Sing when you're winning!

One of the best things about comping is the unexpected money-can't-buy prizes that pop up every so often... last night I found myself presenting the Man of the Match Award to Marcus Tudgay after Nottingham Forest's brilliant 5-2 win over local rivals Derby County. I presented him with a bottle of champagne and in return received a signed Forest shirt. My delighted husband and mates managed to get a photo with him too - I've not had many nights out since Ryland was born and this was a fabulous freebie for the 4 of us... I'm a Birmingham fan and my husband supports Arsenal so we've compromised and are raising Ryland as a Nottingham Forest fan!

It's not the first time I've won a football prize - back in 1997 I was presented with a Birmingham City FC Season Ticket by Trevor Francis (the manager at the time), and in 2003 I won a VIP trip to the Champions League final - I let my football-mad parents have this prize and my Dad called me from Old Trafford to tell me it was "the best night out since the day I married your mother!"

With Birmingham and Arsenal both in the Carling Cup semi-finals I have my fingers crossed that at least one of them will make it to Wembley for the final, so I'll be keeping an eye out for comps to win tickets. If you fancy going to the Semis then head over to the Carling site - they're giving away 4 tickets to each of the 4 games - closing on 4th January.

At www.sportdreamticket.com locate your nearest 'Dream Ticket' pub and watch all 20 Premier League teams live on TV there before 15th January, get a stamp for each team and you can enter a draw to win a 'Dream Ticket' to 5 sporting events including the Champions League and Carling Cup Finals - SURELY this must be a low entry comp?

Barclays also have thousands of Premier League tickets and other prizes to be won at their website before 31st January - I've just entered and won a Nike football on my first go!

If you support a Football League team, join the npower Football League fan club to win tickets to a match. Finally, play the game at the E-on website after 9th January to win tickets for your family to the next round of the FA Cup.

So you don't like football? Well how about winning a trip to one of the six 'capitals of football' instead! Pop over to www.pizzalovestabasco.com before 15th January, answer a question about pizza and you could win a trip to Buenos Aires, Rio, London, Munich, Milan or Barcelona....nice!

I hope these comps have inspired the footy fans amongst you - and I hope to see you all in Brazil for the next World Cup!

Caught on Camera - my little comping companion

This time last year I was at home with a 2 day old baby in my arms, in a state of immense panic. For months I was up every 2 or 3 hours through the night with Ryland, and it was Twitter and Facebook on my iPhone that kept me sane during those exhausting night feeds! I had a few small wins from these late night comping sessions, but it was months before I found the time and motivation to get back into comping during the daytime - having a baby around certainly resulted in hobbies taking a back seat...

Before long though, my competitive streak returned and I thought I should investigate some baby photo competitions, as I'd taken a few nice photos of Ryland and thought it would be fun to try and win a few prizes. My first attempt was a success - the photo below won him the title of Nottingham Disney Store baby, and £100 to spend in the shop.

Ry also had the chance of winning the national Disney competition but the top prize was a modelling job, which I wasn't keen on him doing, so decided not to campaign for votes in the final. A couple of months later though, Baba Me (a favourite online store of mine) ran a competition to win £500 to spend on washable nappies. Again this was a voting competition but as the top ten babies all got a prize I thought I'd give it a go. Naively I didn't realise how competitive us mothers can get: after weeks of badgering people for votes, my photo of Ryland had gained over 340 'Likes' on Facebook, but this was only enough to secure him eighth place and a £25 voucher (that did buy him two lovely nappies though!)

After these experiences I decided that 'bonny baby' contests weren't really our thing, so I kept my distance from the Next baby competition and turned my attention to more fun stuff.

In July I won a camcorder in Flip Video's Facebook promotion and that completely changed my comping - I'm now able to make home movies that double up as competition entries! It's so incredibly easy to film and edit short videos and as I'm at home all day with Ryland, working on a project really livens up our day. My first film was for the Flip competition - 'Baby's first trip to the seaside' - and although I didn't win, it certainly inspired me to make more movies...

