Meet Oliver (his friends call him Ollie). Ollie is a beautiful ferret and a quick study in the art of charm. He is known as King Oliver by his many subjects and rules his home with an iron paw. He also has an affinity for neck scritches. Ollie was the Grand Prize Winner in our 2009 Pet Lover's Star Search Contest and is now featured on one of our favorite pet lover's rubber stamps. Ollie's rubber stamp art is shown just to the right of his photo. With an eye for detail and a talent for creating works of art that seem to crackle with life, our award winning artist is one of the very best in the business! As you can see, she has certainly captured the vivacious charm of our friend Ollie in his adorable Halloween costume. Now, your pet can be a star too!

In the beginning, we modeled most of our animal rubber stamp images on the pets and animal friends we've known personally. But, for the past few years we have expanded our catalog to include some of the pets our customers have known and loved. And once again, we are looking for more beautiful pets of all species - to star in our 2010 line of pet lovers rubber stamps. Last year's pet lover's star search was a huge success and a lot of fun and we are so grateful to all who entered - the many adorable and photogenic pets and their doting human photographers and friends. We hope this year's pet lovers star search will be just as successful. So, please dig through your photos and find the sharpest, cutest, funniest, most lovable photos of your pet(s) to enter in this year's contest.

Entering your pet photo:

This is Twister, a first prize winner in the 2004 Pet Lover's Star Search!

Twister's photo was well suited to be a rubber stamp because it shone with his unique personality and inspiring zest for life. Look at him go! As you can see, the photographer caught him just beautifully as he lept from his rice box in pure joy - and now he is the star of his own rubber stamp! When photographing your pet, do try to capture a pose or expression that lets your pet's personality shine through! For more tips on photographing your pet, click here.

To enter, you must have the permission of the pet owner AND own the copyright to the photo you submit to our contest (generally, the photographer owns the copyright to any photo unless he or she has signed those rights away to someone else - please ask us if you are not sure about this). All photos entered become the property of RubberHedgehog.Com and may be used in future advertising campaigns, in our catalogs, and on our web site. Entries can be submitted electronically or by mail. Please do not send your only original print - we cannot return photos to you.

Entries must be post marked by August 31st, 2010 in order to be considered for this round. However, photo entries will be posted to the web site as soon as we start getting enough of them in the mail. Official judging will take place once all entries are in. Winners will be notified by email and will receive prize packages in the mail within 16-20 weeks of the end of the contest. Winners will also be posted to the web site within a few weeks of judging.

The most successful photo entries will be well composed (its best if we can see most or all of your pet's face and body), in focus, and large enough to show good detail of your pet's lovable features - including any distinctive body markings. As a general rule, the head of your pet should be at least 1" across in the photo (prints). Otherwise, please be creative in your poses and let us see your pet(s) in action. We encourage entries with multiple pets in one photo; but please make sure that all subjects are in very close proximity to each other as most background objects will not be included in the final artwork. You may also include simple props (toys) in your photo. Try to avoid props that might "steal" the spotlight from your pets. Avoid props that obscure your pet's face and or body.

This is Minka, a first prize winner in the 2007 Pet Lover's Star Search!

Minka's photo was well suited to be a rubber stamp because it was well lit, sharply focused, and "close-up" enough to show off Minka' bright eyes and tiny paws, and, of course, because Minka is just so darned cute! If your pet is small, like Minka, please make an extra effort to be sure we can see his/her tiny little face... For more tips on photographing your pet, click here.

 

A star is born:

Every pet is beautiful in it's own way - so it stands to reason that choosing among our entries is always a very tough job. For this reason, we would appreciate your help. Please be sure to stop back in the next few weeks and let us know who you would choose. We will be posting entries to the web site as they come in and we will be adding a poll toward the end of the contest so we can get your input. Of course, our staff will make the final choices. Do not worry if some entrants get a LOT of votes in the poll - lots of people post their pets in online forums to get more votes and this is a great way for us to get out the news about our contest. However, the poll is just for fun.
Our staff makes the final choice, ALWAYS.

Prizes:

We anticipate awarding prizes to one grand prize winner and to five first place winners. However, we reserve the right to award additional first place prize packages if the number and quality of entries warrant it. Our artist will create realistic ink drawings of the winning pets - like the ones you see above. These drawings will be used to create a new line of pet rubber stamps for our catalog.

One Grand prize winner:

Our grand prize winner will receive $50 in RubberHedgehog.Com store credit, a mounted rubber stamp featuring our artist's depiction of his or her winning pet, a personalized award certificate bearing a copy of the artwork for their stamp, and a "my pet's a star at RubberHedgehog.Com" rubber stamp.

