Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Forth Annual Best Little Dorm in Wizard City Winners!!!!

Congratulations Best little Dorm House winners!!!

Everything completed early!! Wednesday Post!
Our 4 judges certainly had their work cut out for them - but, they did it!!!  They have found the winners for the 4th Annual Best Little Dorm contest. So many amazing entries!
Each entry was scored by 4 categories:  (1) Use of the 5 items (2) Paragraph One (3) Paragraph Two, and (4) Over All Theme.  The maximum score that could be given was 160.
Thank you to all who entered!  And to all our winners who put so much effort and talent into creating a perfect habitat for their pets!

This year's winners!!
Grand Prize
Issac StoryCaster
 ( score 140)
The Library of Purple Poises
As with most of the Dread Grimoires they live in libraries of many different types, Lord Brady lives in The Library of Purple Poises. This is the library where you can learn how to use the power of the purple poises to remove spells that immobilizes other wizards essentially turning them into mannequins. With the help of Lord Brady and his mighty library, wizards young and old learn how to transport victims here and how to make the special tea needed to remove the evil spell.
As you enter the library you can see a Stone Rose (stone) in the center of the reading table, it is there as a symbol of what the evil spell can do to any living item, not just wizards. You can also see the Shield of Valor (wall hanging) hanging on the wall which symbolizes the effort and honor needed to accomplish the reversal of this spell. The Stopper Jar (Jar) contains the dry purple poises used in the spell and the Tea Set (yellow) is used to brew the concoction. Once the concoction is completed the fumes from the tea cup allow the victim's (Mannequins crafted) mouth and throat to start working enough to drink the brewed tea. With in 2 hours the spell is completely removed.
First Place
Iridian RainGem
(score 139)
The Restricted Section

The front doors you walk through of the Wizard City Library are not the true front doors. The lobby you see today is an expansion upon the old library from when Ravenwood was just beginning. Deep in the remains of the old library is the restricted section which is a small room, a place where very old and very dark magic is kept for the purpose of knowledge.This place is called the restricted section. Most have forgotten it even exists as the magic contained in the books has been banned from use as well as the room being lost somewhere in the old wing of the library. It is those facts makes it the perfect habitat for the Dread Grimoire. The Dread Grimoire resembles a very old book because it once was a simple book. It contains more knowledge than a wizard could learn in a lifetime, and if the magic contained within the pages of a book is great enough, it may animate and take on a life of it's own, such as the case with the Dread Grimoire. They are hungry for knowledge and what they don't know from their own pages can be learned from the thousands of books on the shelves around them. Most of the Dread Grimoire remain back in the furthest shelves from wizardly eyes, soaking up knowledge and living peacefully undisturbed among the dusty shelves. Some wander out a little further towards the fireplace, occasionally lighting it themselves to take the chill out of the air as even books dislike being cold. The oldest and most powerful books are the ones we see in the spiral today. They have learned all there is in the old library and have wandered out for new information, only to be captured by curious students. Thankfully they do not teach the dark magic from the restricted section.
Sadly, the hand crafted shelves have fallen from their original place over time, being shuffled around by unnatural earthquakes caused by the Myth students from Ravenwood. though the Dread Grimoire don't seem to mind it. They remain standing tall, making it hard to see the whole library at once, but making it magical to look around at the same time and discover books you've never dreamed of reading. Above the fireplace, partially hidden from view by some ancient text books, is a painting of an old estate. Not many know this, but Ravenwood wasn't always separated into towers. It was once one large school though as time tends to move on, and accidents do happen when training magical children, the school needed to be rebuilt and it was agreed that each teacher would have his or her own building with an attached tower to teach, so as not to disturb one another. The fog rolling in from inside the bookshelves? Possibly a book about weather was left open. Could the book with yellowing pages on the table? As for the mess in front of the fireplace, that is unfortunately not normally found in the Dread Grimoire's natural habitat considering they are naturally clean beings. It seems one of the few who learned of this rooms power has come in search of a spell, and it looks as though they found what they were looking for by trapping one of the Dread Grimoire. Dark magic has been cast from this room recently and the culprit left a mess behind including a jar of bat wings, a dragons eye in a jar, the beauty of a rose captured in stone, and gold... Was this the work of Morganthe or her servants? It seems to be some sort of summoning spell, though what would someone summon from the restricted section? Certainly nothing good. Too bad we can't ask the Dread Grimoire what happened, so we had best check with Headmaster Ambrose to see if he has any ideas on what to do about this.
Second Place
Quinn StormCloud
(score 139)
The Zombie Brothers & Friends' Final Resting Place

