Wanted New Cards: 100 Days of School
Wanted Cards – 100 Days of School
We’re a long way away from back to school, but it will be here before we know it! A tradition, especially for younger elementary school ages, is to celebrate the 100th day of school.
Please consider creating new cards for this category:
Occasions >> School Days >> 100 Days of School
It’s a way to celebrate notable progress at the start of a new year and a great opportunity to incorporate counting and math concepts.
Please note if you use original numbers in your design to follow the superscript standard.
We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function (Bigstock) or your own graphic designs.
Remember, when you’re submitting your new card, add a little note about the intended category in your Notes to Reviewers.
Be inventive, be clever, be creative. Go for it!
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Freebie Wednesday: Free Father’s Day Pattern Set
A fun Father’s Day pack which includes 12 coordinating papers and 15 cliparts, created in a blue/green themed colour palette all in JPEG & PNG formats! These are perfect for celebrating Father’s Day!
This great freebie is brought to you by Poppymoon Design! Only available on the Hungry Jpeg site for a week!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts & Bolts – Dedicate Yourself to the Details – Flow & Connection
It is often the little details that escape the artist’s eye. It is always a good idea to step away from a design that you have been meticulously working on or ask a brutally honest companion to give it a once over. The review team is certainly a fresh set of eyes and often catches tiny fixes or areas of improvement. GCU is grateful for artists who are open to collaborating with the reviewers on minor adjustments that make a big difference.
See this example by GCU artist, Ness Nordberg, with an improvement in design that impacts the cover text as well as a connection to the design in the inside verse both leading to a professionally composed design that flows naturally.
Reviewers request for edits:Hi, super cute! A few notes before we give the green light for this as a like image series:
1. please add to your meta-data the variation of spelling “mus·tache”
2. not required but please consider adding a comma after Birthday OR move the order of the mustache graphic after birthday and before Husband
3. We love the verse – this works! However we’re left thinking why the typewriter? If you can work that into your verse too it would really pull this together. Something about type, key, old fashioned.
Thanks! We look forward to your resubmission.
Before:
After:
and added to the inside verse:You’re one of a ‘type’!
Well done, Ness, and thank you for working so well with the review team. Excellent teamwork!
It may take a little more time upfront to perfect a new design but this will save you time in the long run when creating a like image collection and derivative designs so the follow on designs all shine, pass review, and are highly marketable. See important Pre-approval for Card Series process and tips.
Look at all these stache variations!
The difference is made in the detail.
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: 4th of July in Your New Home
Wanted Cards – 4th of July in Your New Home
In a new home, the first passing of holidays and special occasions feel like special, memorable firsts.
Please consider crating cards for:Holidays >> Fourth of July >> 1st / First Fourth of July >> In You New Home
We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function (Bigstock) or your own graphic designs.
Remember, when you’re submitting your new card, add a little note about the intended category in your Notes to Reviewers.
Be inventive, be clever, be creative. Go for it!
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Freebie Wednesday: Hikatta Font.
Hikatta is a beautiful and fashionable handwritten font with a unique feel and a stunning impact. It will add a luxury spark to any design project that you wish to create! This font is PUA encoded which means you can access all of the glyphs and swashes with ease! Available for free for the next 5 days on the Creative Fabrica site, so don’t miss out!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts and Bolts: Artist Interview Sharon Dominick
Nuts & Bolts – Artist Interview Sharon Dominick
GCU will be getting to know some of our artists better with mini-interviews. These prove to be fun reads and a peek into their card designs and other endeavors.
Here is Getting to Know … Sharon Dominick interview.
Thank you, Sharon, for a great interview.
The difference is made in the details, artist by artist.
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Pride Month
Wanted Cards – Pride Month
Hello, June and hello to Pride Month!
Please consider creating new cards celebrating, supporting, and raising awareness for the LGBTQ community in the month of June.
These cards should go here:Holidays > National & International Days Cards > Pride Month / Gay Pride / LGBTQ Pride Month
We’d like you to create at least one card for this category using the Stock Cards function or your own graphic designs.
To expedite the review of these cards, please check Fast Track Review on the card image details page when you create your card and add a Note for Reviewers like “for BLOG– Wanted Cards”.
Be inventive, be clever, be creative. Go for it!
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Freebie Wednesday: Free Watercolor Wreaths
This pack of watercolor designed wreaths go well hand in hand with other floral themed projects while adding that gentle touch to it! All files come in PNG and PSD formats!
This wonderful freebie is brought to you by Mikibith Art! Only available on the Hungry Jpeg site for another 6 days. Don’t miss out!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Hope everyone is enjoying better weather and is staying safe and healthy! Let’s kick off this month’s Stock Card Challenge!
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Theme: Chocolate
Requirements:
- Chocolate! Any occasion or holiday, chocolate in any form; cake, ice cream, candy, cocoa, etc.
- ONLY Big Stock cards will be accepted in this challenge.
- Write your own verse, be creative with this will be extremely important in this challenge.
- The judges will be looking for professional quality text layout, typography placement and font combinations in addition to a unique and captivating message that tells the story of the stock image you choose. Your added value needs to wow the judges!
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Entry Deadline: Wednesday, June 30th
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How to Enter: Post the PID (card number) and the URL (public storefront link – please WAIT for the card to be available in the public marketplace, please DO NOT post a link to your Manage Cards area) as a post in the challenge blog. We’ll forward your entry to the jury.
