in first...you all are deserving in very distinct and special ways. My choices at this moment: 1. mplogue 2. Shabetei 3. tresamie

1st gunsan - dragonfly with wonderful POV 2nd anniemation (splendid fractal) 3rd mommavelvet9999 (both the nest and explaining life and loss to children) ************* Choosing is sooooooooo hard! I am rather partial to snowflakes, and Pam's fairy is lovely. Both poems deserve mention. I like the cats They are ALL good and worthy and fulfilling of the theme. We've been working hard, and the last few months have been full of meritorious entries... some drop dead gorgeous pieces and some meaningful poetry and scary stories... and new people dropping by and participating. Therefore... if you have entered, voted, or commented in this thread, you can email me for a snowflake package. :) I have 2 more to finish cleaning up (the originals were drawn in pencil decades ago, before scanners and computers entered my life). They aren't quite real flakes (there is more than a tinge of art nouveau, as though they've fallen through curvy Japanese clouds). So it will be 3 snowflakes, each with 3-4 fancy textures, as .psd layers, in a nice zipped bundle. I'm tempted to do a snowflake from Hell, but will restrain myself. ;^) Carolly

Added note: I'm working at 2000 pixels square, final flakes will be maybe 800 pixels... I'll try to keep the file size down so the bundle will slip through the mails. And these will be for you to use in any way you want (sleigh ornaments, textures on an ice queen's dress, whatever), just don't sell them as is, or claim them as yours. Carolly

I guess you vote by posting here...

My top 3 choices:

1. Gunsan (for post 7 of infant)
2. chohole
3. shemia

Message edited on: 01/30/2006 23:58

mplogue cats chohole snowflake fairy SndCastie Broken heart So many lovely and delicate images this month! This was a real treat, and so difficult to choose.

I agree, I lot of eye (and mind) candy to choose from. A great challenge this month. Looking forward to February's. --Kort

...and the inside of the Angel Trumpet flower. Very delicate blossoms, for all their size... I just thought I'd add these for fun. =o]

OK, batch 2 is done... but I have a dilemna. On my Mac (where I work) the first batch has a warm gold flake and the purple is almost a mulberry. On this PC, it is a cold purple and a green-gold. The gammas shouldn't be that different, so one of the monitors must be off... but which one? If someone here has a spiffy calibrated monitor, is that first gold warm or green? The gold in this second batch is definately antiqued rosegold on the Mac. sigh. Off to get some sleep, then to tackle the last batch. Carolly

Carolly - In message 64, I see the mulberry and the warm gold on the bottom two. That's on my PC at work, which almost always shows things darker than my PC at my house. The gold on the second batch looks antique gold to me. So I guess my computer is calibrated the same as your Mac. TwoPynts - lovely flowers. Thank you for posting. :)

Are those going to be freestuff flakes Carolly? The are really quite good. A snowflake from hell would be a fun touch. ;]

My PC shows warm gold on first batch and antique gold on second batch. :O)

On my monitor the first one the gold is maybe a tad greeny. I must admit I prefer the effects you have on the 2nd batch. I have been playing around with my snowflakes as well, but not to such good effect. This is my attempt to show the crystal formation in Bryce.

Your snowflake looks like it is made out of those little crystal beads that they used to embroider on to fine garments (they may still do that...I don't visit the fashion world often). Very pretty effect.

TwoPynts, Not regular Freestuff... ONLY for people who have participated in this thread. :) Just drop me an email or IM with your email addy. I have to be careful what I suggest: I mentioned fuzzy pink mohair snowflakes and got a positive response. :sigh: OK, don't be surprised if there is an escapee from a very warm place. ;^) Dialyn and SndCastie, Thanks, the monitor on the Mac is 5 years old, whereas this monitor is at least 8. I'm working with beveling and chiseling and texturing to get both icy and almost-melting-wet effects. Folks can colorshift on their end, but I was hoping that what I was seeing was right on my end. Pam, That beaded crystal effect is actually one of the types of snowflakes. It takes about 15 minutes for one to form as it moves around inside the cloud. They sometimes get coated in rime to the point where they look like granulated jewels (think Greek goldwork). Besides Bentley's wonderful old images, Libbrecht has a couple of modern books where they are photograghed under colored lights which shows a bit more of their depth and structure. I can easily visualize those beaded on a scarf or shawl to wear to winter parties. I have a couple of beaded items; handwash but very special. ;) Carolly

Hmmmm tough choice

1. Shabetei (for Memories poem & image)
2. Chohole (for Steffy Snofae)
3. Two Pynts (for baby blue eyes)

Hate to make these types of decisions...I'd love to vote for everyone if I could. 'Cept me of course... :o)

Carolly, that was the effect I was aiming at, but wanted to get a more ice like feel to it, just can't quite work it out. I have several of these snowflake blanks to try. Another may look better. Do you know I never actually thought of beadwork as a subject for "delicate" I could have scanned in one of my handmade bead items. Mind you at the moment I am caught between 2 PC's. An using the new one and transferring stuff from the old which is a slow process. Haven't even got the scanner connected up yet.....gotta go find some new drivers, as I have updated my OS to winXP at long last.

