Dash of Inspiration: Overlays
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
Overlays 
Overlays can be wonderful tools for making backgrounds, patterns and photo cards. There are two types of overlays. Those which are imagery and textures which you overlay onto a new image or color, then adjest the opacity to create a texture and/or pattern which you can use in many designs. The second type of overlay is creating a frame with or without text to lay over a photograph which are great for creating photo cards.
Today I offer you first, two tutorials if overlays are new to you – these will help you understand how to create them and offer you some ideas for using overlays in new card designs.
Overlays to Create Papers (patterns) by melstampz.blogspot.com
Photoshop Videos – Creating Overlays by KarenIka.com
I also found these wonderful color palettes and pattern overlays for you to get started creating your own delightful patterns to use in your card creations.
12 beautiful color palettes by Graphics Fuel
15 pixel patterns by Graphics Fuel
Texture overlays are wonderful to completely change the mood of your imagery.
Set of texture overlays by NinianLif
Free Snow Overlays by Florabella Collection
For those new to the GCU Community you can catch up with our Dash of Inspiration posts here: Salon of Art Dash of Inspiration
Card Image for this week’s post by Maria Dryfhout, a beautiful example of using added texture overlays in your card designs.
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Critique Clinic – August 4-5, 2012
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 recently submitted 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 for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- We will take an unlimited number of artists, including those who have submitted recently, HOWEVER I reserve the right to close a clinic for the day if the submissions become overwhelming. If the clinic has been closed, and you submit a card, your comment will be deleted.
- 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. Give us the link where we can see the card, such as your private gallery, Flickr, etc.
- 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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Design Spotlight: Laurie Schneider
Today’s Design Spotlight shines on Laurie Schneider, who recently won the Design of the Day for this very card!
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Seriously, this is one of my favorites because I had to leave my comfort zone and challenge myself to create it.
Normally my main subjects are my wonderful little boys (raccoons). It was returned for edits, but with the help that Reviewer 443 gave me, I was able to create a design worthy of GCU. The reviewers are always very helpful and I very much appreciate them all.
What inspired me was my husband of 35 fantastic years whom I love with all my heart. I am very pro-marriage because I have had such a wonderful one so I wanted to design a line of wedding cards.
I have three beautiful, grown daughters that I am very proud of who encourage me to create card designs. They look over what I design and give me their opinion on whether I should try again or submit it.:)
I love creating different designs from the photographs that I take. I spend hours at my computer and love every minute of it. I always have my camera ready to take photos because I believe beauty can be found almost anywhere if you take the time to look.
As I mentioned, raccoons are my main subject, although I have a wide variety of different subjects. The raccoons are Rocky, Bullwinkle and Sugar Bear. They are 6 year old males and are licensed Wildlife Ambassadors. They could not be released into the wild successfully because of numerous reasons, so they are kept in captivity for education. I do not believe in caging an animal, so they live a very privileged life in my home with my family and me.
I have been a wildlife rehabilitor for a very long time and love it. There is no better feeling then helping an orphaned animal begin its journey into the wild or to release an adult back into the wild.
When I am not busy with my family or with animals, I create greeting cards. I love opening my email and seeing that I made some sales. It gives me such a great feeling to know that someone liked my card enough to buy it! I am always excited about creating something new and hopefully will continue to do so for many years to come.
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Rainbow Connection: Shades of Winter
Since Doreen just concluded a wonderful, resources rich 5-part post on Christmas in July – yes, savvy card designers work in advance of the holiday so their cards have a chance to be indexed by search engines – I thought I’d share some lovely winter palettes.This particular palette is composed of colors for Hanukkah (or Chanukkah, Chanukah, Hanukah – however you want to spell it) which are blues and golds.
More Christmas-y and cool blue winter color palettes – such as those suitable for a winter wedding or winter baby announcement – can be found here: 15 Amazing Winter Inspired Palettes
As always, these are RGB colors. I’ve given you the hex numbers to make it easy to use these colors in your favorite graphics editing program. Have fun!
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Tips and Tricks: How to Write Card Descriptions
Did you know that search engines are much more likely to index your card quickly if you include a card description?
