Dash of Inspiration: October Design Challenge
AND OUR WINNERS ARE …
1st Place goes to Michelle Lanoue with PID 1405754
2nd Place goes to Ron Magnes with PID 1405010
CONGRATULATIONS to both of you and to ALL who participated with your fabulous designs. We just loved seeing the different directions creativity and inspiration took each of you, and this was a very close race to the finish line .. Well done!
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Congratulations to our September winners, Barbara Schreiber and Julia Bryant!
The entries for the past two months of challenges has been sparse. We do hope you’ll join us and take advantage of the fun, challenge yourself to create outside the box, and compete for the opportunity to reap the rewards of having your card picked by the GCU Panel of Challenge Judges for free promotion!
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For all the wonderful artists at GCU who paint their greeting card images, this design challenge should be right up your alley! And – with all the exceptional digital tools and tutorials out there for the photographer and digital artist to use to create realistic paintings from photographs – (many of which are free to try) – this month’s challenge should be a lot of fun and give you the reason you’ve been waiting for to experiment with some of these great painting tools! Okay, let’s get to it …
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October Design Challenge
Theme: Paint the Town … Red
Requirements:
- Paint the town, city, or neighborhood – your own, one you’ve visited, one you’d like to visit or one that exists only in your mind – what’s important is that it LOOKS like a painting.
- Since an entire town painted red may not make for a marketable greeting card (unless you paint a zombie town!) just add a touch of red somewhere in your painting big or small, as long as it’s there (text alone doesn’t count).
- Watch your perspective! Look at my example, see how slanted the perspective was, with the buildings falling backwards in the original photograph? Make sure that your vertical and horizontal lines are straight on your buildings or your submission won’t pass the GCU Review Cycle and if it doesn’t get approved, it can’t be entered.
- In order to be considered for the challenge, the image must consist of three or more buildings.
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Entry Deadline: Friday, October 30th, 2015
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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 Category / Any Occasion where Home, House, Neighborhood or Location is appropriate.
Tips: From Our House – New Home – Greetings from Your State, Country, Town – New Address
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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: August 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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BLIND Judging: We hope each of you enter 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 beyond each entry. This eliminates any and all concerns with ‘favoritism’. Results will post on the Community Blog – by November 4th. 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 – over 22,000 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 GCU’s Pinterest Page followers: 1.2K!
- 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!
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. 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 might be helpful in this month’s Challenge.
Dash of Inspiration: Digital Tablet, Digital Painting
Dash of Inspiration: Image Quality – Excessive Effects
Dash of Inspiration: Submission Guidelines: Composition – Perspective
Dash of Inspiration – A Matter of Perspective
List of some Digital Painting Free Programs and/or Free Trial Programs – NOTE: I have NOT downloaded from this site, therefore this link is not a personal recommendation. It’s a list, if you have experience with the site and/or are comfortable with you computers protection to download, then great – if not, use it as a list to get names of software you might be interested in trying and go search for a site you do trust.
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Participants:
Too bad for me I have to miss this month’s challenge; it looks like a good one! I have a work certification I have to pass this month, so I have to spend all my extra time studying. Good luck to everyone and I can’t wait to see the entries!
We’ll miss you, Julia! Good luck on certification!
I’m glad to be able to participate in the challenge this month. I have “painted” this holiday greeting. http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/holiday-cards/christmas-cards/seasons-greetings/waterfront-homes-painted-effect-seasons-1404172?aid=133634
Thank you, Liz. Entry received … Good Luck!
This is our first entry ever for a Design Challenge. It was FUN! http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/welcome-home-cards/general/welcome-home-toddler-painting-the-1404576
Hello Jay and Susan! So great to have you participate this month – and – to hear you had fun doing so! Your entry has been received, good luck!
What a great idea! 🙂
This is serendipitous. I just had a card approved the other day by Reviewer #619 who informed me in the notes of this challenge and said that my image fit the criteria. This is a little departure of my graphic style, but I just recently stumbled upon this Photoshop plugin called, Pixel Bender which has an oil paint filter. So I did a little experimenting and I quite liked the results. The original file was created in Illustrator with my flat graphic style, but I added the blur filter to the elements this would result in a brush stroked edge around the graphics instead of a harsh edge. I then added some swirls for texture and wavy clouds. Then I opened the file in Photoshop and applied the oil paint filter and tinkered with that a little. This was fun stepping out of my comfort zone.
