What We Learned {Creating with the Stars 2013)

Phew! We don't know about you, but we are exhausted after that month-long Creating with the Stars. But on the other hand, we really miss it! We could not be happier with the way our first ever contest went and hope you all enjoyed it and were inspired by it too! We are chomping at the bit to get back into the swing of our own projects,but before we do that, we thought we'd take a look back at the things we learned form Creating with the Stars 2013- David Letterman-style!

10. You get what you pay for. We learned this the hard way, for sure. We deicded to use a survey company that was very inexpensive to host each week's voting and we had major problems every week with it. You guys noticed it, too, and we promise that next year the voting will be sooo much easier! Putting out a little bit more money will be worth it if we can avoid all the hassles we dealt with!

9. Running the contest and trying to do each round's projects = Crazytown Even though we like the projects we came up with during the season trying to do them while hosting the contest, coordinating posts, emailing back and forth with stars and contestants, all while wrangling our kids and managing the rest of our lives and another HUGE project, we were on overload. Whoever thought of participating in each round (I'm pretty sure it was Monica,) is insane, and you WON'T be seeing that next season.: )

Week 1: Upcycled Door turned Desk, Week 2: Anthro Wood Cut Art Knockoff Week 3: Painted Piano, Week 4: Colorful and Fun Kid's Bathroom Makeover
8. You people are competitive! For real! We went into this season thinking it would be awesome and a whole lot of fun, not ever thinking people would be so into it! Even readers who weren't contestants got fired up about the littlest thing!. Honestly, we had no idea we would be dealing with so many Sherlock Holmes! Now we know you guys are in it to win it, and will back up your favorites no matter what!
7. Planning and preparation were key for these procrastinators! Posting seven days a week within a strict time frame is no joke. Usually, we decide the day before what we want to write about the next day, but not so with CWTS! We began seriously planning in October 2012- approaching sponsors and stars, writing emails, figuring out guidelines etc. We were super glad we did this because the contest went pretty smoothly. Thank goodness!

We finished our round 1 project last year at 1 AM. Procrastinate, much? 6. The pressure is on when the world is watching, We absolutely hate it when something doesn't go quite as planned. We recognize there were a few glitches in the contest and because so many people were coming here every day, those mistakes were just that much more noticeable. Ick, we really don't like that. No more mistakes next year!
5. Go big or Go home! We always say we're not afraid to try or go after anything and it worked in our favor with this contest! We landed some amazing sponsors by just asking if they wanted to partcipate! Plus, we went out on a major limb (that involved pretty lame dancing and fake mustaches) to get our incredible stars on board! (PS. this video gets a little long, so feel free to skip the middle!)

4. It's pretty darn fun to help new bloggers get a step up! We were unbelievably grateful to Tam for giving us a platform to showcase our fun ideas when we won last year. It made people notice us, and we were so thrilled to do that for these 12 crazy-gifted girls. We hope that you'll continue to support your favorites and follow along as they grow bigger than us!
3. The Stars you all love really are that incredible!
These ladies took time out of their very busy schedules to help better the contestants projects and photos. All of the contestants comments on how wonderful the stars were to work with. Thanks ladies!

2. It turns out we're not the only talented people in blogland. Ha! But seriously, the talent that the contestants showed, and the amazing projects you all linked up blew us away. We love that this blogging niche is so encouraging and open to sharing of ideas, and man, our list must-do project list grew by about a mile after all of the fabulous ideas we saw throughout the contest!

1. Creating with the Stars is the Most Epic Blog Contest on the Web! We already can't wait for next year's contest. It's definitely not too early for you to start creating awesome things because submissions open in February 2014!

What did YOU think of the contest? Will you get your game on next year?