GCU Community

Freebie Wednesday: Mistletoes Font

November 27, 2019

Freebie Wednesday:

Mistletoes by dmletter31 is the ideal crafting font for everything Christmas. This handwritten brush font is available for free download on the Creative Fabrica site for the next 5 days.

This product comes with a complete commercial license.

Rainbow Connection: The Colors of November.

November 26, 2019

tags: color inspiration, Fall Colors, November

by GCUAdmin

Get inspired by the Design Seeds Colors of November:

Nuts and Bolts: Update Chinese New Year YEAR specific cards.

November 22, 2019

tags: chinese new year, nuts and bolts, update card

by GCUAdmin

Nuts & Bolts – Update Chinese New Year YEAR specific cards

No time to rest on your winter holiday laurels, Chinese New Year will be celebrated on January 25, 2020. The year of the Rat will really sneak up on us! That means most sales will be happening in December.

Do you offer Year Specific designs? Be sure not to miss out on sales or worse, have your card taken offline because you’ve neglected to update it for the new year.

Not only should images be updated but also card titles, keywords and artist notes. This even applies to custom front designs to make them more marketable and avoid shopper errors.

Please take the time now to update your designs before 12/1. After 12/1/19, GCU will take any outdated cards offline.

Year specific Chinese New Year cards should reflect the upcoming year (2020) however if your card is zodiac specific (2019 was Year of the Pig) these designs should be updated to the next Year of the Pig which is 2031.

Be sure to review the Chinese New Year specific rules on Change or New Submission.

TIP: A quick way to pinpoint the bulk of your related cards is to search your storefront entering in the search box “<holiday name year>” ie: “chinese new year 2019”, “year of pig 2019”.

There are still many subcategories for Year of the Rat in need of cards, consider submitting new designs per this earlier request:

https://gcucommunity.com/2019/07/25/wanted-new-cards-chinese-new-year-2020-year-of-the-rat/

The difference is made in the details!

Mindy

GCU Community Manager

Wanted New Cards: Christmas Mondy Enclosed Grandson.

November 21, 2019

tags: christmas cards, gift cards, Wanted: New Cards

by GCUAdmin

Wanted Cards – Christmas Mondy Enclosed Grandson

Just recently artists created some great new additions for >> Money / Gift Card Enclosed.

GCU now has a request for Grandson Christmas specific cards.

Please consider creating new designs for Grandson here:

Holidays >> Christmas >> Money / Gift Card Enclosed >> Relationship Specific

While you’re at it, consider other relations like granddaughter, nephew, niece, godson, goddaughter, daughter, son, etc.

Here was the original Wanted Cards – Money / Gift Card Enclosed request.

NOTE: please be sure to include a note like the following in your Artist’s Notes that serves as a product description and properly sets the shoppers’ expectations: “A regular card with no interior flap but which will still hold a monetary enclosure”.

Freebie Wednesday: Rose Gold Foil Alphabet.

November 20, 2019

tags: free font

by GCUAdmin

Freebie Wednesday:

Check out the freebie of this week. This Rose Gold Foil Alphabet (by PeDeDesigns) consists of 80 PNG files (300 dpi). It’s available for free for another 6 days on the Hungry Jpeg site, so don’t miss out!

This product comes with a complete commercial license.

Rainbow Connection: Fall/Thanksgiving Color Inspiration.

November 19, 2019

tags: Fall Colors, thanksgiving

by GCUAdmin

Get inspired by these lovely Fall/Thanksgiving images I found on Pinterest this week:

Nuts and Bolts: Dedicate yourself to the Details.

November 15, 2019

tags: design quality, nuts and bolts

by GCUAdmin

Nuts & Bolts – Dedicate yourself to the Details

Dedicate yourself to the details. Strive for quality. Create a design and work it a few different ways to see what looks best. The same goes for a verse. Let the words flow and take it a few different ways, then boil it down to one that resonates best with the image and occasion.

As GCU continues with the sitewide re-evaluations announced back in 2012, don’t despair when you have older cards that get declined. Often the reviewer will return the card for edits, or if declined and you feel it’s a strong selling card you can send an email summarizing top sellers that you’d like reconsidered for reinstatement. Note: Strong sales = substantial, recent, frequent and relevant

If you have the opportunity to edit an older card that is returned to you or up for reinstatement after being declined, go for it!

Here is a wonderful example of a re-worked card by artist Cori Solomon of Cori’s Pawtraits:

Original Image:

Reviewer’s request after card declined for these reasons:

IMAGE QUALITY – Lighting, IMAGE QUALITY – Color / Contrast, COMPOSITION – Professionalism

Thank you for your edits, the image color and clarity is improved however unfortunately the placement is less than ideal. If you are able to adjust the image and include all of the ears (avoiding them being cropped) in the design we would be happy to re-review. Unfortunately changing the orientation of the image would not work, vertical actually serves this image best. it is the cropping of the ears that is the issue. Thank you for your understanding.

Artist’s Reply:

I will create the top of the ears. That will not be a problem. The original drawing is created with the cropped ears. Let me see what I can do and we can go from there.

New Image:

Cori worked her magic and completed this handsome shepherd, ears and all to be approved. Thank you, Cori, for your patience and handy work!

The difference is made in the details!

Mindy

GCU Community Manager

Wanted New Cards: Christmas Landlord / Property Manager / Tenant.

November 14, 2019

tags: christmas cards, Wanted: New Cards

by GCUAdmin

Wanted Cards – Christmas Landlord / Property Manager / Tenant

Tenants and landlords should forge a respectful and amicable relationship. It will benefit both parties to make living conditions, interactions and needs. Although it’s a business relationship, it’s personal.

A holiday card is a great way to foster a valued relationship.

Please consider creating Christmas cards for these categories in need under

Holidays >> Christmas >> Occupation Specific

>> Landlord

>> Tenant

>> Property Manager

We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using Stock Card Creations or your own graphic designs.

Remember, when you’re submitting your new Stock Card, add a little note about the intended category in your Notes to Reviewers. Be inventive, be clever, be creative. Go for it!

Freebie Wednesday: Merry Christmas Unicorn Graphics.

November 13, 2019

tags: Christmas vectors, kawaii

by GCUAdmin

Freebie Wednesday:

10 Merry Christmas Unicorns are ready for your winter cards! Use them also for web, mugs, T-Shirts, wall-papers and everything else, and let your winter be like a fairy tale! It’s free at Creative Fabrica for another 2 days so you better make sure you don’t miss out!