Dash of Inspiration: April Design Challenge

A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen APRIL Design Challenge

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT:

Congratulations to our Winners and to all who participated in our April Design Challenge! So many wonderful new designs that kids all over the world will love to receive. Great job everyone!

1st Place WINNER is:

Christie Black

2nd Place and 3rd place were only 1 point apart and it goes to:

Betsy Bush

Congratulations WINNERS and everyone remember to tune in on Monday May 4th for the next Dash of Inspiration Design Challenge!

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Congratulations to our March participants and winners for creating some marvelous cards that GCU is really proud to promote! The hope is that April’s challenge will inspire some of our wonderful cartoonists and illustrators to join in the fun, as this month’s challenge should awaken your imagination. For those of you digital artists, like me, challenge yourself to improve those digital composition and blending skills to create something wonderful purely from your imagination. Now let’s get ready for this month’s Dash of Inspiration Design Challenge!

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APRIL Design Challenge – Theme: KID’S IMAGINATION

Requirements:  Create a New ‘Animal’ – either by combining two or more other animals (as in my example), or create something completely unique! The only restriction is that the animal must be child-appropriate. Create a fun card for children for any “Kids” category. IMAGINATION rules this challenge. Let your inner-child come out to play!

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Entry Deadline: APRIL 27th, 2015

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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.

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Category: ANY Category for Children

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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: April 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.

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Judging: Entries will be judged by the GCU Challenge Jury with results posting on the Community Blog the week of May 1st. 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 15,000 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.  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 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).
•  Winning card will be included in a marketing email to over 100,000 customers!

2^nd 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. 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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Tips:

Check out these tips, tricks, freebies, and tutorials from our own GCU Community Blog which would all be helpful in this month’s Challenge.

• Selecting Digital Backgrounds
• Finding CU Elements
• Marketability – Occasion/Gender/Age Specific
• Birthdays for Kids
• Blending of Elements

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This month is all about bringing to life a child’s imagination and expressing that ‘world’ in a card just for them. Your new animal species can be earthbound or roam the skies of any planet of your choosing. Let your creativity take you away. Be sure to tie your imagery into an equally fun verse suitable for kids. When all else fails, LEARN SOMETHING NEW! Let the creativity flow and good luck!

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Here is my example for the challenge – a silly cat head on top of a dinosaur body and named Rex, therefore my new animal is a “Catasaurus Rex”. This is completely done via digital composition. There are over 60 elements used to create this design.

Participants in the April Design Challenge:

Julia Bryant

Pamela Jorgensen

Myrna Migala

Madeline Allen

Tammy Moody

Sherry Harris