Nuts and Bolts: New Year New Changes
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Persian New Year Missing You
Wanted Cards – Persian New Year Missing You
The first day of Spring brings the Persian New Year. Please consider design cards for those that will not be together to join the holiday.
The cards should go here:
Holidays > Persian New Year Cards > Missing You at Persian New Year
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 stock 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 New York Hand-lettered Signature Script Font
New York Hand-lettered Signature Script Font!
New York is a hand-lettered signature script font perfect for your modern designs! This font comes with tons of ligatures so you can alter it to your liking! Font comes in OTF format.
This awesome freebie is brought to you by Blush Font Co.!
Available for free for the next 6 days on the Hungry Jpeg site. Don’t miss out!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts and Bolts: 2021 1099-NEC Form (MISC)
NOTE: 1099-NEC (Non-employee Compensation) will now be used instead of the 1099-MISC form see here for details on the change of form.
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Freebie Wednesday: Free Emanie Font
Emanie is a chic display font, that emanates confidence and versatility. Its stylish alternates and ligatures make this font the perfect match for any project. Available for free on the Creative Fabrica site.
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Dash of Inspiration: January 2022 Design Challenge
It’s a new year and it’s full of design challenges! We lead off the year with the Pantone Color of the Year for 2022! I was not able to create an example card this round due to being without power for five days in heavy snowfall. So I’m a bit behind … LOL!
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Theme: Pantone Color of the Year 2022 – Very Peri
Requirements:
- Create a new design using the 2022 Pantone color: Very Peri (6868AC)
- Any category which your card speaks to.
- No Stock card creations will be accepted.
- Blank verse will not be considered for entry in this challenge.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do NOT use trademarked terms “Pantone” or “Very Peri”” in your meta-data. You can however use individual terms like: periwinkle, purple, color of the year, etc.
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Entry Deadline: Monday, January 31st
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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.
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Category:
Any
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Rules:
- Submission must meet GCU’s Submission Guidelines and be Approved through the usual Review Cycle– Fast Track your submission with this in the Notes to Reviewer: January 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.
- Stock Card Creations entries will not be accepted.
- Your designs should differ from those already offered in the category of your choice to offer shoppers a variety of choices, not more of the same.
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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.
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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 2022!
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 2022!
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Tips:
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Be inspired to create and learn something new!
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Nuts and Bolts: 2021 Top Nine Instagram
Nuts & Bolts – 2021 Top Nine Instagram
Social Media is a great way to share your creative works and things that inspire, entertain, and maybe even annoy you. It’s also a great repository or chronicle of your past years. Again, let’s have some fun and share your best 9 posts of 2021, hopefully they are greeting cards or your creative works!
Here are a few ways you can generate your Top Nine.
Be sure to use the hashtags: #2021bestnine #bestnine2021 #top9 #topnine #best9 #bestnine #bestnineof2021 #topnine2021 #artvartist #artvartist2021
And most importantly, be sure to tag us @greetingcarduniverse
Looking forward to seeing your best nine on Instagram!
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: High School Sports Hall of Fame
Wanted Cards – High School Sports Hall of Fame
The following new sub-category is in need of cards:
Occasions > Congratulations Cards > Installation / Inducted / Induction > Hall of Fame >> High School Sports Hall of Fame
Please consider creating custom front designs for the school name allowing shoppers the ability to customize for their high school.
Be inventive, be clever, be creative. Go for it!
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Freebie Wednesday: Free Love & Cupid Clipart Collection
All the files come in both PNG & vector EPS format, so you can use them with pretty much any software you want. And the included commercial license gives you the opportunity to use these elements for both your personal projects or for commercial purposes.
If you liked this freebie, be sure to check Shark & Croc’s store – it’s jam-packed with gorgeous products! Available on the Hungry Jpeg site only today so down’t miss out!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts and Bolts: Year End Holidays Office Closure
Nuts & Bolts – Year End Holidays Office Closure
Friday 12/24 – closed
Friday 12/31 – closed
This includes our dedicated Card Review team members who will not be reviewing cards on either of those days / times.
ALSO our Card Review team members and GCU personnel will be taking some additional days off between the day before Christmas and January 3rd so staffing will be present but very light.
Thank you for your understanding & patience while we all enjoy the holidays!
From all of us at GCU, Happy Holidays and best wishes for a prosperous, healthy, and joyful 2022!
GCU Community 