Design Spotlight: Ela’s Greeting Card Store
Today’s Design Spotlight shines on Angela and Sheila of Ela’s Greeting Card Store, new artists who joined in May 2015 with a beautiful idea and lovely designs!
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Sheila’s discovering the need for greater selection of greeting cards to show appreciation and encouragement to Caregivers and Angela’s desire to bless and inspire others through art work resulted in Ela’s Greeting Card Store. Our mission is to create cards for all the many ways to express gratitude and recognition and validation to Caregivers for all the reasons and seasons they deserve.
This image and all card images to be on Ela’s Greeting Card Store are of original watercolor paintings by Angela D. Mathew and the verses and phrases in the cards are by Sheila Wilson and Angela D. Mathew. ( ShEiLA and AngELA).
The inspiration for this watercolor painting was the personal growth we acquire by life changes, and by the coming of new opportunities to increase our own peace and joy that we bring to every encounter.
Our Facebook Page is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Elas-Greeting-Card-Store/910941478945240
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The Rainbow Connection: Tiny PMS Match
Tiny PMS Match is the Tumblr project of a photographer who took pictures of objects, plants, etc. and matched their Pantone color, creating a cute resource for color-philes. The site is no longer being updated because the owner is in the process of publishing a hardcover book of the photos, but the archive is still a useful resource. See an example below and have fun!
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Dash of Inspiration: FREEBIE Week
Here are some FREEBIES for your design arsenal – as always, be sure to thoroughly read and follow the contributors TOU (Terms of Use), and to offer that link in your Notes to Reviewer when you utilize 3rd party resources.
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It’s summer in my next of the woods, so I thought you might find this set of Big Grungy Stripe patterns useful.
Flat Grungy Summer Stripes by WebTreatsETC
Here’s a fun Font addition for those casual and chalkboard style designs.
Swistblnk Monthoers font — Created in 2014 by swistblnk
Layering textures over your creations and photographs is a wonderful look and still very prominent in design.
10 Simply Subtle Grunge Texture Pack by Lost & Taken
Here’s a gorgeous set of papers which are quite elegant.
Cottage Memories Digital Scrapbooking Papers by StarSunFlower Studio
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Remember to check out our “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue” Dash of Inspiration Design Challenge for July!
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So until next week … Learn … Create … Inspire!
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Wanted: New Cards – Grandparents Day, Across the Miles
Every week, we showcase a GCU category that has few or no cards. We’d like you to create at least one card for this category 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 – cards submitted for underused categories are much more likely to be approved provided they follow the Submission Guidelines. Be inventive, be clever, be creative. Good luck!
Today’s category with 4 cards is:
Holidays – Grandparents Day – Across the Miles/Far Away
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Design Spotlight: Natalie Linn
Today’s Design Spotlight shines on Natalie Linn, a new GCU artist who joined in June 2015 with her delightful designs!
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Koi Fish Pond is a vector illustration of exotic Japanese koi fish swimming among the waterlilies. Koi is a brightly colored ornamental variety of a common carp domesticated in Japan. They are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds and water gardens. The art is meant to communicate peace and tranquility, and can be used for many different occasions.
Natalia Linn a. k. a. Chibibi, is a digital artist (hobbyist). Art is influenced by Japanese Kawaii and Chibi styles and leans toward minimalistic, cartoonish, and… cute. Most of the artwork is created on iPad in vector format. Favorite tools include iDraw and Procreate. To see more of the artwork visit Chibibi shops at:
redbubble.com/people/chibibikun/shop
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Tips and Tricks: Free Vector Textures and Patterns
Spoon Graphics is offering Free Vector Distressed Half-Tone Patterns for Adobe Illustrator and Free Vector Halftone Textures. OK ffor commercial use, but always double check the TOU. Excellent way to embellish your backgrounds or add a highlighting element to graphics in your designs. See below for examples. Have fun!
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Tips and Tricks: Photo Resources
Noupe has posted an article, The Ultimate List of Completely Free Images: 43 Hand Picked Resources on their website. Although the article claims all the resources are OK for any and all use and do not require attribution or a back link and Noupe is usually reliable, you’ll want to check individual TOU/licensing terms for each site and make a note for your Notes to Reviewer. Have fun!
