Dash of Inspiration: February Design Challenge
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen February Design Challenge
Congratulations to our January Winners and to all who participated! Wonderful cards were created and each of you should be proud of where your imagination led you last month. Today we kick off our new challenge for February. This one is very different and hopefully you’ll find it lots of fun!
This challenge should INSPIRE the illustrator and painter to let your imagination take you somewhere you’ve never been before; and the digital artists should push the boundaries of creating digital compositions using a variety of elements, letting your imagination create that which photography alone may not be able to capture. When all else fails, LEARN SOMETHING NEW!
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And our 1st Place WINNER is: Barbara Scheiber PID 1359144

Challenge 1st Winner for February 2015
With 2nd Place begin awarded to: Christie Black PID1361518

Challenge 2nd Place for February 2015
There were SO MANY great cards – thank you ALL for participating!
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READY, SET? Let’s GO! FEBRUARY Design Challenge – Theme: CURIOSITY Requirements: Your design must include the following elements. You may have as many other elements as you wish, but the finished visual must have these three elements. Look at my example below.
- a Door (any size, any type)
- a Sentient Being (no planetary or species restrictions, and yes I consider animals sentient beings)
- Water (a drop or an ocean from any source)
……………………………………………………………… Entry Deadline: February 23rd, 2015 ………………………………………………………………. How to Enter:
- Post the PID (card number) and the URL (public storefront link, 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.
………………………………………………………………. Category: ANY – Tip suggestions: Humor categories might work well for many occasions/holidays, also Get Well, Hi/Hello, Thinking of You – get the idea? Just remember to tie your image to the verse and to the category. ………………………………………………………………. 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: February 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.
…………………………………………………………………… Judging: Entries will be judged by the GCU Challenge Jury with results posting on the Community Blog the week of February 28th. 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.
…………………………………………………………………… 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 13,000 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 can not be DOD due to GCU Home Page space restrictions.
- The winning card will be added to the Greeting Card Universe Design Challenge Winners Pinterest Board – currently over 800 followers.
- 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).
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 can not be DOD due to GCU Home Page space restrictions.
- Your card will be added to theGreeting Card Universe Design Challenge Winners Pinterest Board.
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Tips:
Check out these tips, tricks, freebies, and tutorials which would all be helpful in this month’s Challenge.
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Let the creativity flow and good luck!
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This image was created using the Theme and Requirements of the February 2015 Challenge. Sentient beings, a door and the water is the ocean view. Have fun with your creation!
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Participants for this challenge in addition to the above 1st and 2nd place were:
Julia Bryant
Love the sample! These challenges are so creative. Hopefully I will be able to participate in upcoming Design challenges.
Thank you, Laura – I hope you can too!
I am very curious to see the submissions for this challenge 😉
Hi Doreen: My Card for the Feb. Challenge can be found at : http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/thank-you-cards/teacher/general-teacher/teacher-thank-you-boy-1358412?aid=222657 PID#1358412
I spent the entire day creating my card for this challenge. I loved doing it, but I was tired when I finally finished. I created a Teacher Thank You Card. BTW, you’ll find the water in the jar. 🙂 I really enjoyed creating this card. I love how it turned out. At first I had no idea what I was going to do, then it came to me. Thanks for stimulating my brain!
Hi Sherry! Entry received. I am delighted to hear that you pushed your imagination and creativity … and enjoyed it! Good luck to you 🙂
Thanks Doreen.
Eeek! Loved the card, Sheery! Curiosity is misspelled.
Glad somebody caught that … LOL! It takes a village sometimes! Go ahead and correct it Sherry, plenty of time before the voting happens 🙂
Thank you! Laura, I believe you have just inspired the community to speak up. You did a good thing.
Thank you! So hard to correct without tone of voice on the net. Meant in the kindest way. 🙂
No problem here, Laura. Glad you caught it. We all need a friendly, helping hand once in awhile.
Thank you! I’m glad I could help!
OOps! Sherry! Sorry for the misspell.
LOL That’s what I get for working all day and being tired when I put it up. Fixed now. Thanks for catching that Laura. Funny the reviewer didn’t catch it either.
I know the feeling. Have made many late night mistakes myself. Happens to us all. We’ve had ads go out with typos or missing words. And then we ( the agency ) had to eat the cost of the re run. That was the stressful past, Mad Men style. lol!
Hello Doreen! This is my card for this month’s contest: Product ID: 1358570 http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/get-well-feel-better-cards/general-get-well-feel-better/greeting-card-1358570?aid=269112
What a lot of fun. This is very different from the cards I’m used to doing 🙂
Good luck to everyone!
Julia
Cute card, Julia. Very creative.
