Nuts and Bolts: Be Choosy & Creative with Stock Cards Creation Images
August 5, 2016
Nuts & Bolts – Be Choosy & Creative with Stock Card Creation Images
GCU’s Stock Card Creations gives artists access to millions of high-quality, stock images (for free, yipee!). Although the quality of the images is top notch, it does not necessarily mean that all images are well suited to create greeting cards. This is up to you, the artist. Choose and work with an image that you feel a) fits with your vision and b) will meet GCU’s Submission Guidelines and c) is as good as or better than what’s being offered in the category of submission.
Here are just a few examples that may not work:
1. does not offer uncluttered area to place text
2. proportion does not work in 5×7 layout
3. text on image is placeholder text which cannot be edited
4. background cast, shadow or cropping
In many cases you can use a little ingenuity and make it work – expand the image beyond the 5×7 space, make it smaller and add borders, change the font size, style or color to make it stand out more. OR simply choose a different image, there are MILLIONS to choose from!
Cropped shadows leave these dogs floating mid image and background cast shows odd remnants making this image not acceptable for use in this manner
TIPS:
* Research the category you intend to submit to before creating your card to make sure what you have in mind is different that what is currently being offered and is as good as if not better than current cards in the category
* Research other Stock Card Creation cards on the site to make sure the image you intend to use has not been used in the same category or similar fashion as you have in mind. You can easily do this by doing a search within the Collections >> Off the Cuff category. Example: a search within category for “jack russell” produces these results showing you images used with Jack Russells.
* Use different search terms and explore beyond the first page to uncover images that are hidden gems
* Include your intended category in the Notes to Reviewer
Have fun and make cards literally in just a few minutes! Read here for more info on Stock Card Creations.
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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