Design Spotlight: Liz Johnson
Our Design Spotlight falls on Liz Johnson today – interesting technique and good example of leveraging designs for multiple purposes and categories.
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This card is one of a series of “orb cards” which celebrate the seasons.
A photograph featuring seasonal colors is twisted into a circle twirling the colors in dynamic waves. These cards are available as blank cards or with seasonal text. The blank cards have many versatile uses. They are appropriate for either males or females for almost any occasion and could be collected for display as a group. For example, this card would make a different, modern style of holiday card as the orb resembles a holiday tree ornament.
Watch for more cards in this style.
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Happy Holidays!
Wishing all our fellow artists and their families a very wonderful holiday!
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Font Frenzy: Collection of Fonts
Looking for some new fonts to beef up your collection? Give yourself a gift and check out this article from Noupe: There Is No Getting Around These 40 Inescapable Fonts in 2013. Some are good for private and commercial, some private use only – be sure to check each individual fonts TOU (license). There are some nice ones here. Have fun! Below, you’ll see a sample of one of the fonts highlighted in the article.
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Dash of Inspiration: How to Create a Bokeh Effect
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
How to Create a Bokeh Effect
Whether you can master creating a bokeh lighting technique through the camera when you shoot, or you create it digitally as a background for your imagery, it is a lovely effect when done correctly and very versatile in greeting card design.
How to Take Beautiful Bokeh Christmas Images
Creating Faux Bokeh Backgrounds in Photoshop Tutorial
Adobe Photoshop – Create a Bokeh Background
How to make a Bokeh Effect in Gimp
Bokeh Vector Background in Illustrator
So, until next week … Learn … Create … Inspire and MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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Critique Clinic – December 20-22, 2013
How does it work? For three days a week (Friday-Sunday midnight), I will open the clinic to any artist who wants an honest peer review and critique of a card which gets plenty of clicks but no sales, so something’s probably not quite right, or you’ve got a new design you want to test drive, or you’re unsure about the marketability of a card. Or perhaps you’re a newbie who isn’t sure if a card is up to a marketable standard. Anyone is welcome to participate. In fact, I encourage everyone to at least look at the cards in question and read the critique comments – you may learn something. The purpose of the clinic is to help artists improve the commercial appeal and marketability of their cards.
THE RULES
- ONE card per artist only.
- Card must be intended for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- To submit a card for critique, post a link to the card at GCU in the comments section of this clinic post. Allowances will be made if you’ve had a card declined, or made a new design you’d like advice on before submission. Give us the link where we can see the card, such as your private gallery, Flickr, Tinypic, etc. If you do give a private gallery link, be sure your private module gallery is ON. Please do not post links to your Manage Cards section – do you really want strangers tinkering with your cards? And please don’t ask us to critique a card that’s pending review – we can’t see it until it’s approved.
- Any artist is free to comment and/or give a critique of a submitted card. HOWEVER, post-and-run comments like “great card” or “you suck” will not be tolerated, nor will abuse. Criticism should be constructive, not destructive. Play nice or you will be banned.
- I also won’t tolerate temper tantrums if you decide your “artistic integrity” is being stepped on because you asked for a critique, and someone told you the photo you’re using isn’t in focus. If you can’t take honest criticism, don’t submit. Once gets you a warning; twice and you’re banned from submitting in the future.
- Artists who critique may do so by giving their opinion, posting an example of another card, or pointing the submitter to a video, on-line article, or other helpful suggestion.
- Don’t forget that artists who are giving you tips and helpful advice are volunteering their time and trouble. Be nice. A link back to their store on your website or blog is appreciated (but not mandatory).
- You are free not to take any advice offered. There’s no guarantee any card will be a bestseller, so don’t come into the clinic with unrealistic expectations.
- Rules may change as we go along and we see how things turn out, okay?
So without any further ado, I declare this week’s Critique Clinic open!
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Nuts and Bolts: Image Inside Card for Customer
HOW TO PUT AN IMAGE INSIDE A CARD
AT THE CUSTOMER’S REQUEST
Suppose you have a customer who wants a custom image INSIDE your card. Can it be done? Yes!
If they want to do it themselves, they can upload an inside image during the card ordering process.
It is also possible for an artist to put an image on the inside of a card, but only if this is done on behalf of a customer (or if they’re buying the card themselves). We cannot currently add an image to the inside of a card for general sale.
How do you do it? Read on and we’ll take you through the process step by step.
- You must be logged in to your GCU artist’s account.
- This is set up so you have to act as if you’re purchasing the card yourself. Don’t worry, you don’t have to actually buy anything. Just go to the card and click the button: Personalize Inside.
- Beneath the view of the card’s inside, you’ll see a link: Upload an image for the inside of card. Click on that link and follow the instructions to upload your image.
