I know, I know… valentines is long over. But we have one more award to give, and here it is!

Congratulations to Jeanne at The Candy Corn Chronicles for winning the People’s Choice Award for her delightfully creepy Anti-Valentines entry: Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder.

Thanks, Jeanne, for playing, and email me at holiday -at- dabbled.org, please!

To all the finalists, your stuff was great! Be sure to grab a finalist button here (at the bottom of the Judges’ Picks post) to show off your coolness. And Jeanne, you can get your Winner button here as well!

Be on the lookout for future…

Our special guest judge has examined the finalists, and we have results!

The top picks, and his comments:
1) Missed it by This Much – I loved the craftsmanship that went into this piece! Well thought out and executed. The tiny arrows sealed the deal for me.
2) Cat-pid – I’m a big fan of cartoon-y art. I dig the expression on the cat’s face. It’s kinda like it’s his 1st day on the job, and he’s not quite sure what he’s doing.
3) Caged Heart I’m also a huge fan of really graphic work. The red/black combination is very striking. This could easily be a tattoo.
4)…

It’s kinda hard to draw the line between art and craft… craft techniques can be used to create art, and art can be 3 dimensional, not just a drawing on a sheet of paper. As we were judging this contest, I decided I wanted to pull the art/illustration category out separately. This somewhat subjective–For our purposes, it generally it includes illustrations and paper cards. This means I’m actually giving our more prizes, but hey, that’s just the kind of girl I am!

Realizing that all our judges are crafters rather than illustrators (as far as I know – they *are*…

As promised, here are the judges for the 2nd Annual Black Heart Anti Valentine’s Day Contest:

*The lovely and ingenious Diane, of Craftypod (We interviewed Diane a while back)

*The clever and delightful Alice, of Futuregirl (She has the best sea creatures!)

*And the charming and talented Rachel, of Average Jane Crafter (and Craft contributing writer)

If you’re not familiar with these talented ladies, go check them out. They’ve all been huge inspirations to me over the past few years!

And also don’t forget to ENTER THE CONTEST and CHECK OUT THE PRIZES!

Twitter It!…

The very first entry in the contest! Check out this delightfully blackhearted little hand hooked rug from Lemongrass Studios!

Wanna see your stuff here? Get your entries in early and I’ll be featuring a random sampling!

Oh, coming Monday I’ll be announcing 3 fabulous blogresses (is that a word?) that you probably know (and if you don’t, you should!) who will be judging the Anti Valentine’s Day Contest. They aren’t sworn to secrecy or anything, so you may find out somewhere else first. But if you don’t.. tune in Monday for the announcement!

OK, now for something different…
Some other inspiration links for…

As promised here are our lovely sponsors, and the delightful prizes they have donated for the 2nd Annual Anti-Valentines Day contest. To win, start thinking of what you want to do — crafts, food, art — to show your interpretation of ‘Anti-Valentine’s Day’! [Want some inspiration? Check out last year's Winners!] All the contest details are here. And do go visit our generous sponsors (and tell ‘em Dabbled sent you!)

***2/17 – Judges’ Results will be posted tomorrow. Vote Now for the People’s Choice award winner HERE!***

It’s time! The second annual Dabbled Black Heart Anti-Valentines Day Contest is here!
If you remember last years, it was a ton of fun. (Check out last year’s entries here, and winners, here!)

The Rules:
Quite Simple: The theme is anti-valentines. Something a bit darker/creepier than you average valentine project–or however you interpret “Anti-Valentine”. Illustrations or any sort of food or craft project welcome. Tutorials and How-to’s are encouraged! Simply create your offering, and either post the link to it as a comment on this post (if…