Concept:
The idea here is to make a Sim Scrapbook. Contestants will create a family within the guidelines and then take photos of them at 5 specific Life Events and scrapbook it all together as their entries.

Qualifications to Host:
Judged the MTS TS2 Calendar Contest. Winner of wgroome’s Foundation Challenge Contest.

Rules:

• This is a TS2 only contest.
• There will be no eliminations, but only proficient applications will be accepted.
• CC is allowed as long as it is good and the feel of the photo is still maxis/cartoon opposed to realistic. Examples: obviously photoskinned clothes will lose you points, as will poorly made/textured/blocky objects.
• Photoshopping is very much required. This contest is about how well you can digitally scrapbook.
• For our contest, a ‘page’ is a 954px square of color or pattern. An ‘image’ is the actual picture file. All pages must be 954px square. Posted images may be 954px square or 1024px square with an even border of white space. (This allows for a 35 pixel width border all around the image.) If you have trouble with the sizes, I've created templates you can work from. DO NOT change the size of the template.
• Please attach your images to your post instead of using an image hosting site like tinypic or photobucket. Judges please attach your images as well, but do not include inline versions.
• Please attach all your scrapbook pages in your application post. That will make it easy for everyone to view your entire 'book' all in one go.
• Please remember to take your time and not submit anything till next Friday if you want bonus points. You are allowed to edit your entry as much as you want, but when scoring bonuses we will base on the time stamp of your last edit, not the original post.

Timeline

• Each round will be 2 weeks long.
• This is a long but fast paced contest. Please consider if you will have time for it. For each round, you will likely need 1 afternoon to take photos (2 to 6) and another 1 or 2 afternoons to compose your 2 pages. I personally can do this all in one very long afternoon/evening, but I'm a Design student who uses Photoshop like its her job (cuz it kinda is), so your mileage may vary.
• Entries are due by Sundays at Midnight EST (You have all day Sunday)

Application Cover	Wedding and Honeymoon	New Baby and Firsts	Vacation and Holiday	School and Birthday	Prom and Graduation
Apr 29 - May 27	May 11 - May 27	May 28 - June 10	June 11 - June 24	June 25 - July 8	July 9 - July 27

Application Round Requirements:
Judge a Book by its Cover: For the application stage, you need to prove you can take a decent photo and do some basic image manipulation. You will be submitting a ‘scrapbook cover’.
Tell me what image editing program you use and how comfortable you are with it (just downloaded it today / can do some cool stuff / use it professional / etc.). I also need to know your family's last name. It should consist of a bright (but not blinding) background color with a book binding down the left hand side. Choose carefully, because you will need to continue using the book binding for the rest of your pages. For the cover only you may disregard the maximum widths to include extra space for your book binding. (See how mine is wider than it is tall?) It can not be smaller than the required sizes, we still need to be able to see your photo! You still must attach your photo fullsized like mine. Place a photo of your two starter sims, and some words along the lines of ‘Our Family Memories’. Make it look nice, as it will be setting the tone for the rest of your pages. Keep in mind things like image borders, word plaques, and nice fonts. You will not receive a score for this page, but it will be judged on whether you are qualified for this contest based on the same things as the rest of the pages.

Round Requirements:
For each round, each contestant will provide 2 sims scrapbook pages based on that round’s theme. At the announcement of each rounds theme, I will provide my own ‘entry’, for you to see as an example. Do not forget to include your binding on the inside edges of each page. Use the same background color/pattern for both pages. It is recommended to use no more than 3 images per page, but there must be at least 1 image on each page. Include words (journaling), and lots of other bits and bobs that fit with your photos and the theme. Get creative!