- Once you are finished, click Next Step.
- You will be asked for your shipping information. If you’ve never purchased a card from GCU, you will need to fill in the boxes. Don’t panic. You aren’t buying the card. When you’re finished, hit Next.
- Okay, this is what you’ve been working for. On the screen, you’ll see a link: Share Card Link. Click it. A box will pop up containing a URL.
- Copy this URL and send it to the customer. When they click on this special link, they will be allowed to purchase the card you’ve just customized.
- DO NOT REMOVE the card from your shopping cart until AFTER the shopper has purchased the card. If you delete it, the shopper can’t make the purchase. Savvy?
And there you have it. Once the customer has made their purchase, you can easily go to your shopping cart and delete the card.
Remember, this only works for cards you’re customizing for your own purchase or for a customer. This will not work for cards for sale to general customers.
Have any of you artists tried this out? If so, how easy/difficult was it to add text or (if you know) for the customer to add text to the inside after the image was uploaded and the card made available to them? Any other tips? Leave a comment!
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Custom Corner: Eugenia Bacon
We’ve got an interesting Custom Corner story today featuring Eugenia Bacon. As we know, customers have the ability to make a request from an artist to customize a card to their own specifications and wishes.
This is the original card:
Cute card! She received the following request from a customer:
” Hi, could you remove the bear and the duck from the front of the card and place two cute bear paws in their place. I would like the bear paws to be the same color as the bear that was originally on the front cover. Then on the inside, instead of the writing could you place the bear there. Right in the center. Thank you!”
So Eugenia created this design:
She even included an image inside the card for the customer!
Congratulations, Eugenia, for handling the request so beautifully. You’re a wonderful artist.
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Design Spotlight: Mary Taylor
Our Design Spotlight falls on Mary Taylor of Gable End Cards – cute design!
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I love this card, probably i have had a lot to do with dogs over the years. Working dogs in outback Australia, and pet dogs since I have had a family. They look so whimsical ans sweet, and I thing in the spirit of Valentine’s Day.
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Dash of Inspiration: Gifts From a Fontaholic
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
Gifts From a Fontaholic
As we draw nearer to the celebrations this time of year offers, I thought I’d keep it simple and pass on a few gifts of Commercial Use Fonts, most free or small donation. One can never have too many fonts in their design arsenal!
More than 2,000 fonts for $27 all for CU
RM Typerighter (not my spelling error)
Fun additions for those Chalkboard Designs:
For our newbie artists, also check out my “Diaries of a Fontaholic” series for more great fonts!
So, until next week … Learn … Create … Inspire!
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Critique Clinic – December 13-15, 2013
How does it work? For three days a week (Friday-Sunday midnight), I will open the clinic to any artist who wants an honest peer review and critique of a card which gets plenty of clicks but no sales, so something’s probably not quite right, or you’ve got a new design you want to test drive, or you’re unsure about the marketability of a card. Or perhaps you’re a newbie who isn’t sure if a card is up to a marketable standard. Anyone is welcome to participate. In fact, I encourage everyone to at least look at the cards in question and read the critique comments – you may learn something. The purpose of the clinic is to help artists improve the commercial appeal and marketability of their cards.
THE RULES
- ONE card per artist only.
- Card must be intended for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- To submit a card for critique, post a link to the card at GCU in the comments section of this clinic post. Allowances will be made if you’ve had a card declined, or made a new design you’d like advice on before submission. Give us the link where we can see the card, such as your private gallery, Flickr, Tinypic, etc. If you do give a private gallery link, be sure your private module gallery is ON. Please do not post links to your Manage Cards section – do you really want strangers tinkering with your cards? And please don’t ask us to critique a card that’s pending review – we can’t see it until it’s approved.
- Any artist is free to comment and/or give a critique of a submitted card. HOWEVER, post-and-run comments like “great card” or “you suck” will not be tolerated, nor will abuse. Criticism should be constructive, not destructive. Play nice or you will be banned.
- I also won’t tolerate temper tantrums if you decide your “artistic integrity” is being stepped on because you asked for a critique, and someone told you the photo you’re using isn’t in focus. If you can’t take honest criticism, don’t submit. Once gets you a warning; twice and you’re banned from submitting in the future.
- Artists who critique may do so by giving their opinion, posting an example of another card, or pointing the submitter to a video, on-line article, or other helpful suggestion.
- Don’t forget that artists who are giving you tips and helpful advice are volunteering their time and trouble. Be nice. A link back to their store on your website or blog is appreciated (but not mandatory).
- You are free not to take any advice offered. There’s no guarantee any card will be a bestseller, so don’t come into the clinic with unrealistic expectations.
- Rules may change as we go along and we see how things turn out, okay?
So without any further ado, I declare this week’s Critique Clinic open!
GCU Community 