I never looked back. By knowing the code, I have been able to troubleshoot my sites to ensure they look the same on all browsers and versions. I only use if it makes sense and it has a true purpose. Filters are kewl, but to me they are just toy's more than anything. Check out your favorite, well-designed site and I bet you will not find many filter tricks other than a drop shadow.
Good design stands on it's own.
You choose a great color palette for your contest entry, one of my favorite colors, orange, with highlights of bright color as accents. I was inspired by the colours of the original site. From there I chose a different hue of those colours so that the were rich and deep. I believe that was talked about on the list was the colour chart from eye wire. That's an excellent starting place when you are looking for different colour combinations.