My next film, for the worldwide Why I can't live without Dermalogica contest, was judged to be the best and I was honoured to win $1500 skincare products of my choice - I'm sure Ryland's cameo in this probably helped...

I filmed Ry in his Cosatto highchair for their newsletter comp and won a gorgeous Swift Lite Stroller:

...and also roped him in to star in my Navigator Paper Team promotional video, which won me an iPhone!

There have also been loads of great photo competitions in 2010 - Ry posing with my favourite trainers won a new pair of Converse from Cloggs...

...a home made mummy costume won the Plum Baby Halloween competition (LOADS of yummy baby food)...

...and Nana's knitting skills won him a £100 voucher in the Global Cool 'I Love my Jumper' competition.

I spotted Graco Baby's Autumn photo competition just before we headed out for a weekend walk at Attenborough Nature Reserve, and this photo of Ry with berries won us another buggy:

Over the past few days I've been taking several Christmas snaps of the boy in the hope I can find some festive photo comps to enter them in - I suppose I should start paying him some form of appearance fee soon!

Looking back over these photos and videos it's great to see my boy growing up, and the prizes they won were a bonus. I know several of you were lucky enough to win Flip Cameras this year and a lot of them will probably still be unopened in their boxes - why not make it a resolution to take them out and about with you in 2011, you never know what you might capture on camera! And as for my son, he's probably already dreading what starring roles I might have lined up for him next year...

Read the Rules - a cautionary tale!

I like to think of myself as a fountain of comping knowledge, so you'd think that I would practise what I preach wouldn't you? Not so, unfortunately! My lack of attention to detail last week has scuppered my chances in two big £1000 video competitions - whoops! Since posting on my blog about the Triton Showers 'Good Clean Fun' competition back in August I have been planning my entry, and finally recorded it a couple of weeks back - Ryland messily enjoying spaghetti bolognaise. I also made plans to record a video for the Crown Carveries Mealtime Mishap competition featuring my friend's cheeky dog, but unfortunately our plans were scuppered by the heavy snow. After uploading my spag bol video to the Triton website I had a brainwave - I could upload the movie to the Crown Carveries competition too (it was worth a go, as there were only two entries at the time - both baby films!). It was only when both videos were approved and appeared on YouTube it dawned on me that I should have read the terms and conditions - in the Triton rules it clearly stated that:

You hereby grant us an exclusive licence to use, edit, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, make available and display your video... As this licence is exclusive, you are agreeing that only we may use your video so please don't upload it anywhere else.

Cripes! I hadn't checked the rules since posting the competition back in August. I quickly contacted Crown Carveries via YouTube and Facebook, and they removed my entry after a few hours (and only 16 views on YouTube). Whew - I thought I was safe!

But then over the weekend I received this YouTube message from Triton: 

Unfortunately we have had to remove your video from the competition as you also entered it into the Crown Carvery competition. We have had someone onto us saying that they shall take us to watch dog regarding your video and how you have violated the terms and conditions. I ignored them as your video had been removed from the Crown Carvery competition however they are still threatening us as you did violate the terms. 

I clearly wasn't quick enough to realise my mistake - and now my video is in neither competition (although I'm sure it will come in handy for future comps!). As for the tell-tale, I have my suspicions - he has an entry himself in both these competitions and from his track record of wins (he's a very accomplished and talented filmmaker, singer and music producer) I'm certain he'll win both the £1000 prizes!

So please learn from my mistakes and read the rules thoroughly before entering a competition! Many Facebook competitions now require you to post your entry on the Wall and email it to them - entrants in the recent Tesco Diets recipe competition were disqualified because they forgot to do this, what a nightmare when you've taken the time to make a video too.

A good current example is the weekly competition at the Isklar Facebook page - the most voted entry each week wins a makeover and there's a £50 voucher spot prize for the judge's favourite entry. To enter, you have to watch a video and upload a photo of yourself completing the fashion/modelling challenge revealed in the film. I discovered the competition at the end of last week when there was much banter on the Wall complaining that the most voted entry hadn't won - this was because she hadn't included an 'accessory' in the photo as stated in the rules! I entered myself in last week's competition, where the challenge was to do a Victoria Beckham style trout pout - a cursory glance through the entries revealed only a handful of proper pouts in there, and I won the weekly spot prize of £50 Reiss vouchers despite only having 15 votes (the top entrants had hundreds, but again they weren't pouting so were disqualified!) Considering all the silly embarrassing things I've done this year, because I look so serious in this photo it's probably my most cringeworthy.