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Dash of Inspiration: July Design Challenge
Our winner for July is once again, Barbara Schreiber with PID 1387816
Our runner up this month is Julia Bryant with PID 1387680
Yes, Barbara won the June challenge – and Julia has been in the winning circle before as well, but we want to assure you once again that the judging panel has no idea who created these entries. It’s a ‘blind’ jury panel (anonymous entries which the judges see); and only when the winners and participants are revealed to you, do the judges know the names of the artists belonging to the entries. Barbara and Julia taking winning placements more than once in these challenges, is purely due to their attention to detail, skill and creativity. Well done ladies, we should all inspire to reach your level!
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This month’s challenge is all about creating something new by using various elements to create a new derivative work from vintage and how important, as well as inspiring, it can be to do research for a new idea. To help convey what we’re after this round, below I show you the elements I used in my example to help you visualize the possibilities. …………………………………………………………………………
July Design Challenge
Theme: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.
Requirements:
Something Old = Vintage: Choose a vintage piece of art or element (must be in Public Domain) – keep in mind, when using vintage elements, you should be ‘restoring’ areas which are unpleasing, this includes repairing scratches, improving tonal and saturation values, correcting color cast, etc.
Something New = New to the Vintage Piece. Add at least one element to the vintage art to create something new and different. The element should add to the ‘theme/message’ you wish to convey. Bows, ribbons, text frames, etc. are not alone considered added value for this challenge.
Something Borrowed = Words in Public Domain. Choose words from a song, poem, verse, or quote in Public Domain. You can use as little as one line and add your own to it like I did, but it should be a ‘recognizable borrow’.
Something Blue = Add something blue to your new design. Small or large, no matter as long as it’s visible and a different element than any of those above. Here you can see what I worked with and what my end result was: 
Doreen Erhardt©2015 – July Challenge Example
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Entry Deadline: July 29th, 2015 (ending on a Wednesday this month) ……………………………………………………………….
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 Category / Any Occasion
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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: July 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: Entries will be submitted anonymously for judging by the GCU Challenge Jury with results posting on the Community Blog – with results being posted by August 3rd. 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 17,000 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 can not be 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 over 800 followers.
- 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!
2nd Place:
- Your submission will be Design of the Day the following week of announcing the Challenge winners (within 7-days).
EXCEPTION: Horizontal (landscape) cards can not be 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.
Tips and Tricks: Public Domain Images
Tips and Tricks: Public Domain Quotations
Dash of Inspiration: DIY Public Domain
Dash of Inspiration – Finding CU Elements
Dash of Inspiration: Blending of Elements
Dash of Inspiration – Clean Background Removal
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GCU wants our vintage creations to stand out from all the other sites where people simply slap the vintage image on a card without adding value as a designer. If you are a painter or illustrator, you can use the vintage as your reference in a new piece and add the other elements to meet the challenge. If you’re like me, a digital designer, then this challenge will test (and hopefully improve) your digital art techniques. Have fun!
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Additional participants were:
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Wanted: New Cards – Holidays, Labor Day, Religious
Every week, we showcase a GCU category that has few or no cards. We’d like you to create at least one card for this category 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 – cards submitted for underused categories are much more likely to be approved provided they follow the Submission Guidelines. Be inventive, be clever, be creative. Good luck! Today’s category with 1 card is: Holidays – Labor Day – Religious 
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Design Spotlight: Dream Essence Designs
Today our Design Spotlight falls on Dream Essence Designs, a new artist who joined GCU in 2015. Such lovely dream catchers!
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I am a fantasy artist mostly painting fairies, elves and unicorns but I also enjoy painting adventure scenes with people and animals such as horses and wolves.
The artwork usually begins with a pencil sketch and then is completed in a digital art program.
I collect dream catchers. I love them! When I visit my Dad up near Sonora we often go to Jamestown or Columbia and they always have various dream catchers from earrings to wall hangings. We have made a point to go on dream catcher shopping sprees and I have never been disappointed with what we have found. They are beautiful and helped to inspire me to make my own dream catcher design. I put a lot of work into it and am pleased it has been a popular design for me. I designed it to be an artwork of encouragement and inspiration. Go after your dream, work hard for it and make it happen.
My Pinterest site is here https://www.pinterest.com/dreamessence/
GCU Community 