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Nuts and Bolts: Inside Verse Considerations * Alignment

July 28, 2017
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Nuts & Bolts – Inside Verse Considerations * Alignment

 

Continuing from last week’s Nuts & Bolts – Inside Verse Considerations. 

 

You should give consideration to the alignment and spacing of your inside verse.  You have three controls:  message alignment, vertical alignment and line spacing. Overall the alignment and spacing should be pleasing to the eye in flow, balance, and easily legible.  In general, the default settings are usually best however there are some exceptions like invitation inside text and a few others.  Below we have addressed an important one that often goes overlooked, overlapping text.
 
Overlapping Text:
Depending on the front style chosen, sometimes text from an upper line overlaps text on a lower line. This specifically can happen when a font’s descenders from the upper line happen to fall into the space of ascenders from the lower line. In any case, they overlap and it’s hard to read.  When and if this happens you can either change the font style, add or remove text or the simple fix is to adjust the line spacing allowing more space in between the lines. Voila!  No more overlapping.

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TIP: another important issue with inside verse alignment is where the line breaks fall. Ideally the line breaks occur at the end of a sentence but this rarely happens. There are some considerations and tricks that we will share in next week’s Nuts & Bolts on Inside Verse Considerations * Line Breaks.

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy
GCU Community Manager

 

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Wanted New Cards: Wanted Cards – Get Well / Feel Better Endometriosis Surgery

July 28, 2017
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Wanted Cards – Get Well / Feel Better Endometriosis Surgery
 
GCU offers cards for pretty much any kind of injury, ailment or surgery addressing the human body from literally head to toe!  We’ve added a new category for Endometriosis surgery.

 

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 (Bigstock) 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 inventive,  be clever, be creative. Go for it!

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Rainbow Connection: Summer at the Beach

July 26, 2017
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Here are some lovely Summer Beach color palettes I found this week:

 

 

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from → Rainbow Connection (Colors)

Nuts and Bolts: Inside Verse Considerations

July 21, 2017
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Nuts & Bolts – Inside Verse Considerations

 

Creating a fitting verse that captures the sentiment of your design and the occasion is hard enough but it doesn’t end there. The font style, size, color, and alignment (vertical and horizontal) are all important considerations that are within your control.

 

Choose the best match to the font, design, color, style, mood and occasion of the cover design. It is also important to keep in mind the gender and age of the card recipient.

 

Here is an article on the Submission Guideline – Typography: Font Choice that has some good tips for choosing a font style for a cover design many of which apply to inside verses too.

 

TIP: LEGIBILITY – Some fonts do odd things – odd kerning or characters ,like apostrophes, that you cannot control and may not be ideal to use for an inside verse. Be sure to look at each character in your inside verse and change the font style if needed.

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Thank You Beauty Services

July 20, 2017
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Wanted Cards – Thank You Beauty Services

 

When you find a professional that is good at what they do let them know with a special Thank You!  Beauty services are so personal – when it’s good, it’s great!  When it’s bad, it’s horrible.  These professionals help us put our best face forward and for that we are grateful.

 

Here are some new specific beauty service categories in need of cards:

 

Occasions >> Thank You >> Occasion Specific
>> Eyelash Extension Technician
>> Eyebrow Shaping Professional / Microblading Technician 
>> Hair Removal Technician / Professional
>> Spray Tan Technician / Professional
Please also consider these occupations when creating birthday and holiday cards under >> Occupation Specific. If the specific subcategory is not listed please submit under >> Occupation Specific >> Other.

We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function (Bigstock) 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 inventive,  be clever, be creative. Go for it!

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Font Frenzy: Free Font Bundle

July 18, 2017
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The Hungry Jpeg has a fantastic free font bundle for you this week!
 
This week only, get this beautiful font bundle with 25 fonts worth $279, completely FREE!! and all come ofcourse with a complete Commercial License.
In this bundle, you will find beautiful typefaces from talented designers like GeekMissy, Maroon Baboon, Denise Chandler and a lot more!

 

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Nuts and Bolts: Give Your Low to No Sellers a Facelift II

July 17, 2017
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Nuts & Bolts – Give Your Low to No Sellers a Facelift II

Do you have some cards that have been hanging around for a while with low to no sales? Putting a fresh touch on low performing cards that you’re not 100% happy with is a good idea.

For example here is an  updated card by GCU artist Trudy Wilkerson.
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/TrudysImpressions

Here are some tips:
https://gcucommunity.com/2013/10/01/tips-and-tricks-updating-old-card-designs/

 

And a helpful posting on when to edit an existing card vs starting from scratch:
https://gcucommunity.com/2016/04/29/nuts-and-bolts-change-or-new-submission/

 

TIP: Changing the image of an approved card does carry some risk as the review team does not give it a once over.  If you are changing images on approved cards you are welcome to send an email to the review team with a list of pid#s and ask them for a review.  A second set of eyes never hurts.  If intending to update a like-image collection we suggest you update only one card first and have the review team give it a review before proceeding with the balance.  This will save you time and grief in case your edits to not meet the Submission Guidelines.

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Font Frenzy: Aristelle Family – Free Font

July 14, 2017
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Design Cuts has a nice freebee for you for a limited time only (available untill Friday 21st of July)

 

Aristelle is a beautiful handwritten font by My Creative Land. There are three fonts in the family: Aristelle Script, Aristelle Sans, Aristelle Sans Condensed.


Aristelle comes with included extended product license.

 

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Wanted New Cards: Get Well / Feel Better Cards – Bunion Surgery / Bunionectomy

July 13, 2017
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Wanted Cards – Get Well / Feel Better Cards > Bunion Surgery / Bunionectomy

 

Any foot pain, injury or ailment really takes you out of commission. If you can’t move freely about on your feet you are very limited in caring for yourself and others.

Bunions are very common and very painful. Surgery can provide much relief but the recovery process and time can be difficult and frustrating.

 

The following new category is in need of cards.

Occasions >> Get Well / Feel Better >> Bunion Surgery / Bunionectomy

We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function (Bigstock) 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 inventive,  be clever, be creative. Go for it!

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Nuts and Bolts: Update Custom Request Availability

July 10, 2017
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Nuts & Bolts – Update Custom Request Availability

 

Finding yourself out of town, on vacation or temporarily too busy to accept custom requests?  Be sure to set shoppers expectations by having your Custom Request setting and message accurately reflect your availability.

 

You can change your setting to NO if you are unavailable and change it back to YES upon your return.  Additionally or conversely you can update your message to shoppers to reflect your absence or turnaround time.

 

Setting and message changes are via the Global Preferences page.
Please see this related posting for more about Custom Requests.

 

TIPS

 

* There can be up to a 24 hour delay in your updated message displaying on the site.

 

* Since there are often email deliver-ability issues it is wise to check the Manage Custom Request tool periodically to make sure you have not overlooked any requests.

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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