My dorm is centered around my two Zombie pets, Otis and Harley. They live with their buds, Vaden, Winston, and King Gizmo the Skeletons, and their cousins, Gus and Baxter the Myth Ghouls. Since every pet involved is well, dead, I decided that their natural habitat would be a graveyard of some kind. The dorm has a bunch of dead trees and gravestones which I figured would be a for-sure base for a graveyard. I combined the Dead Briar Trees with some Dark Stone Towers, which fit nicely with the theme and looked wonderful. I scattered a few Wild Mushrooms around to give an outdoor feel and used a starry-sky wallpaper and clawed dirt flooring to represent a creepy night environment. I put a Munched Lamppost near the main graves to add an even greater eerie feel.. the fact that it's tilted is a bonus, too. I put some bony remains in some graves and  I pushed some Pagoda-Topped Urns into two of my tower/tree combos for the great fog effect they give.. The centerpiece of the dorm was something I just pulled out of my brain.. I started with the Directional Arrows crafted item and I put a Skull on top.. I decided that wasn't good enough and added a Bone Hand for each direction. I wrapped it up with the Nailed Boards item as a base and I fell in love with it. The boards double as the NE, NW (etc) directions.  (North on the arrow points to Otis and Harley's hangout w/ Gus and Baxter.. West points to Winston's grave... East points towards Gizmo and Vaden's place and South points to the entrance.) My graveyard dorm turned into an "eerie" crossroads, which I am more than happier with. :)
I found this part to be challenging as well as fun.. for the Crafted Item I have the Directional Arrows item, for the yellow I have the glow of the Munched Lamppost... for the Stone item I have all the gravestones and the Dark Stone Towers, I have the Nightside Tapestry for my Wall Hanging (Death Plaques/Shields are wayyy too boring.) and for the jar I decided to put a little story in my dorm.. Winston the Skeletal Warrior stole one of Vaden and King Gizmo's eyes and put them in jars, haha. (Eye Jar item) Now Vaden and Gizmo try and get them back when Winston's not looking! I put a bone hand clenched around one of the jars so they'll have a harder time, haha. Don't think this is visible in my pictures, sadly.
Third Place
Luke FireHeart
(score 129)
The Garden Of Dreams
Hello, my name is Luke and this is the story of how Lucky became my pet. To find out where Lucky grow up, we had to travel to the land of Mooshu deep deep into the forest were only the Emperor knows about. Here we find the Garden of Dreams, this name was given from the Emperor himself after he found the garden.  As we  jumped into the pond, we meet all of Lucky's family and friends. This is the place were he grow  up! Lucky begin to tell me all the amazing things that he got to do when he was a kid and how the Emperor saved his mom and dad from death! As for me, after I helped save Mooshu from  Malistaire and healed the Emperor, he decided he would show me the Garden of Dreams that he had never shown anyone in his life. To thank me for saving the world of Mooshu and his life, the Emperor decided to give me a betta fish that I would call lucky.
            After lucky and I went to see his family and friends, the Emperor was so happy we came to visit that he invited us to dinner.  Later that night, the Emperor decided to tell us how he founded the Garden of Dreams. When he was just a boy, before he became the Emperor of Mooshu, he had found a small pond that was polluted and all the life around it was ding. When he looked into the pond, he found two small batte fish that would one day become luckys mom and dad. He decided to  rescue them before it was two late. Later on he decided that he would clean the pond and the garden so it would come back to life again! He started cleaning out the pond by adding new sea animals like the starfish hanging on to the sides of the pond. He also decided to lay down new grass mounds that were crafted by magic to help the garden grow. To help find his way back to the garden, he decided to place stones cut by himself to make a path. He also decided to light the pathway with yellow lights so he could  find his way back home at night. The garden was back to new again! After he became Emperor, he decided to bring Luckys mom and dad back to the pond and also decided to bring a large jar of fish food so he could feed them everyday.  Soon after that, lucky was born and everyone lived happily ever after!