Contestants should start with 2 unmarried sweetheart sims. This contest will create for them a scrapbook of their future family. They will, in the course of the contest, have at least one child. You must use the same family the entire time, but not every family member needs to be in every photo or page spread. Grandparents might be handy to have, but are not required. You may use one of your preexisting families that you’ve been taking hundreds of photos for your legacys or whatnots. This is actually recommended because of the fast pace of this contest. However, if you don’t have photos for one of the themes you will be in a pretty tricky spot and need to think of a way to fake them if the family is no longer available or at those life stages. My examples will be from one of my own preexisting families, and I don’t have nearly all the photos I’ll be requiring either, yet. I don’t have baby photos of all those kids (shocking, I know!) There are no extra points awarded for being clever with the family makeup. Two gay sims having a kid is just as fine as a traditional nuclear family. Now, if one of them gets abducted for the baby photos, that might earn points just for being an interesting photo. Likewise aliens/supernaturals will not have favoritism, and on the contrary, will actually make your color palette harder to work with. I’m going to have a tough time with my colors because half of my family members have green skin. Red will just look like Christmas :/ A few Life Events may sound like they require an EP, but this is just a photo contest, so get a little creative and you will find you do not need the EP after all. This contest can be done with only a BaseGame setup.

Round 1 *Wedding*:
Start planning your weddings! Hire a GOOD wedding photographer. Officially you need at least 2 photos, but you may have up to 6 to put on 2 pages. Be creative with it! Everyone will likely have that nice shot of the first kiss, but what about other wedding traditions, like the cake, throwing the bouquet, best man's toast, the flowergirl and ring boy. The mini theme for this round is their Honeymoon. Take them someplace exciting before kids ruin everything!

Round 2 *Baby*:
And the next theme is..... BABY! Officially "And Baby Makes Three (or More)". I need two pages showcasing your family becoming a family. Some interesting ideas for shots include mom being pregnant and belly rubs, actually giving birth (faked to look like a hospital, I don't want to see any of the typical birth animations plz), dad being proud, grandparents looking on, whatevs, make it cute! Here are two hospitals that have birthing suites: sunni's Mercy Hospital and my Apox Hood Hospital. The mini theme for this round (optional to complete) is "Firsts". This should be pictures of baby's first words, first steps, first time sitting up, rolling over, whatever you can think of. Photos can range from this child being an infant up to a toddler. Don't age them up to kids in these spreads.

Round 3 *Vacation*:
Round three will be a Vacation spread. Send your family out to have some fun in a strange new place! Your kids should be child-aged at this point. If you don't have BV, then send find a cool community lot to have a grill-out, or go to a really cool looking pool/water park place. You don't need to go all the way to Takemizu for this. The bonus spread for this week is Holiday. I'm American and I'm using the American versions of these words, a Vacation is when you go someplace, a Holiday is a date on the calendar that you celebrate. Any holidays are acceptable, but there needs to be a change of weather between the two. If you go to the beach for vaca, then it needs to be a snowy winter holiday. Or, going skiing for vacation, and celebrating the Fourth of July.

Round 4 *Birthday*:
Kids just grow up so fast don't they? This round I need you to throw one of your kids a birthday party! This should be their Child/Teen birthday, so invite lots of kids over and have lots of child-friendly activities going on. I don't actually want to see many teenagers at the party cuz it's kinda weird how they suddenly grow 3 feet taller and are now 'so much cooler'. We are pretending that it's their 12th-ish birthday, they are still kids - give them a bouncy house and hire a clown to do balloon animals before they are suddenly too embarrassed to be seen with you. The bonus round for this one comes a little out of order, you'd have to do it before the main spread. It's the first day of school. There should be lots of nice September scenery and cute back-to-school outfits. As long as you have one spread in on that Friday/Saturday/Sunday that I award extra points for, it doesn't matter which spread you have up - you still get the points for it. After you are done with this round, get your kids about half way though their teen years.

Round 5 *Graduation*:
Our final round is the kids' graduation! Like the round before, the mini-theme comes first. You can't graduate high school without going to Prom! Well, technically you can, but it isn't any fun. You can choose whether your kids are graduating high school or university/college. I wanted my teens to graduate high school because I wasn't ready to breeze them through college. And that's why this is late, I spent most of my day doing age conversions from the Uni grad wear to teens - and I'll be uploading that soon for you all to use as well. Anyways, find your teen a sweetheart, buy her a dress or rent him a tux, and send them to the dance! Usually these dances take place in a decorated gym or cafeteria, but my senior prom was at a University Ballroom that my class rented. Now, it's not just a dance. Most Proms have an 'after-prom' and an 'after-party'. My after-prom was Casino Royale themed, we had fun pretending to be James Bonds and secret agents all dressed up fancy playing Texas Hold'em. Our after-party was a three hour bus ride to an amusement park, beginning at 6am after a completely sleepless night for all of us. Sleep deprived roller coasters are an interesting experience to be sure. I'll have my pages up some time tomorrow, as well as the teen hats and gowns for you. It's 5am - frack.