For the current Isklar competition, you have to upload a photo doing something festive and there are 4 (judged) spot prizes to be won, so it's worth a go - this closes on 4th January.

And there ends today's lesson - PLEASE read those Terms and Conditions before ticking the box to say you did!

Blog Comp Round Up

Argh! It's Christmas next week and I'm having a small panic - so it's just a mini round up this week, and I'll be having a two week break from the Round Up till the New Year too.

As for this week's wins, I'm delighted to report a changing bag win from the Bambino Goodies daily advent draws and an iPhone for best team video in the Navigator Paper promotion - thanks to those of you who supported me by joining Team Lucky!

Closing today
• Win personalised Christmas stockings and sacks at Me and My Shadow
• At Adventures of an English Mum there are Hexbug Nanos (!) up for grabs

Closing 18 December
• Win EcoTools make up brushes at Me and My Shadow
• At Madhouse Family Reviews you can win a crate of Shloer
• There's a signed RG Alexander book to be won at About Happy Books

Closing 19 December
• All About the Boys has a Build-a-Bear up for grabs
• At Rhoda Reviews there are 8 prizes of Batiste Dry Shampoo
• Also at Rhoda Reviews you can win a box set of sporks! 
• Win a bottle of Sourz at ReallyRee 
• Win Handpicked Collection kids raincoats, wellies and torches at Fab Mums
• Sign up to receive the My Fashion Life newsletter to win a Kirsty Doyle Marlena skirt 
• At I am Typecast you can win a Kellogg's Christmas hamper 
 
Closing 22 December
• Win a voucher worth up to £250 to spend on trainers at the NikeID store at Equipio

Closing 27 December
• Win Arbonne baby products at Mummy's Busy World

Closing 30 December
• At The Mummy Grapevine you can win a child's cashmere sweater
• Win Roxy perfumes at Brink of Bedlam

Closing 31 December
• Win Snuggle Feet baby shoes at This Mummy Loves

Closing 8 January
• There's a Dreamgenii Twinkle Tog on offer at All Baby Advice

Closing 15 January
• Win Hipp Organic hampers, also at All Baby Advice

And could you do a favour for my friend Steven? If you vote for his fab blog No Movement for Goalposts in the Dorset Cereals Little Blog Awards, you could win a case of cereals... thankyou!

Have a fab weekend blog fans!

Blog Comp Round Up

I must apologise, as this week's round up is a little more compact than usual - I've had a super busy week beavering away in Photoshop trying to organise all my photo gifts and Christmas cards! Luckily a couple of months back I won a £100 voucher for Cewe Photoworld which covered the cost of most of these. As for wins this week, most of you know about my fabulous Tesco Diets £1000 vouchers win, I also won a £500 Zanussi appliance (at one of their roadshows) and a £500 Thomas Cook voucher in the Barratts Facebook photo competition. I also had a couple of Twitter wins - a year's subscription to @Vicemag and a selection of baby goodies from @MyKiddistore (this giveaway is ongoing so worth a RT!) and have won a mystery prize in the Bambino Goodies daily Facebook giveaway. As you can imagine I'm feeling rather chuffed with myself - as always, I keep trying to find those comps that are hard to enter and easy to win!


