Swimsuit Cover-Up

I made this to enter into the Singer's Swimsuit Cover-Up contest, but I'm absolutely snowed over by all those other fabulous entries. Somehow, mine just does not measure up. I have about a week to work up the nerve to submit my entry.
However, I must say that I absolutely love the entries that I have been seeing. They are so creative and beautiful.

Anyway, here you go. I used my own girl's top tutorial to create the top to this dress. I made some allowances for my larger frame, of course. Then I attached the top to a gathered skirt with a thick band. Pretty straight-forward and nothing fancy. Do you like the texture of my background? It is from bittbox; lovely, isn't it?
And just so you know, I do not use Adobe Photoshop. Instead I use GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition.... etc. It works mostly (well, it is free) bug-free on my Windows Vista.