Judges Choices
Judge A: Alexis 
I loved the way Alexis utilized the empty jars. Who doesn't love a Toaddle?
Habitat of the Toaddle

Judge B: Nathan Ashthistle
Nathan, I really liked the way you incorporated your paragraph's into a royal decree from King Artorious himself, it really gave me the sense that you put work into your Entry. As for the decoration, the first thing that caught my eye was the Stained Glass windows, it implies that it's a noble place to be (Churches, Palaces etc).I also really like the way you've put practice Dummies and Weapon Racks it gives it more of a Realistic Feel/Look to the dorm, and having the Statue of the king in the middle shows that it's not any old sparring chamber, it's the best of the best.
A decree from King Artorius

Judge C: Jonathan DeathShield
Loved the story and it fit the look of his dorm as well.
At the End of a Broken Rainbow

Judge D: Sophia
I love how the paragraphs and screen shots works together to tell the story - it is a complete package to me.
Pig Farm

10 Honorable Mentions
Scarlet Rain
Scarlet StormSong
Richard Legend
Angela ShadowGarden
Autumn Winterwhisper
logan Ghostwhisper
Valkoor Windfist
Michael ShadowLeaf

25 Random Draws(valid entries only)

Edward RubyRunner
Blake ThunderRider
Olivia MoonBright
Madison Icegem
Austin Dark 
Tasha Stormwalker
Gabrielle Summer
James DragonCatcher
Gabriel Starcatcher
Calamity Stormrider
Victoria FireFlame
Micheal Nighteyes
Jared MythBlade
John GhostShard
Jessica BlueHunter
Lenora Nightstone
Alura StormSword
Nathan GhostStone
Alexandra BoomStaff
Hunter LifeBlade
Tristan SoulThief
Cody Goldenblade
Lucas DragonFlame
Neela Frost
Angela Goldenblood


Winners are have/being mailed. Thank you for your patience.  All Emails have been sent out.


  1. Congratulations to all Winners! They Look Great! :D

  2. Hi it's Angela ShadowGarden! Thank you so much for my prizes!!! I am so excited to have crowns! :) Thank you for this amazing contest! Congrats to EVERYONE who entered! The entries are amazing!

  3. Wow, thanks so much :) I won one of the Random Draws. I LOVED the winners' dorms!

  4. Congrats to the winners. Your dorms look awesome. Gonna have to bring my A+++ game next year.

  5. Paige how many people entered? and we don't get free crowns just for entering like last time? :(

  6. Lots of creative ideas, though the use of glitches for the 3rd place person I think was the most successfully done. I would have put them at first for sure.

  7. Wow. These are so great I don't think my score could have been higher than 50. Can you tell us what scores we got if we didn't place?

  8. Lovely entries, I was not mentioned as a winner anywhere but it looks like I scored over 90, I got a code for some amber reagents! Thank you Paige, had a great time with the contest!

  9. If you forgot to click crtl+g, is it an auto out? :(

  10. Wow, I am so excited right now!!! My love of housing paid off, haha.

    So glad I got second place! I'm aiming for that Grand Prize next year. :)

    Thank you once again, Paige.

    I'm eventually going to make a Blogger account, Anonymous isn't good enough anymore. :)


  11. Congratulations to all the winners! :( I really wish I had won.......I never win any contests, despite having entered at least 30. The dorms that did win look amazing though.

  12. I am disappointed I didn't win, but I want to say congratulations to all the winners! (Except the ones drawn, I want to say I wish I had your luck to them). The entries were all wonderful but my favorites had to be First place (no offense to Grand Prize) and third place.
    ~Victoria Iceshard.

  13. Hi it michael shadowleaf
    I would like to thank you for the contest but you spelled my name michal shadowtheft but thats ok

    1. Eeep . Ill look at your wizard name again. some were very hard to read in the images. Good thing I send prizes to the entry email.

  14. i'm kind of disappointed to see the top 2 winners being the same just a simple library along with the same pet winning both. but i'm not a judge so i know this must have been a lot of work judging the contest with all the entries. congrats to all the winners and to all of us who didn't win we have next year!

  15. When is your next contest for crowns gonna be?

  16. I not agree with the selection. U said natural habitat but library is not natural. It human made. So learn english term first I totally dissatisfied with the winners

    1. Where do you think a natural habitat of a book would be? A library.

  17. I wanna thank you Paige. Because of you my sister, Alexis, got her very first bundle :)

  18. So when is next contest (not annual one)? I'm determined to get crowns lol

  19. The entries were all so amazing! I thought my entry was good, but after seeing these, I feel so embarrassed. My entry probably got like 10 points. I think third place has amazing floating, I love how the top is the garden, but the bottom actually lets you go in the pond. How on earth do people float like that? o:

  20. I didn't win, but I'm glad that my score was over 90 :D
    Congrats Winners and enjoy your prizes!
    Thank You Paige for the Leopard pet :)

  21. Do the codes have an expiration date? I have yet to redeem mine, and I hope I can still use it.




Thank you.
Paige MoonShade