Dash of Inspiration: November 2016 Design Challenge

With October’s challenge now in the hands of the judging panel, let’s see what November has in store to fuel our imaginations … I’ve made more ‘traditional’ holiday cards for years and found it difficult to be inspired by the same old ‘themes’ – so – I challenged myself to step outside the Christmas box and explore further into other reasons to celebrate the reason. I began my journey with Kwanzaa and am finishing a new series of which I’m very proud – SalonOfArt Kwanzaa – then I explored interfaith, which brings us to our challenge this month as I pass the inspiration wand on to each of you …

Theme: Interfaith

Requirements:

• Must be approved for one of the categories listed – all of which are in need of fresh designs.
• Recipient must be ‘general’, in other words; any relation-specific creations should be done after the challenge – not for the challenge.
• Imagery must represent those faiths which you are addressing.
• Message and verse must be clearly defined as speaking to all faiths represented in your category/design.
• Blank verse will not be considered for entry in this challenge.

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Entry Deadline: Wednesday, November 30^th

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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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Choose ONE Category:

Holidays > Chanukah / Hanukkah Cards > Interfaith / Chrismukkah

Holidays > Christmas Cards > Interfaith / Chrismukkah

Holidays > Easter Cards > Interfaith / Eastover

Holidays > Kwanzaa Cards > Interfaith

Holidays > Passover / Pesach Cards > Interfaith / Eastover

Occasions > Congratulations Cards > Ordination / Ordained > Interfaith Ordination

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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: 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.

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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 – nearly 38,000 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: 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!
• NEW starting this month, GCU will create a Meet the Team board for the winning artist under the Pinterest GCU account where the winning artist will be able to pin and promote her own storefront and all that makes them a unique card designer and one of GCU’s artistic community team member.

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 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.

• Dash of Inspiration: Design for All Cultures
• Nuts and Bolts: Homework Always Pays Off
• Nuts and Bolts: How to Write Greeting Card Verse
• Nuts and Bolts: Don’t Fall Into These Traps!

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Be inspired to create and learn something new!  I did and it was a lot of fun!

Doreen Erhardt©