Judges:

• Judges will need to submit at least 2 examples of their own scrapbooking pages, either digital scrapbooking as we are doing here, or photos of real albums. This will provide everyone with good examples to start with and faith in our judges’ competency on the topic. They do not need to be sim scrapbooks for judges’ applications.
• We will have 3 judges and an EJ. I will be one of the judges. Judges and their qualifications:
  • Phaenoh's Scrapbook Pages
  • jones7659's Scrapbook Pages
  • whiterider's Scrapbook Pages
  • PharaohHound's Design Work
  • EJ - MAB-2000's Design Work
• Judges will need to get their scores and comments for which points were removed to me via PM by Wednesday night.

Scoring:
Wedding (Honeymoon), New Baby (Firsts), Vacation (Holiday), (School) Birthday, (Prom) Graduation

• Entries will be scored on a photography skill, photoshopping skill, page design, and style. Each is worth 5 points; half points will not be awarded. Each entry has the possibility of earning 20 points per judge. The judges’ scores will be averaged. Pages are judged as follows:
  • (5) Photography Skill

    • (1) High quality photo (not blurry or crunchy)
    • (1) Good Lighting (not too dark or blown out white)
    • (1) Believable Camera Angle (not way above their heads for no reason) and Sim Photographer (entire family isn’t in the photo if they are in a situation/place where they couldn’t ask someone else to take the photo)
    • (2) Interesting Photos
  • (5) Photoshopping / Image Editing Skill

    • (1) Good Photo Cropping
    • (1) Realistic Drop Shadows / Consistent Light Source
    • (1) Believable Layering/Dimension of Elements
    • (1) Includes Book Binding / Page Shadows Down the Inside Edges Throughout
    • (1) Correct Page/Image Size
  • (5) Page Design

    • (1) Nice Fonts (not Comic Sans or Papyrus)
    • (1) Cohesive Color Palette for each Life Event
    • (1) Good Use of Text
    • (2) Good Mix/Balance of Images and Other Elements
  • (5) Style

    • (2) Fits and Portrays each Life Event well
    • (2) Draws Viewer In / Is Visually Interesting / Judge Likes It
    • (1) Fits with the Style of the Previous Pages.
  
  
• There will be 5 rounds and the contest winner will be the contestant with the score closest to 100 at the end of all five rounds.
• Each round will have a main theme that all contestants much submit to. Each round will have a secondary theme as well that is completely optional to complete. Any contestant who submits to both themes may choose between their two spreads to be judged on.
• Bonus Points! If a contestant submits a spread (to either theme) before the start of the second week, he or she will receive bonus points to be added back to that week’s score based on when their entries were submitted. No additional points will be given to anyone submitting before Friday of the first week, 1pt to Friday submitters, 2pts to Saturday submitters, and 1pt to Sunday submitters. This is to encourage everyone to take some time to work on their entries, but not to dawdle.
• Late Submissions: Because this is a long contest and there isn't much time between rounds, if you miss a round, you are not disqualified. You may still submit pages for the round you missed, but late entries will be judged -1 for every day it is overdue, not to exceed -10. However, if you miss 2 rounds in a row, you will be disqualified. If you wish to drop out of the contest permanently, please let me know here or via PM.

Contestant Links and Scores:
It's a requirement of the forum to have at least 10 contestants. Anyone wanting to contest their disqualifications need only to fix what is wrong and then post (or PM me) to let me know to check it. Otherwise, you can take it as a graceful way out of what will be a very long competition. No hard feelings.