Ongoing giveaways
• There are lots of fab prizes on offer daily at the Selvedge blog
• Really Kid Friendly are giving away over £1000 of goodies in various prize draws

Closing today
• The Style Rawr is giving away two £25 Spoiled Brat vouchers

Closing 11 December
• Me and My Shadow has Chocadores goodies on offer
• Win £50 Homebase vouchers at A Place of my Own

Closing 13 December
• Win a Cocoboat Herdy Knit Kit at Red Ted Art

Closing 14 December
• Win funny books by Allan and Barbara Pease at Beckicklesie
• Also at Beckicklesie, win a kids Christmas counting book
• Rhoda Reviews has a copy of The Enchanted Cookie Tree to give away

Closing 15 December
• The Style Rawr are also giving away a bottle of Sourz Cranberry and Apple - yum!
• Book Reviews for Mums have a wooden Very Hungry Caterpillar book to give away
• You can win one of 6 Baby Names books at Book Reviews for Mums too

Closing 16 December
• At Transatlantic Blonde you can win a $10 gift certificate for the Alligator Lane Etsy store
• There are two crocheted octopus rattles up for grabs at All About the Boys
• Win £200 to spend at any of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants at This Little Lady Went to London
• Win a Crockpot Slow Cooker at Madhouse Family Reviews
• Thinly Spread has a fab Orchard Toys family board game to be won

Closing 17 December
• Win this Diana Lomography Camera at I Like Tweet

Closing 18 December
• Win Halos and Horns goodies at Baby Budgeting
• At Parent Wheels you can win a Morrck Baby Hoodie

Closing 19 December
• Win a Reisenthel washbag at Given to Distracting Others

Closing 20 December
• Manon Interiors are giving away fancy soap and recycled baubles - just tell them your favourite thing about Christmas!

Closing 21 December
• Win one of 3 1ina100 t-shirts at the Dezeen blog

Closing 23 December
• Leave a comment on the Funky Tripper blog and you could win one of 3 gorgeous owl brooches

Closing 31 December
• Win my most favourite prize of the week - a bogey clearing device! - at All Baby Advice

Closing 7 January
• People I See on the Street is giving away a pair of lovely handknitted socks to the person who uploads the best photo of a Christmas themed random person (I haven't explained this well, so you'll have to check out the fabulous blog!)

Good luck compers! 

Hard to enter, easy to win!

As I often tell newbies, the competitions that are the hardest to enter are usually the easiest to win! If they require any kind of purchase or effort, then it will reduce the entry numbers significantly. Earlier today I had a winning phone call from Tesco Diets to say I was this week's winner of their recipe competition - £1000 in Tesco vouchers (thankyou for all your votes!). Unbelievably, there were just 14 entries in this week's competition! Last week I also had a call from Zanussi informing me I'd won a kitchen appliance of my choice in their roadshow prize draw - they were giving away a prize for each venue, and when I went out of my way to visit the Nottingham event the lady told me that we were the only entrants! Part of the skill in comping is finding promotions like these - the odds of winning are so much better than simple online draws.

This selection of competitions below all require some effort - why not pick one or two and give them a go? Even if you don't win, it will certainly add a fun element to your comping!

Primula are giving away 25 £25 High Street vouchers - simply upload a photo of your favourite Primula snack to their Facebook wall. Closing 31 December

Adkins Snoring Aid want to see your funniest snoring video - their favourite will win an iPad! Closing 14 January

Crown Carveries want you to upload your mealtime mishap video to their website - you could win £1000 cash. Closing 13 December

No Fear are offering a goody bag of No Fear gear if you upload a video of you doing something extreme in Santa gear! Closing 14 December

Indesit want to see photos and videos of your best Christmas party outfit and will give a Prime washer dryer to the winner - terms and conditions say the winner will be drawn, but I would still make an effort with your entry! Closing 17 December

Hewlett Packard are giving away lots of goodies (full details haven't been revealed yet!) to the most creative video showing why HP should grant your Christmas wish - read the rules here. Closing 21 December

Lambrini are offering a trip to Las Vegas for their favourite 'everyday diva moment'. Originally this competition was to be on votes, but after complaints from myself and other Facebook fans, they have agreed to judge instead - hurrah! I'm not entering, but if I was then I would probably get a friend to film me singing in Tesco as I pop Lambrini into my trolley! Closing 22 December (you need to be over 25 to enter too!)

