Overview

When you’ve got a big house to decorate for the holidays, advanced planning is wise. So naturally, the White House is already thinking about this year’s holiday decor, and we're going to help them deck their halls. Instructables is excited to partner with the Smithsonian and the White House in this 3D Printed Ornament Challenge. Some of the winners of this challenge will have their work printed and hung in the East Wing of the White House during the holiday season. Additionally, those selected to be displayed at the White House will be featured on the Smithsonian’s state of the art 3D data platform, 3d.si.edu and will join a small collection of White House ornaments in the political history division of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

You don’t need to have a 3D printer to participate — design an ornament with any 3D modeling software and up to 8 winning designs will be 3D printed and shipped to the White House for you. New to 3D modeling? No sweat! Head over to Tinkercad and play around with making 3-dimensional shapes. It’s really fun, and you’ll learn an awesome new skill, to boot. This is your chance to make White House history and have your art featured in their first-ever maker challenge.

The model should be no larger than 3”x 3” and reflect the magic and wonder of the holidays, so think ornaments that represent winter sports, toys, activities, symbols, and anything that inspires you during the festive winter season. Want to incorporate a little twinkle to your designs as well? Design a piece that fits or clips onto a string of lights!

To qualify, you must be a U.S. resident and create an Instructable for your ornament — and be sure to include the .stl file.

The 3D Printed Ornament Design Challenge is closed.

Grand Prize

20 Prizes

Grand Prize (5)

Five Grand Prize winners will receive an Instructables prize pack including a robot t-shirt and have their ornament 3D printed and displayed in the White House, and join a small collection of White House ornaments in the political history division of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Runner Up (15)

Fifteen runner up winners will receive an Instructables prize pack including a robot t-shirt.
How It Works

Write an Instructable

Create a new Instructable that fits the guidelines outlined in the contest description above. To be eligible, Instructables must be published between Oct 30, 2014 and Nov 10, 2014 (11:59pm PT).

Enter

Upon publishing your Instructable you'll see checkboxes for open contests. Select 3D Printed Ornament Design Challenge. If you have entries currently eligible for entry, it will also show up by clicking "Enter this Contest" on the right side of this page.

Accepting

Entries are accepted by Instructables staff within one business day Monday - Friday. What matters is the submission time, not acceptance time.

Judging

A panel of judges made up of Instructables staff and respected members of the community rate the finalists. The averages of the ratings determine the winners.

Winners

When the winners are decided they will be notified and announced here on the contest page.