Hi Julia – entry received, thank you! Really glad to hear you not only enjoyed this challenge, but that it took you somewhere knew in card design 🙂 Good luck!
Thanks Doreen and Sherry! I appreciate it 🙂
I love it, Julia! It captures that feeling of “I wish I was part of what’s going on” when you’re feeling ill.
Thank you Laura!!
Hi Doreen,
This was a real challenge. At first glance I thought: curiosity, water, door, sentient being = Oh Golly! How can I pull that all together! I really enjoyed it. Here’s my entry.
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/encouragement-cards/believe-in-yourself-dont-give-up/greeting-card-1359144
PID 1359144
Very creative other entries 🙂
Have a nice day!
🙂 Barbara
Hi Barbara, entry received, thank you! Really glad you found it challenging, that was after all, the idea 🙂
Hi Doreen, Just popping in to leave my entry! Everyone is really coming up with some amazing work in these challenges. What fun to really have to think in a different way than usual for designing!
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/congratulations-cards/retirement/general/congratulations-on-retirement-oceans-of-1359478?aid=145102
Hi Betsy – got it, consider yourself officially entered 🙂 Great to hear you had fun with this one!
Nice card, Dragonfire.(Betsy). I like the Pelican. 🙂
Hi Sherry, Thanks so much! And thanks for alerting me to the fact that it is a pelican on my card! I had another image with seagulls I was considering and I wrote seagull in the description of this card! I owe you one!
We help each other, even if it’s unknowingly. 🙂 Consider it paying forward since Laura helped me.
I am so thrilled just to get this card approved, and honored to post the information here. Mine is a drawing of mine.
PID #1359430
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/weve-moved-new-address-announcements/general/zentangle-new-address-announcement-1359430
I want to mention that I loved looking at all these entries, so much imagination, like snowflakes no two are alike.
You are officially entered, Myrna! Really excited that you were inspired to create a drawing for the challenge – good luck to you!
Love the little kitty and how you’ve added a little color in a few places. Very nice card, Myrna.
Doreen, I have a question… when a theme is mentioned, as in this case “curiosity,” does the word need to be used or can it be just expressed in the visual?
Just expressed visually is just fine 🙂
Such great entries for this submission so far! It was great fun “building” this card and quite a challenge too. I love the actual card, but I’m a little on the fence about it, as humor is not my usual niche, so I’m not sure it comes across funny. We’re supposed to push ourselves, right? Well, that’s what I did, so here it is. http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/humor-birthday-cards/fairyland-scene-humorous-anti-aging-birthday-1359626?aid=133634
Entry received, Liz. Thank you! I’m really excited that you were willing to step outside of your comfort zone 🙂
Important to note for you, and others that Humor was not part of the theme or requirements, only one category suggestion.
Thanks, Doreen. I do realize it wasn’t a requirement, but that’s where it took me 🙂
It’s where it took me too – LOL!
Here is my card for the Feb. Challenge. Thanks, Doreen. Product Id: 1360530. http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/anniversary-wedding-cards/for-spouse-general/general/greeting-card-1360530?aid=133229
Thank you, Sandra. Entry received! Good Luck!
Hello, here is my entry for the Feb. Challenge:
Product ID #1361518
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/getting-older-birthday-cards/feeling-old-birthday-hogwash-hog-in-bathtub-1361518?aid=131341
Thank you!
Entry received! Thank you, Christie and good luck!
WINNERS have been published at the top of this post and all participants at the bottom.
Congratulations! And, thank you all so much for participating with such great enthusiasm and WONDERFUL cards!
Congratulations Barbara and Christie. Great cards!
Congrats Barbara & Christie – So very well done! All such good entries across the board here too. ~ Lj
Congratulations on the win, Barbara … it’s a beautiful and creative card. And Christie, your card was just too cute … congrats to you as well.
Wonderful cards! Congrats to the winners.
Congrats Barb and Christie! Such unique cards.
Congratulations to Barbara and Christie! Great job!
Enjoyed looking at everyone’s cards for this contest. Such creativity! Congrats to all, but especially to Barbara and Christie for their 1st and 2nd place finishes!
Congrats to both winners!
Congratulations to Christie! And thank you everybody for your congrats. I’m thrilled! Frankly, when I saw the other entries, I thought: “Oh boy, this will be tough” because the other cards are just great and creative ! I find it very interesting to see how people make such complete different designs, all using the same elements. Every person has his/her own way of seeing the world, which I find wonderful!
Thank you again 🙂 🙂
Barbara
Thank you and congratulations to you, Barbara … love your design! Thank you all for the congrats and thanks to the judges! This challenge is such a fun and creative outlet, I hope to be a part of more … thank you Doreen!
Yes, please allow me to congratulate the winners, this was really fun creating, and even more fun watching the other creations.