Ron
Product Id: 1405010
Card link: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/holiday-cards/christmas-cards/reindeer/santa-reindeer-over-moon-1405010?aid=196382
Hi Ron, so glad you came out to ‘play’ with us and the reviewers were right, your entry is a perfect fit this month. Entry received, good luck!
Hi Ron, great looking card!
Hi Barbara,
Thank you! Your card as well, great style and composition.
Hi Doreen,
Here is my entry:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/holiday-cards/christmas-cards/new-address-weve-moved/warm-holiday-wishes-from-our-1405200
A mixed media drawing/painting: Pencils, watercolor, ink and finishing touches with photoshop.
As usual, a great theme!!!
Julia, what a pity that you’re not participating this month! Wishing you much success with the Certification and till next month 🙂
Liz, what a beautiful card!
🙂 Barbara
Excellent, thanks for participating, Barbara! Your entry has been received.
Hi all, Just popping in to drop off my entry. Julia, so sorry you won’t be here this month, but good luck with your studies. How fun to have Jay and Susan, and Ron enter the challenge this month! Everyone’s designs are wonderful!
For my design I went a little off the beaten path in the meaning of buildings! I ran each individual element through the paint program Fotosketcher. When all the elements were combined, I applied a couple of different paint effects to the whole. I didn’t end up with a strong effect because I was seeing a loss of details that I didn’t want.
Happy weekend to all!
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/congratulations-cards/new-pet/rescue-shelter-adoption/general-rescue-shelter-adoption/congratulations-on-new-pet-adoption-1405620?aid=145102
Hi Betsy, glad to have you join us. You certainly did take a whole different direction! Good luck, your entry has been received.
Hi Doreen and everyone! This is my first entry in the Design Challenge, I never enter, not because I don’t think the challenges are awesome but I worry that mind isn’t good enough.:) So, here I go! http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/daughter-in-law-birthday-cards/general/birthday-to-daughter-in-law-adorable-raccoons-1405588, pid#1405588. Good luck to you all! Take care, Laurie
Hi Laurie, we’re delighted to have you join us this month! Entry received and good luck! Never feel that way. If you can get your card approved by GCU, and it meets the challenge requirements, then it has as good a chance as any at winning 🙂
Thank you! 🙂 Hugs, Laurie
Glad you entered, Betsy and Laurie (Yaay – the cute racoons!). I’m always amazed how we all have such different and interesting approaches to a theme, how everybody’s creative mind ticks in it’s own way. That’s the great thing, everybody’s view of the world is unique.
Great ideas and cards, Betsy and Laurie!
Thank you! Love your card! Good luck, Laurie
Thanks Laurie, Good luck to you too 🙂
Thanks Barbara!
Hi Doreen, I love everyone’s cards so far. So many great cards! I am entering a card that is painted with digital acrylic like paints. Not a real town, but just an imagined one:) http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/holiday-cards/christmas-cards/snow-scene-snowflakes/sleigh-bells-ring-in-a-1405754?aid=276330
Glad to have you join us, Michelle! Your entry has been received. Good luck!
Hi Doreen, Here is my entry for the challenge. Good Luck everyone! http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/invitations/general-invitations-youre-invited/paint-town-red-night-out-1405706?aid=312912
So happy to have your join in the fun, Debbie! Your entry has been received, good luck!
So awesome to see all the artists joining the challenge! Great designs by all!
I’m gone for three weeks and you guys are killing it! Wonderful designs everyone!
Congratulations Michelle and Ron! Beautiful cards, well deserved wins! Take care, Laurie
Congratulations for your wins with such wonderful designs, Michelle and Ron!
Thank you Betsy and Laurie, much appreciated words:)
Beautiful cards, Michelle and Ron, and a well-deserved victory for these designs!
Thank you so much Liz!
Congratulations, Michelle and Ron, for two beautiful cards and a well-deserved win!
Really beautiful cards! Wonderful job, Michelle and Ron!
Thanks everyone for your kind comments, that was a fun concept. Congratulations Michelle, well deserved.
Thank you Julia, Barbara and Ron!