#	Contestant	Full Scrapbook	Wedding Score	New Baby Score	Vacation Score	Birthday Score	Graduation Score	Total Score (100) (and score without Bonuses)
1	aUserName	Andson	14	13 (+2)	15	-	13 (-3)	53.6 (164/300)-1 DQ'd (2 late rounds)
2	Olynicole1234	Ortega	-	-	-	-	-	0 DQ'd (image size)
3	leah10006	Burns	12	16	14 (+2)	13 (+1)	15	70.3 (202/300)+3
4	Selly_2009	Appleby	18 (+1)	18	18	19 Round Winner	18 Round Winner	92 (273/300)+1
5	kisses-for-yooh	Pree	19 (+1) Round Winner	17 (+1)	17	-	-	55 (159/300)+2 Withdrawn (no time)
6	porkypine	Machado	18 (+1)	17 (+1)	17 (+2)	14 (+2)	17 (+2)	91.6 (251/300)+8
7	InesMarie	Silviera	16 (+2)	17	15 (+1)	17 (+1)	17 (+2)	89 (249/300)+6
8	Croutonian	Greenman	18 (-5)	19 Round Winner	19 Round Winner	18 (-1)	-	61.6 (203/300)-6 DQ'd (3 late rounds)
9	jones7659	Wears	18 (+2)	17 (+1)	18	15	-	70.6 (203/300)+3
10	PixelDollyLover	Harrod	16	-	-	-	-	15.6 (47/300) Withdrawn (no time)
11	kateisl33t	Marley	14 (+1)	14 (+2)	14	-	-	44.3 (124/300)+3 Withdrawn (requested)
12	Lolipop26	Marty	-	-	-	-	-	0 DQ'd (missing application)
13	lauratje86	Smith	-	-	-	-	-	0 DQ'd (2 late rounds)

Helpful Links

Need help with scrapbooking? Here are some links to get you started!
Google Image Search on ‘Scrapbook Pages’
How to Create a Perfect Scrapbook Layout

Contest Approved

• Do not post replies and/or contest applications before the contest host has checked in on this thread, or your post will be deleted.
• DO NOT WRITE USELESS POSTS like "Hey cool contest, I think I might join." Reserve type posts and useless posts about coming back with an application will be deleted.

All right everybody! Let's get too it! I need 2 more judges and an EJ, and 10 contestants. Step right up! I'd like this to be a fun and fast paced contest with a goal of having fun, who's with me?

As promised, here are 2 spreads from my own scrapbooks. The blue book is for a trip to the Bahamas with a (now ex) boyfriend, and the other is my high school senior year memory book.

Can I judge this? And if I need to apply scrapbooks, can they be sims 3 scrapbooks? I love the concept and the idea!

waterjay, I'd love to see your scrapbooks. They can be any kind for the judging applications.

Are we allowed to use Maxis-made or kids of Maxis sims for our family, as long as they start out unmarried?

Totally. You may use any family you want. They can even already be married as long as you have wedding photos or can fake up some I was hoping you might join. I've really liked your past competition photos.

I would love to judge this contest! I love scrapbooking and I love the Sims! lol Here are a few of my digi-pages. I have non digi ones too, but as these were already on the computer, they were easiest

Hope I pass the "test"! I really wanna be a judge on this one!

And we have our first judge!

If anyone out there is on the fence about joining because they are concerned they wont pass the application round, give it a shot anyways. I'm only looking for a very low level of image editing skill, just a tad more than it takes to make a photo collage.

Yay! I'm glad my scrapping skills are up to par....now we just need some contestants...

Hi, so this is the first contest im entering(ever)ive read over the rules and everything, but im still not clear on how to enter the contest or submit my entries. I know you are probably busy but could you please elaborate on those two things for me please

Sorry Phaenon, I thought I'd be able to join as a judge, but unfortunately I'm not going to due to some complications. I will surely follow this contest and hopefully it will have a great success =)

This contest seems like fun. Here's my application: (I assume group photos are allowed on the cover, since your example includes one.)

The Andson family scrapbook:

I should warn the other contestants, I intend to be beaten by all of you.


Round 1: Benjamin and Kari's Wedding




Round 2: The Birth of Benjamin and Kari's first child, Jason




Round 3: The Andsons See the Simlish World
I'm jumping ahead in time with this entry. These are scrapbook pages from the world tour Ben and Kari took with their two youngest children.



Round 5: Jason Graduates from College


Simlish translation:

Top of page 1:
Chapter 1
Adulthood

Text page 1: Here we see a college graduate in a graduation ceremony. Parents are often extremely proud of college graduates.



Simlish translation:

Text page 2: Graduations are usually attended by family members who love their graduates very much.

Text in box on page 2:
In Depth (title on top)
The college graduate with his tribe of dorm mates performing a ritual signal.

