Dash of Inspiration: January 2016 Design Challenge

Congratulations to our 1st Place Winner of our “Back to Nature” challenge goes to Christie Black with PID 1418346

2nd Place was awarded to Barbara Schreiber with PID 1418842

CONGRATULATIONS ladies! Well done!

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As life returns to normal for all of us, and for GCU as well, we will soon be announcing the results from our BYBC December Challenge, in the meantime, let’s kick off 2016 with a new Dash of Inspiration Design Challenge!

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Theme: Back to Nature
Requirements:

• Must include plants, animals, landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.
• Anything from a macro leaf to an expansive scenic is acceptable as long as both are VOID of anything man-made.
• Must include one tiny creature (e.g., ladybugs, lizards, fish, mouse, spider, etc. ).
• Card front and/or inside verse must speak to a nature theme (i.e., the beauty of it, preservation, strength, etc…). There must be a direct correlation between your imagery, category choice and message.

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Entry Deadline: Sunday, January 31st, 2016
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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 you can directly relate ‘Getting Back to Nature’.
Tips: Earth Day, Arbor Day, Summer Camp to name a few.
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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.

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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 – over 26,000 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: 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 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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Tips:

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

• Photography Tips and Tutorials
• The Image Speaks Volumes
• Our Blog is Full of Freebies for CU, check out this LINK

Please note that old links to Freebies may no longer be valid as some expire over a period of time. GCU has no control over these links, so enjoy those which still work and skip any which has been removed by the contributors.

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With the end of year challenge and the holidays upon me, I did not have the time to create a card as a sample for this challenge. I give you a card I created last year for Arbor Day which has a nature theme.

Let the New Year of Challenges begin!