NOTE: Submissions will appear immediately in your Private gallery as they await review. If approved, the reviewer will move them to the public gallery – they will then become ‘live’ in the marketplace within 24-hours or so just like regular submissions. Be patient and wait.
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Category:
Any category which suits your message, recipient and imagery.
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Rules:
- Submission must meet GCU’s Submission Guidelines and be Approved through the usual Review Cycle. Big Stock creations are automatically identified as Fast Track – please add in the Notes to Reviewer: June Design Challenge Submission here is the link to the blog post: (include THIS blog post URL)
- Only ONE card per artist per challenge.
- Submissions must be NEW, no existing designs.
- Your entry must meet the Challenge Requirements and Theme or it will not be included in the challenge.
- Big Stock Card Creations ONLY will be accepted.
- Your designs should differ from those already offered in the categories above to offer shoppers a variety of choices, not more of the same.
- No BLANK cards will be accepted.
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BLIND Judging: We hope each of you enters every month. Entries are submitted anonymously for judging by the GCU Challenge Jury which means that before and during the challenge, judges do not have any way of knowing what artist is behind each entry. This eliminates any and all concerns with ‘favoritism’. Results will post on the Community Blog. The jury will judge the entries on the following criteria:
- How well the card meets the Challenge Requirements and Theme.
- How well the card speaks to the Category the artist chooses for the card submission.
- Creativity, Execution and Marketability. Your overall ‘added value’ determines this.
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Winners: 1st Place:
- The winning designer’s card and store will be featured on the GCU Public Blog – the blog which customers view and follow.
- As well as featured on the GCU Public Facebook Page – nearly 58,000 followers, now THAT’S exposure!
- The winning card will be Design of the Day following the announcement of the winners (within 48-hours).
EXCEPTION: Horizontal (landscape) cards may not be featured as DOD due to GCU Home Page space restrictions. In these cases, GCU will choose a different vertically oriented card from your store to feature as DOD. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for this limitation.
- The winning card will be added to the Greeting Card Universe Design Challenge Winners Pinterest Board – currently GCU’s Pinterest Page followers: 5.36K!
- The winning card, should the artist choose, may be referenced in a new series by the winning artist and he/she may Fast Track all cards in the new series (being sure to give the Challenge URL and winning card PID in your Notes to Reviewer for each card in this series).
- Winning card will be included in a marketing email to over 100,000 customers!
- GCU will create a Meet the Team board for the winning artist under the Pinterest GCU account where the winning artist will be able to pin and promote her own storefront and all that makes them a unique card designer and one of GCU’s artistic community team member.
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Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 2,000 followers and counting!
- GCU will create a Meet the Team board for the winning artist under the Pinterest GCU account where the winning artist will be able to pin and promote her own storefront and all that makes them a unique card designer and one of GCU’s artistic community team member.
- 10 free greeting card credits added to your GCU account. Apply them at checkout and they never expire.
- A Design Challenge GCU digital award for 2021!
2nd Place:
- Your submission will be Design of the Day the following week of announcing the Challenge winners (within 7-days).
EXCEPTION: Horizontal (landscape) cards may not be featured as DOD due to GCU Home Page space restrictions. In these cases, GCU will choose a different vertically oriented card from your store to feature as DOD. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for this limitation.
- Your card will be added to the Greeting Card Universe Design Challenge Winners Pinterest Board.
- Winning card will be included in a marketing email to over 100,000 customers!
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Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 2,000 followers and counting!
- 5 free greeting card credits added to your GCU account. Apply them at checkout and they never expire.
- A Design Challenge GCU digital award for 2021!
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Tips:
- Visit all the available tips, tricks and guidelines offered on the Big Stock Creation blog page!
- 9 Unexpected Occasions That Call for a Chocolate Gift Box
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Be inspired to create and learn something new!
By Doreen Erhardt @ Exclusive Creations
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Wanted New Cards: Chinese New Year 2022 / Year of the Tiger
Chinese New Year, celebrated in 2022 on January 1st, will come early as will the many sales during the busy Christmas holiday season. Get ready for Year of the Tiger now so you will be prepared for the winter holidays AND Chinese New Year. If you are anything like those born in the year of the tiger you’ll be brave and confident!
Please consider creating cards for 2022 – Year of the Tiger as well as the many new subcategories we will be adding:
Holidays >> Chinese New Year >> 2022 / Year of the Tiger
Series Review: if you plan to submit a design for a series please follow the Series Review Process by creating and having the first submission approved before proceeding with the balance of the series.
Update 2021 Designs: Year specific Chinese New Year cards should reflect the upcoming year (2022) however if your card is zodiac specific (2021 was Year of the Ox) these designs should be updated to the next Year of the Ox which is 2033.
Not only should images be updated but also card titles, keywords and artist notes. This even applies to custom front designs to make them more marketable and avoid shopper errors.
Be sure to review the Chinese New Year specific rules on Change or New Submission.
TIP: A quick way to pinpoint the bulk of your related cards is to search your storefront entering in the search box “<holiday name year>” ie: “chinese new year 2021”, “year of ox 2021”.
We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function or your own graphic designs. Remember, when you’re submitting your new card, add a little note about the intended category in your Notes to Reviewers.
Be specific, be inventive, be clever, be creative. Go for it!