Pam, I thought of photographing one of my beaded ornaments for the challenge, but wanted to do something special this month. I do need to make some threads in the Arts and Crafts Forum describing some of my Christmas crafts. Maybe another challenge theme will allow for beadwork or cut paper or embossed leather entries! :) Meanwhile, I've finished the 3rd set of snowflakes (yippee!) and need to jump up and down on the bundle to get it under 10 MB. I went back and tweaked a couple in the first set, too. Each set ought to have one with a drop shadow and one with a glow or fuzziness and enough colors to play with. Carolly

Kort, Just because you asked.... I don't know about the longevity of a snowflake in Hell, but this one escaped. :) Carolly

Ooooh, it is drenched in an EVIL GLOW! ;o] Thanks for those flakes Carolly. I haven't opened the email yet but I see it there. =')

Good! So far, it looks like two have gotten through ok, and one has bounced because of mailbox size limits. The complete zip is almost 10 MB, so if your email only accepts smaller messages, let me know and I'll repackage them for you! Carolly

Attached Link: http://www.yousendit.com/

OOh I do like the effect you have on the blue one in the last set. How did you do that? Carolly, if you are having trouble giving people this file because of size, have you tried yousendit? Link above. They send the person a link to download the file, so its just like e-mail only easier for big files because the recipient is actually downloading, rather than receiving a file. Another good site for allowing only certain people to download is file factory. I use that one for limited downloads, only people you give the link to can download. I must send you my e-mail addy, but I know I cannot receive files this size, hence why we find the above two sites useful.

Abosoulutly, Great images......It's been awhile since I have visited here........but I don't reget it one bit. Thank you..........my "unsong" hero, for directing me this way. (:

Pam, I've looked over the yousendit site and aside from placing cookies, they appear fine. Sometimes if I have to take a cookie to get to a report or news article, I'll go into the computer and just delete it when done. So, send me your preferred addy, I'll try yousendit, and we'll see how this works! ************************** As to the "bluesteel" flake, in PhotoShop 6, under Layer Styles: Inner bevel, smooth, 200%; a custom gloss contour (almost the mirror of #10); color dodge highlight and multiply shadow with light and dark blues... this gives a metallic look. The bevel contour is straight, the texture is nubby (you can use clouds or crystals, just reduce the depth so it doesn't overwhelm the structure). Satin is bright blue, overlay, the contour is #9 inverted. Color is sky blue, normal, at 23% opacity. Gradiant is the yellow-to-blue pastel, normal, 100% opacity, radial... you can play with scale to shift the gradiant in and out. :) Apply that to a white selection, and you should get something close.:) I'll try different blending modes or scaling depths or adding noise... and when I stumble on a style I like, even if it won't work for the project at hand, I'll save it off to the style palette. Even if I don't quite know what is going on mathematically with the functions, recognizing neat effects is easy! Carolly

Genny! :) We've been having fun in here, and your gentle humor would be most welcome.

Last day to collect votes. I'll tally the results up in the morning and announce the winner. Good luck everyone.

Thanks Carolly, I will try to visit here more often from now on. (:

That would be awesome, genny. :D

Thank you Dialyn and Carolly..I have been a little burnt out latly.......mostly because I have a 19 month old "granddaughter" Who demands so much of my time that I don't have time for myself. When-ever I go to the computer, she want's to be right there, and she really doesn't have any interest in our "posts" let alone anyone else"s! LOL! I love her "dearly" but I have to admit........she is, Sometimes a big pain in the arse! LOL!

well, to start off with, we have a couple forum firsts: Everyone who entered the challenge this time (if I added/kept tract correctly) got at least one vote! Awesome. Just shows how good ALL the entries were !! Secondly: we have one entrant who came in 3 places. Very cool!! And last: Every place has at least one entrant, so theyre all ties except first place! So, on with the counts: Tied for seventh place: (one point each) fractalchemist SndCastie Tresamie Tied for sixth place: (two points each) mommavelvet9999 netsia Tied for fifth place: (three points each) gunsan shemia Tied for forth place: (six points each) gunsan mplogue Tied for third place: (seven points each) TwoPynts Shabetei Tied for second place: (nine points each) gunsan anniemation And, in first place, with 10 points: Chohole. Congratulations to everyone !! Every entry was worthy of winning. It was also great to see some poetry and the included visuals. The combination of fractal and photography is always an inspiration. As always: everyone who entered is a winner in my book :) Chohole, if you would, please start a new thread with Februarys theme.

Oh Good heavens, now that I definitely didn't expect. I will have to go away and find my thinking cap. Congrats to everyone anyway. Cheers!

Well, congratulations to everyone, and especially Pam! :chuckle:

Winners all! Congratulations, chohole!

This was so much fun....a very hearty congrats to Chohole who deserved the win. I think all of the entries were incredibly "Delicate" and deserved the "honourable mentions". Thank you for letting me know of this challenge dialyn (posting in the fractal forum). I would love to enter the February challenge so I'm sure I will be back. :o) Helen

I agree, everyone wins! Special congrats to Pam :)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12372&Form.ShowMessage=2570390

Pam has started a new theme... at the link. :)

Big congrats to EVERYONE! =]

Congrats everyone! Sorry I missed out on the announcement - Been out of town.

Congrats chohole for a well deserved first place, your contribtion is just awesome, and so fitting the weather now, at least here in Sweden. I just wish I could meet your beautiful snow fairy on my walks!