Hi so nevermind my first post I figured out how to enter...thankyou

waterjay, sorry to hear that. Hope things get less complicated for you soon!

aUserName, please edit your post to attach your photo (click Go Advanced when posting), and at the full size mentioned above. From what I can see from squinting at your image , we have our first contestant! Also, what is your family's last name?

Olynicole1234, make a picture like aUserName and I did and post the image here. That's all it is!

also, Jones, and anyone else applying as judges, can you please only attach the images in your post but not put them inline? It makes it easier to load the page and scroll.

Sorry, I didn’t realize that the image size requirements applied to the application round. The attached family picture is slightly different from the one shown in my post, since the one in my post was too blurry at this size. It’s almost identical though.

My family is named Andson.

I think Phae meant attached using the "Attach image" button, not the "Attach files" button.

This is my application scrapbook photo cover of my sims family "The Ortegas", can't wait to get started on the rest of the contest..should be fun
OlyNicole.

And we have our second contestant! aUserName and OlyNicole, please fix your image sizes and reattach them (using attach images). Contestants should do inline images and have them nice and big! The purpose of the application round is to prove you can follow the rules and provide a crisp image at that size. Please figure that stuff out now before the first round where points WILL be taken off for it. I want everyone to do well in this contest!

Ok, I think the image meets the requirements now. I had to reduce the quality of the image to attach it, but I think it still looks clear.

aUserName, good job. The image is the right size now, you've got some time to figure out how to 'Save for Web' so you can have large lightweight images. Its interesting how your family photo stayed crisp while everything else went really blurry. It is possible (mine is proof) you just need to play around with it a bit till you figure out all your settings.

Come on you lurkers, I know you are there. We need more contestants! Take that leap!

hi i woz just wondering do you have to use photoshop because i dont have it thnkz

I believe Phae was just using "photoshop" as a general term. I don't have it either, there are plenty of decent free photo editing programs out there.

thank you so much jones7659

The Burns Family
Hi!!! My name is Lilly Burns (formerly Blue). Me and my sister Lucie moved to Pleasant view when we were 17 years old (we are twins b.t.w) anyway this is our scrapbook and watch how the story unfolds


When i was 19 years old attending Sim State University i accidently fell into a fountain and was soaked. Everyone laughed at me excepted one person. He came over and helped me up. He introduced himself and said his name was Shane Burns. I came close friends with him and one night at a college party we both were drunk and we ended up kissing. After that we started dating and then he proposed. And this was our wedding.
The Wedding :-)



Three years ago we had a baby girl named Hailey she is the quietest three year old i have ever seen. A couple of days ago she said she wanted someone to play with. So the following week we had a discussion and decided we would have another baby. 9 months later we had our beautiful little boy Ronan
New baby

How time flys!! Ronan is two and a half now and is starting pre-school. He loves his big sister Hailey and she loves him too. Hailey is going on 6 Years old. We have so many memorable moments with him. I hope he won't mind if there is another addition to the family. We will just have to wait and see
Terrible Twos


Our fist vacation
A couple of years have gone by. We have three children and another on the way. Anyway we had a baby girl 2 years ago her name is anna. I am expecting and i have two months left. We are moving house because our one is too small and we need more room for the new baby.We decided to go on holiday while the new house is being finished so we are going to the west of Ireland to Galway because you can just drive to it and because i was'nt able to go on an airplane because i have a phobia but i will probly get over it soon!!


Ronans First Day of School
i cried this morning as i droped him into the classroom he cried as well but we got through it. He came home with lots of storys about his new friend Haylinn, his teacher and his other classmates. Our new house is built and we love it . We have neighbours who we dont exactly love but we still like them. We had our new baby his name is James and is adorable.


Ronan's 12th Birthday
Ronan is twelve!!! i cant believe it. It feels like just last week he started school!! my little boy is grown up and is going to secondary level next year
I cant believe it!!


Ronan's Prom
6 years have gone by. Ronan is 18 and is off to college. He is so excited his new girlfriend Kayla is going to the same college SimState. Kayla is really nice and so happy he found the right girl. My little ronan has grown up!!


Ronan's Grad
I am so happy for Ronan he is going to SimState university and is training to be an accountant and so is his girlfriend Kayla .Today i cannot believe Ronan's going to college. It seem's like just yesterday he was born.