Kuoni want to see your best travel photo, and you could win a £3000 gift card - again, this was to be a voting competition but public outcry has resulted in them agreeing to judge the winner! Closing 16 January

My Fashion Life want you to create an outfit from items at eBay Fashion Outlet - you could win a cheque to the value of your outfit (either £300 or £500). Their favourite five outfits in each of the 3 categories will go to a public vote to win the prizes. Closing 12 December.

Ford Ka have extended the deadline for entries to their fabulous 'Ka Style' competition where you could win a day with a fashion blogger, with money to spend and also loan of a Ka for 2 months. Upload a photo or video describing your style - the 20 most popular entries will get judged for the 4 prizes. Closing 31 December

Childcare is Fun have a Maclaren Yellow Submarine Buggy up for grabs - share your snow fun photos and let them know why you want to win! Closing 23 December

Good luck - and don't forget to come back and post here on the blog if you need any votes! 

Goodie Bag Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered my Compers Goodie Bag giveaway - all 90 of you! It was great to read about all the prizes you want to win in 2011, and I really hope you all get what you wish for! The lovely www.random.org picked my lucky winner, who is...
Iridessa
Congratulations Lynsey, could you DM your address details to @superluckydi on Twitter and I'll get the goodies in the post to you this week - and I hope you get to win your laptop in 2011!

Blog comp round up

Hey everybody! I hope you've been entering loads of comps while you've been snowed in - don't forget to bookmark my list of daily advent comps! This week I won an EcoTools make-up brush set from Mumsrock, a set of Clynol Haircare products from Mirror Mirror on the Wall, a £25 HomeSense voucher on Facebook, and a Body Shop eye palette on Twitter. And yesterday I received a phone call from Zanussi to say I've won any appliance to the value of £500. This was from their roadshow competition last month, there was a prize for every venue and I'm sure I was the only entrant in Nottingham! Here are this week's comps:


Closing today
• Win Dylon fabric dyes at Rhoda Reviews
• Check out the Friday pendant giveaway at Pretty Whimsical

Closing 5 December
• Win a £100 Victorinox voucher at New Mummy's Tips
• Mummy Musings has 5 toddler Miffy dressing gowns on offer
• Win a Thinktangles game at Fab Mums

Closing 6 December
• Rhoda Reviews has a lovely plush penguin up for grabs
• At Headhuntress in Hampshire you could win a gorgeous bracelet and a crocheted baby rattle

• Win a £30 Goody Box of Benjoy Munchcups at New Mummy's Tips
• Win an Orchard Toys jigsaw at Mummy's Shoes
• 'Cross the Pond is giving away a Kiddicraft Bakeware set
• Win a Neutrogena concealer at The Beauty Glo
• You can win a comping goodie bag right here at Superlucky!

Closing 7 December
• Win a set of car cleaning E-Cloths at Done and Dusted

Closing 8 December
• Win one of 3 Miffy plush toys at Sav-ettes
• At New Mummy's Tips you can win £20 to spend at Gifts of Nature

Closing 9 December
• Win 3 Snapfish photo books at A Mother's Ramblings

Closing 10 December
• At I Feel Like I Dreamt it Lara is giving away a gorgeous Karen Millen dress

Closing 12 December
• Win a Simple Winter Survival Kit at The Further Adventures of a Thrifty Mrs
• My Funny Bunny are giving away a Baby's First Calendar
• Put together your ideal party outfit from eBay Fashion Outlet and win it at My Fashion Life

Closing 14 December
• Mummy's Busy World are giving away Ferrero chocolates!

Closing 15 December
• Second Time Mummy has 10 Persil Small and Mighty bottles to give away

Closing 16 December
• Win a GTech Power Sweeper at Given to Distracting Others
• Win Miffy lunchboxes at Alexander Residence
• Love Lust and Fairy Dust are giving away mystery beauty products!
• Win a Crockpot at Madhouse Family Reviews
• Madhouse Family Reviews also has 4 Miffy plush toys and moneybox sets up for grabs

Closing 17 December
• Win Shloer at Given to Distracting Others

Closing 24 December
• Win an £80 Beauty goodie bag to celebrate Mellow Mummy's Blogaversary

Closing 31 December
• Win a HTC Wildfire at Phones Limited
• There are 2 Happy Hopperz on offer at All Baby Advice
• Beckicklesie has a copy of How to Afford Time off with your Baby up for grabs
• Win a bundle of Junior Macare baby goodies at How to Laugh in the face of it all

Closing 2 January
• Chrissy Dee Ten Eleven has Mac make-up on offer in her 100 followers giveaway
• Win Fifi and the Flowertots and Roary the Racing Car goodies at Parentdish

Good luck!

