Winner of advice challenge

During CropChocolate's Design Team's first blog hop "Banners", I had a layout I felt it still needed something.  So I decided to have a little contest by coming to you, my followers, and asking for advice . . . and whosever advice I took, would get a little special something.  If there were 2 or more with the same advice, I would draw names.

Well, I LOVED all the advice and played around with all of it.  There ended up being more than one thing I did . . . in fact, I ended up doing 6 things.  So before I tell you who won, I thought I would show you what I did and why I did it.  

Here's what it looked like after I made changes:

First, you will see that I added a tiny banner to the upper left corrner.  A lot of you commented that it needed something and one of you said maybe a tiny banner with the year.  I also put a little star above the banner because it felt lopsided without it . . . if you look, the twine at the bottom went clear to the bottom right corner, so something needed to go to the right corner.

Second, I added some bling to the upper left edge of the circle under the picture to help balance the yellow with the right side . . . a few mentioned doing something to the right side of the circle and one person suggested bling.

Third, some mentioned that my photo blended into the background and I agreed . . . so I added a white photo mat.]

Fourth, I added bling under the banners . . . I agreed when someone said they needed a little more.  I tried just yellow bling, but it was too much yellow.  So I tried orange bling, but it grabbed all of your attention.  So I decided to alternate the bling . . .yellow and orange.

Fifth, I changed the yellow brad to a white w/ pattern brad.  It was mentioned that the yellow brad seemed to blend in and to use a pink brad . . . but again, a pink brad pulled all of your attention,  so I decided to use another white w/ pattern brad, though different from the other two (2), to help it flow better.

The Sixth and last thing I did was use Picket Fence to the edges of the layout,  It helps finish the layout by giving it a "finished" look and tying everything together.

So what do you think?  If you think it is too much, please let me know . . . or if I hit the right balance, please let me know that too.  I love getting some lovin', even when it is gentle criticism. :)

Okay, onto the winners . . . since I took more than one piece of advice, I decided to draw (2) names.  And they are . . .

{{drum roll, please}}

Ambra Bowles
and

NinaN

Please email me at clayton528@aol.com  or PM me on CropChocolate with your real name and mailing address.  Once I get both of your addys, I'll get your "surprise" in the mail.  Thanks!!!

Till the next time I'm up in the night.  Kat