The Moving Truck Contest

There are life changing experiences that one can't just keep for himself and need to share, both for personal and practical reasons.
My beloved Aneta joined me in Brussels after we decided to spend less time flying planes and more time ... well, being together. Amongst all the practical changes that took place since this decision has been taken, an obvious one was the change of address. In order to inform her family and friends, we imagined creating a small contest based upon a paper made moving truck ...
The Project History
The first stone was set by a blog entry that I discovered early June on lushlee.com. It showed a project done by a designer for a company that wanted something creative to notify their contacts about their move: a postcard with the template of a paper truck to cut and assemble.
My first idea has been to send it to my friends Ludo & Michelle as they were about to move to their new home. While doing this, I also had the idea of using it one way or the other the day Aneta and I would live together.
Rather than using it to notify their move, Ludo & Michelle used it for the invitations to the 5th birthday of their daughter Marie. This triggered the crazy and creative mind of her godmother who came to the birthday with the first assembled and decorated truck out of her own initiative. The idea of the contest was born that day.
Making it happen
Several steps and tools were needed and it would be a bit long to describe the whole process here, so I'm going to focus on the major steps and tools used:

The moving truck template had to be recreated to be able to customize it (adding text, changing colors) so I used Microsoft Visio to create a new one and apply the color Aneta had chosen (the tasty raspeberry pink and chocolate brown)
The truck template being the front, we wanted the back of the card to look like a real postcard. We had this perfect baby picture of Aneta driving a tricycle. We used FotoSketcher to make it look like a painting, Google Image Search to find a stamp-like border and Paint. Net to edit its color and match it with the chocolate brown used on the card
After adding the stamp, the back was edited with Visio again to add a big star-like sign, some text about the contest prize and we went to my favorite chocolate brand website Neuhaus to find the picture of a nice box of chocolates, the first prize in our contest
In order to match the box with our colors, we used Recolored, a powerful and yet simple tool to color black and white pictures. This allowed us to change the chocolate ribbon color to the same raspberry pink we used earlier.
After more Visio editing to put together all elements, including creating a fake stamp obliteration mark, some printouts confirmed the design was ready. In order to be able to use it outside Visio, we saved our designs as PNG image files
Now, in order to get it printed properly with the right size and in a cutting friendly way, the use of a desktop publishing software is a must. While Microsoft Publisher might be available with your installation of Microsoft Office, if it is not and if you don't want to spend the money, I recommend using the free open source Scribus software. Thanks to it, in a few simple steps, we put our front and back design on an A4 page, ready to be printed and cut
The cutting part then took place, a whole 30 copies of it, not to mention the extra little card that we added later to let people know about this blog article and about the pictures gallery where we will post the creations we'll receive

If you've done things right, you should obtain the following, in both flat and not so flat versions:

It always seems a lot when listed like this and, yes, it took a bit of time to make, but with the right level of enthusiasm, nothing is truly complicated.
The Files
Using the following links you can download the image files of the front with the moving truck template and the back part composed of the contest prize announcement and the stamp. Feel free to print them and also participate to the contest, everybody's welcomed.
In case you'd like to get the original Visio or Scribus files, don't hesitate to contact me.
Contest Instructions
So you are participating in the contest, right ? Well, here are some instructions for you:

You'll need a cutter, a cutting board, a ruler and a tube of glue
Cut the solid lines, just please avoid cutting the ones around the addresses :)
Don't forget to cut the wheels
To ease the folding process, use your cutter and very gently mark each of the dotted lines.
Don't glue and assemble just yet, decorate the truck when still flat, it will be far easier
When done, glue all the assembly areas
Put the truck together starting with the back and ending with putting the front part in place. Use a pen inside the truck and your finger outside the truck to push and glue the front properly
Take pictures (see the shooting section below) and send your digital pictures to a.gorkier@gmail.com

Is there any rule on how to decorate your truck ? No, not at all, it is totally up to you as long as you use the template provided. Color, paint, accessorize, extend, ... Your imagination is the key.
Shooting Tips
As you have or will soon realize, you need at least two pictures to show your chef d'oeuvre in its entirety: a 3/4 front shot and a 3/4 rear shot. Look at these examples:

Best light is natural light and if you do want to do things in a very professional way, have a look at the article we found on how to setup a simple home studio an take great shots of small objects (especially useful for those of you who sell stuff on the Internet, for example)
Don't worry, sending less, more or even bad pictures won't be a disqualifying factor, just make sure your truck is somehow visible :)
Gifts
Several gifts and surprises have been prepared for each participant, understand each person submitting their truck:

Everyone submitting their decorated truck will be sent a small surprise and an invitation to travel
The first three submitted trucks get an extra gift
The best decorated truck will be selected in November and awarded with the box of delicious Belgian chocolates

Feel free to check the submissions at http://tinyurl.com/ye2rxc8 and don't hesitate to also submit your votes by posting comments to this article.