Comping Goodie Bag giveaway! *Competition closed*

Wow! To celebrate my blog reaching a hundred followers this week, I'm having a giveaway - a little Christmas goodie bag of comping essentials...

When I'm on a comping mission, I can't leave the house without a Moleskine notebook full of my notes, lists, entry form requirements and deadlines. To write in it, I have to use a pencil - with a rubber on the end, so I can make amends to my slogans without getting in a mess! Popping out to Tesco, I'll browse their magazine rack to find some good ones with entry forms, then at home I'll bookmark the pages with some smart sticky notes. Filling out the forms carefully with my festive pen, I pop them into brightly coloured envelopes and pop on a fancy stamp - usually first class these days, as I always leave it too late to enter! Whilst rushing out to catch the post, I like to enjoy a lucky mint whilst daydreaming of what I might win... 

These are all the goodies that one of my lucky readers will win!

• Pair of Moleskine notebooks
• £10 Tesco gift card
• Pencil & Pen
• A pack of rainbow coloured envelopes
• Set of sticky notes (all the way from Tokyo!)
• 25 First class Winnie the Pooh stamps
• A tin of Lucky Mints (all the way from Las Vegas!)
• And a cute Santa bag!

How to enter
Firstly, and most importantly, I need you to leave a comment below telling me what prize you would most like to win in 2011. If you're on Twitter, please leave your username so I can message you if you're the lucky winner. If you don't have a Twitter account then include an email address in your comment so I can contact you - if you like, replace the @ with ALAN to avoid the spambots picking you up!

For up to 5 extra entries in the draw, you can do one or all of the following:

• Follow my blog with Google Friend Connect
• Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SuperluckyDi
• Tweet: I've just entered the #competition at @SuperluckyDi's blog to win a Comper's Xmas Goodie Bag http://bit.ly/LuckyXmas   
• Share this post on Facebook using the button below
• Help me out in this week's Tesco Diets competition by clicking 'Like' at http://www.facebook.com/TescoDiets and then 'Like' my recipe at http://bit.ly/TescoTagine

Please leave just ONE comment telling me which of these you have done - I'll use a spreadsheet to collate the entries and random.org to pick the winner!

The closing date for this competition is Monday 6 December at 10am, and it is only open to UK entries. Good luck!

Daily Advent Competitions

Guess what? It's DECEMBER already! And that means it's time for daily Advent competitions... well, that's if you can find time to enter them. This year I've listed my favourites here, with the plan being that I'll log onto my iMac every morning, click on this blog post and enter all the comps in one sitting. Hmmmm... we'll see how long that plan lasts! 

This post is a 'work in progress', so some links might not have a live competition yet - as I discover more advent comps throughout the month I'll be adding them into this list, so don't forget to bookmark it!


Gadgets: 
ElectricPig
Heart Internet
Zavvi
Monster
Hair, Beauty and Clothes:
Love your Hair
Glamour
Remington
La Senza
Handbag
One True Saxon
Barratts Shoes
Kids:
Bambino Goodies
Tate
Miffy (twitter)
Totz2Teens
Haribo
What to do with the Kids
Sporty:
Specialized
The Running Bug
Millets
Food and drink: 
Tesco Real Food
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Caterer Search
Hurlimann
Thorntons
The Green Welly Stop 
Hotels:
Bespoke Hotels
Eton Collection
Hotel.info
Marriott
Random goodies:
Visit London
Random House
Channel Online
Save Water Save Money
Yahoo
Quidco
Morrisons
OK! Magazine
Classic FM
Homesense
Southern Comfort
Flip Video
Ethical Superstore
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