After a lot of experimenting with galleries and some other user generated content, I’ve decided that it’s too much for me to manage at the moment. I can’t get the user galleries to be as refined as I’d like them and I think it would make the website feel a lot cleaner and smoother if I removed those parts of the site.

I’m going to be working on a new, more blog-like layout for costumemakermagazine.com. :] Hopefully all of the users registered will remain when I make the change. Some user information (such as age, location, etc.) will probably disappear. The galleries and all uploaded costumes will be gone for sure. I just wanted to warn anyone who may want to save their information before I change the website.

I’ve been really busy with college lately (this is my first year) and you may have noticed a decrease in organization of content for the third issue of the magazine. For everyone who is wondering, I am still continuing the magazine! I’m just trying to get everything organized in my own life first before I get everyone involved in the magazine. :] I do still answer emails almost every day and continue to sell the past two issues.

Thank you for your patience!

Challenge

Submit any type of costume (cosplay, historical, original) that goes along with the theme “The Sky’s the Limit”. There are many ways to do this, from displaying the theme in the colors you choose to depicting it in the subject matter of the costume. If you feel a need to explain how your costume fits the theme, please feel free to do so. :]

How to Enter

1. Send an email to submit@costumemakermagazine.com with:
-Your name (as much of it as you don’t mind being printed)
-Your Country and State (if it applies)
-Name of the Costume
-A short description about the costume(optional)
-(If it’s cosplay) The name of the character and series
-Name of person in picture
-The name of the photgrapher (if you feel it’s needed)
-Whether or not you agree to the Terms and Agreements and contest rules.
-The image attached (please no smaller than 300×400 pixels!)

Rules

1. The costume was made by you (meaning you made the majority of it).
2. The model in the picture must be informed of and okay with his/her picture appearing in the magazine.
3. You accept that your entry may be used both in the magazine and for promotional purposes as well.
4. If you are under 18, you must have parental permission to enter.
By entering, it means that you have read and agreed to the rules. These rules are subject to change, so make sure to check for updates. ^^

Deadline

December 31, 2009
Sorry, late entries will not be accepted (though the deadline may be extended if need be).

Prizes

If no prizes are donated, they will be as follows:
1st Place: Costume featured on the cover, $20 gift card to Jo-Ann Fabrics, & a copy of CMM Issue 3
2nd Place: $10 gift to Jo-Ann Fabrics & a copy of CMM Issue 3
3rd Place: A copy of CMM Issue 3

Spread the Word

We’d love it if you helped us to spread the word about the contest! By copying and pasting the code below, you’ll get a banner the looks like this and links back to this page:

<a href=”http://www.costumemakermagazine.com/?q=node/35″ mce_href=”http://www.szmoon.net/contribute/contest-entry”><img src=”http://www.costumemakermagazine.com/images/misc/contestbanner.gif” mce_src=”http://www.szmoon.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/contestbanner.gif”></a>

Thank you!

But here’s a secret I’ll share with you guys; I’m working on a completely new website this summer. I’ll be using Ruby on Rails (which I’m going to learn with the help of my (brother) instead of Drupal so that I can customize it to fit this site’s needs. It’s going to take me a while, but I hope that it will be muchmore organized and user friendly.

Hope everyone’s having a great summer!
~Selina

I made a page just for that, with a nifty table telling if a shop does props/commissions/etc and what type of shop it is. It can be found under the “Resource” tab on our site or through this link. Shops that sell costume/sewing supplies can be listed as well (such as corset boning, patterns, etc).

Issue 2 is going to be sent to the printer around the first or second week of September this year, so it’s not that far off!

Once you enter your name and email, you’ll need to confirm your subscription to the list by checking your email and clicking on the link provided.

User Profiles now contain:

-User picture, Information and About section in the top section
-Most recent blog entry
-Friends
-Most recently submitted costumes
-The ability for other users to comment on any other user’s profile

You can see an example of all of these in action here…

I’m still trying to change it so that a user’s profile url will be somthing like “costumemakermagazine.com/username” instead of “costumemakermagazine.com/user/#”, but that may take a whil yet. :3

To edit your profile information, just go to your account (the quickest way is to click “My account” in the right hand navigation bar) and click the tab in the top-left that says “User Profile.” I hope everyone enjoys the new features!

In other News

The deadline for the Contest (August 1st) is soon approaching, and most likely will not be extended. Makes sure to get your entries in before it’s too late!

Content for the magazine and advertisers are very appreciated and are still being accepted as of now. More information can be found at the respective links!

That’s it for now. Thanks for being so patient with the website!

Here are a few of the new features..

-Completely new Gallery (this one took awhile x3)

One new feature of the gallery is that you can add mutiple images to one costume (one main image and as many “other view” images you need). Many art sites don’t have this feature,probably because 2-d art doesn’t need more than one view..

The new gallery also has a new layout of organization that I think is much cleaner (I’m hoping to add borders and such to it soon as well).

I did manage to lose some of the original costumes submitted to the old gallery. I tried to fix as many as I could, but there were a few left where I couldn’t match pictures to users. Sorry!

Oh, and if you get an error when you try to upload an image, it will still upload anyway. I have to find a way to remove that error..

-The ability for column/article/tutorial writers to submit their own pages and update whenever they want

I’m really happy with this one!

-Easier navagation with the drop-down menus on the top of the page

Of course, I’ll still be constantly fixing little things here and there, but the core of the site is finally almost what I want. xD I’m still working on new user profile layouts with a user’s submitted costumes and some other stuff on the page.

Here’s a preview of what I’m hoping the user profile will look like eventually..

I hope everybody enjoys the new site, and please let me know what you think! ^^

-Lina