Five First place winners:

Our first place winners will receive a mounted rubber stamp featuring our artist's depiction of his or her winning pet, a personalized award certificate bearing a copy of the artwork for their stamp, and a "my pet's a star at RubberHedgehog.Com" rubber stamp.

This is Chloe, one of the adorable first prize winners in the 2005 Pet Lover's Star Search.

Chloe's photo was well suited to be a rubber stamp because it was focused, well-lit, and nicely composed. Further, our judges found Chloe's combination of poise and beauty impossible to resist. Congratulations to both Chloe and her adoring human behind the camera! For more tips on photographing your pet, click here.

Disclaimers:

We anticipate this event proceeding as outlined above. However, we reserve the right to call off this event with no notice, should unforseen circumstances arise which we believe would hamper its successful completion. In this event, we will post an announcement on our web site as soon as we know the event will be canceled.

Photos sent to us become our property. We reserve the right to determine the entire content of the rubber stamps that are made of the winning animals and to produce as many or as few rubber stamps as we choose based off of any single chosen entry. All of the drawings created based on entered photographs are entirely the property of RubberHedgehog.Com and/or the artist who creates the artwork.

By sending your photo and entry information, you are agreeing to all the terms of this contest as outlined above.

We reserve the right to disqualify anyone sending photos that we believe depicts anything which might endanger the life, health, or well-being of any animal or human. Disqualified entries will not be posted to the web site. We also reserve the right to refuse or disqualify any entry if we have any reason to believe there is any doubt about who owns the copyright to the photo. We also reserve the right to refuse to accept any electronic entry because of compatibility issues or if we suspect accepting an entry could harm our system software or hardware or if the file size is larger than 1200K. Please do not email attachments to us that are larger than 1200K.

Employees of RubberHedgehog.Com and their families are ineligible for this event.

We are not responsible for miscommunication caused by typos or other errors that may be printed on this page. Any and all rules are subject to change.

To enter:

Send your photo and the following information to us at: RubberHedgehog@gmail.com or at:

Pet Lovers Star Search
RubberHedgehog.Com
16117 Colonial Drive
Williamsburg, Ohio 45176

Be sure to include the following:

1. Your pet photo (make sure it can't be bent or otherwise damaged in shipping); if sending photos by email, please send a .jpg no larger than 1200k.
2. Your name and full mailing address (I will not post this information to the web site or share it with ANYONE without your permission). This is where we send your prize package, if you win.
   
3. The name of the pet's owner and a signed statement from them saying, "I, _________have read the contest rules and agree to allow RubberHedgehog Rubber Stamps to use my pet, _______'s name and image in their advertising, in their catalog, and on their web site. I understand that any artwork made by RubberHedgehog.Com based on my pet's photograph will be the exclusive property of RubberHedgehog.Com and/or the artist." Entries without this statement will not be considered. If it has not been submitted already, winners will be required to provide a signed paper copy of this statement by mail before they will be eligible for a prize package.
4. The name of the photographer or photo copyright holder and a signed statement from them saying, "I, _________ have read the contest rules and agree to allow RubberHedgehog Rubber Stamps to use my photograph of _________ in their advertising, in their catalog, and on their web site. I understand that any artwork made by RubberHedgehog.Com based on my photograph will be the exclusive property of RubberHedgehog.Com and/or the artist." Entries without this statement will not be considered. If it has not been submitted already, winners will be required to provide a signed paper copy of this statement by mail before they will be eligible for a prize package.
5. The name(s) and age(s) and type (breed if known, species, etc.) of the pet(s) depicted in your photo. This information will be included on the web site. We will accept up to 16 entries per photographer; and up to two photos per pet. If you do not know the age of your pet for certain, please give your best guess.
6. A short 4-5 sentence essay that tells us something unique about your pet or about his/her history. This essay will be used as a "tie-breaker" and it may be posted to the web site in whole or in part, in the event that your entry is chosen. Please do not include information about where you live in your essay. We really do use this information when deciding on ties - and every year they end up making a difference, so don't skip it!
7. Remember: all mailed entries must be postmarked by August 31st, 2010. All emailed entries must be received by us by midnight August 31st, 2010 EST.

8. For tips on photographing your pet for the 2010 Pet Lovers Star Search, click here.

QUESTIONS? Email us at: RubberHedgehog@gmail.com

To see last year's entrants, click here.

See the 2009 Pet Lover's Star Search Rubber Stamps!

See the early entries in the 2010 Pet Lover's Star Search!

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