Dash of Inspiration: November Design Challenge

The winners of last month’s challenge, “Paint the Town … Red” will be announced mid-week and a HUGE THANK YOU to all for giving October’s Challenge a go and participating. We had a good turn out and many, many wonderful cards were created!
……………………………………………………………
This month, it’s time for romance and with Valentine’s Day coming in February, should you choose to design for this category choice, your cards will be done right on time for the customers purchasing in the ‘Month of Love’. Many of the categories at GCU have a Love and Romance sub-category and that is the theme for November. So let’s get to our challenge …
……………………………………………………………

November Design Challenge

Theme: Love is in the Air

Requirements:

• There must be a couple obviously enamored with each other in the imagery – two people, two animals, two zombies or two aliens, it matters not … it just needs to be a couple showing closeness and affection.
• Though the verse does not have to say “Love is in the air”, it should speak to love and romance.

……………………………………………………………

Entry Deadline: Monday, November 30th, 2015

……………………………………………………………

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.

……………………………………………………………….

Category: Any Category / Any Occasion where Love and Romance is the theme.

……………………………………………………………….

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: November 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.

……………………………………………………………………

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 December 2nd. 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 – 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!

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!

………………………………………………………………………

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: Tips from Professional Digital Artists

Nuts and Bolts: How to Write Greeting Card Verse

Dash of Inspiration: Working with Color

………………………………………………………………………

ENJOY and JOIN in the Challenge Fun!

My ‘design toolbox’ is being migrated to a 5-terabyte drive, so I don’t have access to my ‘goodies’ this week, therefore I leave you with an example of an older card of mine.