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Nuts and Bolts: Artist Interview Teri Francis Squirrel Hugger Greetings.

September 27, 2019

Nuts and Bolts: Artist Interview Teri Francis Squirrel Hugger Greetings.
 
One of the many perks of being a GCU Design Challenge winner is an interview.  These mini-interviews are fun reads and a peek into the makings of the winning card.

 

Note: Read about the other rewards and the two new rewards for 2019, in addition to bragging rights, of being a Design Challenge winner.

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy

GCU Community Manager

Wanted New Cards: Welcome to the Family.

September 26, 2019

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Wanted Cards – Welcome to the Family 

 

A special occasions to welcome someone into the family by birth, marriage or adoption.
There are many relationship specific subcategories in need of cards for Welcome to the Family.
Please consider submitting relationship specific designs for the appropriate subcategory:

 

If you are leveraging a design for a series, please be sure reference in your Notes to Reviewer something like “design based on approved card pid#xxxxxx”.

Freebie Wednesday: Free Sweet ABC Watercolor Alphabet.

September 25, 2019

Freebie Wednesday: Free Windows Stories Pack

 

The Hungry JPEG has a very sweet freebie this week. Sweet ABC: Watercolor Alphabet by Ma-i-vi consists of 26 sweet letters, 10 numbers and 4 cute bonus watercolor cakes. Available for one week only, so don’t miss out!

 

 

This product comes with a complete commercial license.

 

Rainbow Connection: Color Inspiration – Tiles

September 24, 2019

 

Get inspired by the wealth of beauty in colors and patterns in these old (and new) tiles:

 

 

Nuts and Bolts: REMINDER: Update Winter Holiday YEAR specific cards.

September 20, 2019

Nuts & Bolts – REMINDER: Update Winter Holiday YEAR specific cards 
 
Believe it or not, Winter holiday card sales have already begun.  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 9/23.  After 9/23/19, GCU will take any outdated cards offline.
 
Christmas cards should reflect the current year (2019) and New Year cards should reflect the coming or new year (2020).
 
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: “christmas 2018”, “new year 2019”.

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy

GCU Community Manager

Wanted New Cards: Pet Gotcha Day.

September 19, 2019

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Wanted Cards – Pet Gotcha Day
 
Pet owners normally get their pet shortly after they’ve been born. For puppies and kittens, it’s typically around 8 weeks or more. For adopted, shelter and rescue pets it could be at any age.

 

The date you got / adopted your pet is their Gotcha Day, also known as an Adoption Anniversary Day. It is often celebrated by the pet owners in addition to or instead of a birthday. It’s very common for shelter animals’ birth-dates to be guesstimates thus making their Gotcha Day much more meaningful.
Please consider making cards to celebrate a pet’s Gotcha Day.  Consider creating cards for pets in general as well as animal and breed specific cards. Also consider photo cards.

 

These cards should go here:
>> General
>> For Dog
>> For Cat
>> For Horse
>> Other Pet

Freebie Wednesday: Free Window Stories Pack

September 18, 2019

Freebie Wednesday: Free Windows Stories Pack

 

The Hungry JPEG brings you the Free Windows Stories Pack (characters, elements, seamsless patterns and pre-made designs by Geni Vladi.  Available for 6 days only, so don’t miss out!

 

This product comes with a complete commercial license.

 

Nuts and Bolts: Stock Card Creations Unmatched Image.

September 13, 2019

Nuts & Bolts – Stock Card Creations Unmatched Image


As I continue to update some of my own Stock Card Creation cards that had unmatched images, I’d like to share some before and after images and highlight a note about updating meta-date to reflect the new image.

Don’t be discouraged if at first you do not find a near identical image. If you explore enough and try different search terms you will find an image that will work and may even be a breath of fresh air.
Before:

 

New Stock Image:

Since breed names are key to include because dog lovers are fanatics about their favorite breeds, it was important for me to update the meta-data for this card from “black lab” (Labrador, retriever, and other related variations) to “beagle” accordingly in the card title, keywords as well as Artist’s Notes.

 

NOTE: A few tips to make things easier:

 

– After updating the image and card you are brought back to the Manage Cards page, often not to the card you were working on.  Beforehand, simply write down or paste on a notepad the pid# of the card you’re working on and if you are not brought right back to it in Manage Cards enter the pid# in the “Find Specific Cards by: Product ID” box on the left. This brings you to the card to click the all important orange RESUBMIT button.

– If the stock image you choose is a different orientation than the original image that’s ok.  One little oddity is the inside verse image will show in the old orientation.  Use the orange button “Save and Edit Inside Verse” to correct this, simply click on the inside text image box (as if you’re going to edit the text) and click the orange button “Save” and it will correct itself.

– When updating a series and using the same new stock image, be sure to note the new stock image id.  When updating the image for the balance of the series simply enter this stock image id into the search box to locate the image quickly vs search terms and re-searching for the desired image.

 

– Lastly, I add the following comment at the end of my Notes to Reviewer “updated with new stock image”.

 

Please see this prior post on Unmatched Image Card Tips

 

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy

GCU Community Manager

Wanted New Cards: National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day.

September 12, 2019

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Wanted Cards – National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day 

 

This new category is in need of cards:

 

 

We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function or your own graphic designs.  Remember, when you’re submitting your new card, add a little note about the intended category in your Notes to Reviewers. Be specific, be inventive, be clever, be creative. Go for it!

Freebie Wednesday: 50 Handcrafted Schooltime Objects.

September 11, 2019

Freebie Wednesday:

 

Creative Fabrica has a free collection of 50 Handcrafted Schooltime Objects. (over 50 PNG files with black-and-white objects (300 DPI, 2500×2500 px)
30 PNG files with color spots (300 DPI, 2500×2500 px) and 5 JPG pictures with all sets) It’s only avalable for another 2 days so you better make sure you don’t miss out!

 

This product comes with a complete commercial license.