I gave @papa-pepper a sneak preview of the winning design and he'd like to have a few hundred of them printed for himself to give away! What an endorsement from Steemit's Home Grown Superstar!

This contest was a lot of fun and I'd like to thank all of you for your great participation. Since the post was so well received and you've done such a great job I've upped the prize money and given away some extra prizes as well!

Here Are The Top Three Entries

Third Place:

10 Steem (instead of 5) is going out to @cryplectibles You can examine his original post here and by doing so you can see that his card actually incorporates a moving gif! Well done @cryplectibles ! 

What a fun and funky entry by @cryplectibles ! 

Second Place:

20 Steem (instead of the announced 10) goes to @edxserverus who could easily have been chosen for the winning entry! He submitted 3 variations that just kept on getting better and better. Here is his post showing all three!

This is just one of the three versions that the talented and prolific @edxserverus produced!

Drum Roll Please!..........................Here is The Winning Entry!

This entry by @airmatti wowed me with it's sleek lines and "Upper Deck" trading card feel! @airmatti, who is a graduate in graphic arts, also entered quite late which allowed him to pick up on some of the suggestions that were put forward in the comments of the post. 

These included:

• @aldentan had suggested adding a random fact which now appears on the card! Thanks for the suggestion @aldentan I'm sending you 5 Steem for the great idea!
• In the comments @airmatti realized that I'm quite taken with "Upper Deck" and so he tailored his design according to that!
• Someone also asked if they could use another picture besides the one that I provided and so @airmatti incorporated 2 photos in his design! So cool!

You can see @airmatti's original post here which also shows the process. There's still time to upvote it as well!  I'm awarding @airmatti 25 Steem (instead of the 20 announced)!

I love the circuit board background with the faint Steemit logo! This card looks clean, crisp and classy!

Other Extra Prizes

• 5 Steem goes to @rubenalexander for his entry and his detailed comment! Thanks a lot for joining in!
• 5 Steem each and a special shout out go to @steemitadventure and @fishmon who unbeknownst to me are also producing trading cards in a completely different style! Please check them out and support them too!
• 5 Steem also goes to @aldentan for making the suggestion of adding the random fact! What a great idea, thanks!

So What's Next?

• Since he was chosen as having the wining template @airmatti is also the winner of the steemgig and will now be paid 20 Steem to produce each successive card!
• @papa-pepper has suggested who should get the next card and so in the next few days that will be announced!
• In the meantime who else would you like to see featured as a 2017 Steemit All Star?

I hope that you enjoyed reading this announcement that "We Have Our New Trading Card Design!"

Until next time,

@kus-knee (The Old Dog)