Dash of Inspiration: April Design Challenge

Can you believe we’ve been doing these challenges for twelve years? And some of you have participated in most since the beginning (thank you for that!).

This year I decided to develop some new design challenges specifically designed to spark your creative process – hopefully in a different way.

When it comes to making professional greeting cards that sell, I’ve found that the key to successful marketability is to create imagery that captures the customer’s attention and PAIR it with the perfect words to invoke an emotional connection – and cha-ching!

So this month will be the first “One Word One Object Inspiration Challenge”. Put your thinking caps on and have fun!

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Theme: One Word One Object Inspiration Challenge

This is how it works:
I will give you a word which you MUST START your card FRONT message with. In addition, I will give you an additional item/element to add to your design (that’s the Object).
Any theme, any category, any recipient … wherever your creativity takes you is great, as long as the imagery, message and category choice all cohesively work together.

I know this is new and different, so if you have questions please use the comment section to ask, so that both your question and the response is there for everyone’s benefit.

Requirements:

The card front message this month begins with the word: Sometimes – and the Object that must be on the card front is: star(s) – one or more is fine, big or small is fine.

1. Create a new design with a card front message that begins with the word “Sometimes” and somewhere in the design elements is at least one star.
   
2. Any category which your card speaks to.
3. No Stock card creations will be accepted.
4. Blank verse will not be considered for entry in this challenge.

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Entry Deadline: Sunday, May 31^st

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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 

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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: April 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.
• Your designs should differ from those already offered in the category of your choice to offer shoppers a variety of choices, not more of the same.

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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 55,000 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: 14.9k!
• 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!
• The winning designer’s card and store will be offered an Artist Interview to be featured on the GCU Community Blog.
• Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 10.6k followers and counting!
• 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.
• 10 free greeting card credits added to your GCU account. Apply them at checkout and they never expire.
• A Design Challenge GCU digital award for 2026!

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!
• Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 10.6k followers and counting!
• 5 free greeting card credits added to your GCU account. Apply them at checkout and they never expire.
• A Design Challenge GCU digital award for 2026!

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Tips:

• Blast From the Past: Front of Card Text
• Nuts and Bolts: How to Write Greeting Card Verse

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Be inspired to create and learn something new!