<h2>The Secret Project</h2>

So, not everyone knows what this mysterious secret project that I've been blabbering on about is. I can finally tell everyone what it is and show you all the finished product!

<b>Beginning</b>
In May of this year, when the deviantART Staff Appreciation Week (#StaffAppreciation) was still in its baby phase, we were deliberating on how to get the staff to feel truly appreciated and how to give them something that would last. A lot of this discussion took place in the back room of #StaffAppreciation. I believe that some people passed around the idea of printing out a card and mailing it to everyone to get it signed around the world. If I'm correct, that idea came from ~ebonypen.

We eventually decided on this.

<b>Middle</b>
I contacted several graphic designers whose artwork I love to see if they'd be willing to volunteer some of their time to us to create a background that we could use for our project. Eventually, ~shoelesspeacock (whose work is freakin' awesome) pointed me to ^pica-ae. She graciously volunteered to do this for us, and the background you see is from her!

I then split this up into even vertical and horizontal rows, and labeled each spot according to what slice number it was in Photoshop. After slicing it up and uploading it to my Dropbox, I started a Google Spreadsheet that would allow people to sign their name next to the number they wanted. This process continued until about two weeks ago.

<b>End</b>
After getting everyone to turn in their portion of the product and aligned them with the original, I saved this and sent it to Staples to be professionally printed and laminated, and then I bought a frame and wrapped it up with some newspaper (classy :dummy:) and taunted $Ayame-Kenoshi with what's inside.

Today, at the Dr. Pepper Mural devMEET that we all attended, I gave the final product over to $Ayame-Kenoshi, $Heidi, and $danlev. They opened it, and I was so excited by their reaction! I hope that ALL of the staff feel appreciated and I hope they ALL enjoy this. :D

<hr/>

What this project has proved is our dedicated and skillful collaboration as a community. Regardless of whether or not you live in America, Portugal, Russia, or Brazil, we all came together to get this finished.

It's also a testament to deviantART!

Here is everyone who has participated. The names correspond with the actual project.

It goes from left to right as the names go from top to bottom:
_{tanathe
ALzRitH
whitetrashXlove
avatar-01
NorthboundFox
Yoshi66666666
Sailor-Pikmin
Crysaleyes
Inedrox
Songficcer
OnionBlitz
koolishmew
Eziotehwomanizer
Spacegryphon
BreyerHorses4427
akreon
KovoWolf
angelicdark
AngelEyesOblivion
Zo0n
Lushbob
EastSideSunsets
rydi1689
AcmSpud
Kyut530
anmari
victoriadarke
derzorvadur
Timthestrangemonster
dragondoodle
Arichy
Jasmo
otohime0394
Kyramy
BreeTwee
FallenUmbra
cality
Eye-Of-The-Rooster
AEnigmaDragon
PurpelBlur
gotea
IcEcReAm-LeViAtHaN
Witchiamwill
FireGemini
uae4u
m3talDOG
IceXDragon
conniekidd
ebonypen
EAT-MY-PAINTINGS
ToOoT
GILLIGFAN
The--Last--Hope
Mirz123
SugarKoala
ZeTrystan
psychocookee
[Skip 5 pieces.]
angelStained
nikkidoodlesx3
JessiJellibean
Litecrush
SanguineEpitaph
Jaichizuru
Perrytheplatypus12
BarnCatt
pica-ae
TheMasterNeko
lotsofmoxy
GabiShea
lordalpha1
Kaoru-hitachiin-s
Gamer4life88266
TheLonelyMoon
jcroxas
ireal70
Elveanna
namenotrequired & Gwendolyn12
Purebreedalien
dkstudios05
MotokoXRedux
DryBones44
D4rkLynx
Xkawaii-kitty-chanX
Dark-Summers
waterfish5678901
Queen-of-disturbia
TheDarkZelda
EugenijeKornelije
Emerald-Depths
Fallenherosrevive
Chika-no-Eluite-38
Beam-The-Chao
DarkShinsooOfCygnus
hyuugalanna
I-is-smart
Kannon
keyanadrake
PixlPhantasy
BBKatsu1
CyanOnigiri
Demonicdrama
carpenoctem410
pixiepot
Sayuri-Hachimi
ItalianDragon
SparklyDest
mantha1624
nani-fo-sho
steph1254
synconi
3wyl
Rolytic
Timberclipse
just-a-user}


And there we have it! The final product with an explanation. I hope you all are as proud as I am, this was truly a gift from the community.

It's bittersweet, though. Planning this and working up to this point has been a part of my dA life (and real life, too xD) for such a long time.

Enjoy. <3
And for the all the staff, I hope you love it. :D