***Voting is now over. Look for the winner to be announced tomorrow.
It’s time to decide who will be Iron Crafter Winter 2011!
Scroll through the 47 entries below & pick the one that you think is the best Iron Craft representation for the theme of “Winter.” You can vote only once so choose wisely. Make sure to click “Vote” at the very bottom of the list after making your choice. Voting ends Sunday, February 13th at 8:00 PM EST. We will announce the winner on Monday.
You can visit our Flickr group to see all the projects larger & read about them or click on the picture in the poll itself to take you to its Flickr page.
This is my first time doing one of these polls in a blog post. I had a hard time finding a free one that allowed pictures & lots of answers. If anyone uses one they like let us know.
© 2005 – 2011 Kathy Lewinski & Susan Cornish
Aaa…Here comes the tough part…..choosing one is just NOT easy 🙁 All are fantastic!!
I know I'm so amazed at all the talent!
I hope you don't mind some constructive criticism. This is such a great idea, it's a shame that there is no way to adequately view the items people have submitted.
The Flicker site really doesn't provide a big enough picture – and making folks take several extra steps just to see a picture means some just won't bother. And that's just too bad.
Again, it's a great and fun idea! The few I did click on were inspiring.
Becki – If you know of a better free poll making software that allows for lots of answers & pictures that is better than this please let me know. I don't think this one is perfect either but, it was the best I could find this time. I could do bigger pictures next time with a poll with just titles at the bottom though that would make for one huge post.
I joined Iron Craft to "help" me do more during the year. How cool will it be to have done 52 different projects by years end. Even half of that would be awesome!!! I also joined for inspiration so I click on any project that even looks interesting or in my skill set. Some weeks it takes me almost all week to get through them so I love that flicker keeps all the pictures and they don't disappear. Good luck to all entries.
The comment from joseph is actually from Kim DiGiorgio. I use my husbands google account and forgot to sign my name.
kat, I'm sorry that I don't know a better solution software-wise. And I don't mean to be a discouragement – really I don't.
The only thing that occurred to me is that I wonder if the pics could be linked to an entrant's blog where the pictures are likely to be larger and there could be more views.
Just an idea. Oh, and I did vote, btw. ;^) There are some really fun and interesting crafts in this contest and I found one that I was most partial too.
The challenges and the contests are really a great and fun idea, kat! I look forward to popping in and seeing more.
Becki – Not everyone who does Iron Craft has a blog but they do all use Flickr. It is something to think about next time for those who do though.
Hi Kat. I think that the Flickr links are a better idea than linking to blogs or pages on blogs. It means everyone gets the same exposure, and keeps people within Iron Craft / Flickr rather than forwarding them to external links. It's probably also less hassle for the admin team, and means you can see how many views your picture is getting. People can post links to their blogs or websites on their Flickr pictures if they want to. I think the poll looks great, and it was really easy to use.
Becki, did you realize that you can see the pictures larger on flickr? on the left right above the picture, there's an "actions" tab. if you click it, part way down there's a "view all sizes" option to click. then it'll take you to a new screen where you can chose to view the picture as small, medium, large or original. it's a great option if you want a closer look at details!
i link to my blog posts below my photos, and i think most people do too. and honestly, i only use medium size photos on my blog anyway (for quicker page loading) – you'll see it bigger on flickr!
i've seen quite a few linky things that have really tiny pictures, so i was actually pleasantly surprised by how large they were in the poll! (the poll looks great, btw)
Hey Kat, what about a Linky party? Does that cost money?
Thanks Jane & Amy! Jane, you are right it is a lot of steps to even do this, adding the blogs would make it trickier.
Lori – I thought about Linky too but need to investigate it more. It worries me because I think everyone would have to load their own photos.
I have to disagree with Jane. I think sending people to "external links" (other blogs) is totally fine and within the spirit of community of Iron Craft. Most of those people are linking to your blog from their own, if they have them. When is sharing linky love a bad thing? Participants are spending time making stuff to share with the IC community, and getting a bit of traffic to their blogs seems totally reasonable & awesome.
Also, I have used Mr. Linky's Magical Widgets, and I believe it's free and pretty easy to use. Not sure if there's a poll option or not, though.
I think Iron Craft as it is set up is perfect. It is simple straight forward and easy to manage for an older not do savvy computer person as myself. I do read some of the blogs but I don't have one and will not in the future. Why not just enjoy how great this is and not upset the apple cart. I am having such a great time.Thank you Iron Craft.