Some artists use the Artist’s Notes section for a generic message, such as informing customers they’re willing to customize colors, etc. Or thanking shoppers for choosing their cards. While this is nice, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not including a detailed product description.
True, shoppers use GCU’s on-site search for cards. However, we still get plenty of sales from off-site searches, and you can bet that part of our success (and the fact that we’ve sold new designs literally within a couple of days of being uploaded) is that we’ve been adding product descriptions to our cards for over a year. It works.
I know that not everybody is comfortable with writing product descriptions, so I’ll teach you a very easy method. Don’t worry about keywords or buzzwords or anything like that right now. Just take a look at this card:
First, use your eyes. What do you see? Illustrated nurses and doctors… welcome to the surgery team…
Good. Now what’s the card for? What’s it’s purpose? To welcome new members to a surgical unit.
Who will likely buy this card? A hospital or clinic.
Let’s put our information together in a sentence.
“An illustration of male and female doctors and nurses with the phrase ‘Welcome to the Surgery Team.'”
That’s the basic description. It’s adequate, but how much better will it be if you add a little more detail? Remember those questions we asked up there? Now we add that information.
“An illustration of male and female doctors and nurses with the phrase ‘Welcome to the Surgery Team.’ Perfect for hospital or clinic to make a new member of the surgical team feel welcome.”
Now what about keywords and buzzwords?
Keywords describe what the card depicts and it’s purpose. I think we’ve hit the mark there. Buzzwords are like tinsel on a Christmas tree – embellishments meant to draw attention. Buzzwords might include words like trendy, modern, fashionable, contemporary, cute, sweet, scrapbook-style, hand drawn, etc.
For this particular card, I don’t really need any buzzwords.
See how simple it is to create a product description?
Let’s try another card, this time by another artist:
What do you see? Remember what we learned above, just ask yourself the right questions.
“A group of hand drawn men and women reaching for the stars in a night scene on a green striped background.”
There’s the basic information. Let’s add a bit to that, and don’t forget an important buzzword:
“A multicultural group of men and women reaching for the stars in a night scene on a green striped background. Perfect card to welcome a new employee or new hire to your team.”
How easy was that! Anybody can do it. And if you’re really stuck, feel free to submit a card to the Critique Clinic, right here every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Just ask, and we’ll help you craft a description that’s sure to draw attention to your creation and help you make sales.
Remember, artists who describe their products get more love from search engines than artists who don’t. Can you afford to do without? I can’t, and I think artists looking for sales can’t, either.
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Dash of Inspiration – Christmas in July, Part 5
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
Christmas in July, Part V
Week five and the final week of our Christmas in July Series – This week I’m offering a list of places to look for holiday elements for your creations. Whether you simply find inspiration by browsing some of these resources or whether you find goodies you just can’t live without, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the selection. I did spend a bit of time researching these links and feel fairly confident that all these resources can be used for your card making, though you still need to read TOU carefully.
Scrap Girls CU Digital Scrapbooking Kits
High Quality Images for CU by Sam Mugraby
Sam used to offer these images free of charge as long as you followed the rules to give him credit, but after consistent abuse of his simple TOU – he’s changed to paying a licensing fee. The fee is worth it though. I can offer personal experience that Sam’s images are of the highest quality and well worth the fee.
Public Domain Religious Images
PLEASE remember two things, even though these are in the Public Domain IF you use them on your cards; give credit where credit is due AND add the link to the image(s) you are using in your Reviewer’s Notes section for quicker review at GCU. Also, be careful to pay attention to the size of the image you chose to download; for professional greeting card use, unless you have some special software tools and a lot of expertise, up-sizing these images will cause you severe quality issues.
For those new to the GCU Community you can catch up with our Dash of Inspiration posts here: Salon of Art Dash of Inspiration
This an example of creating a derivative work from a public domain painting. Here is the original public domain image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:August_Schleich_Rotwild.jpg
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Critique Clinic – July 27-29, 2012
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 recently submitted 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 for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- We will take an unlimited number of artists, including those who have submitted recently, HOWEVER I reserve the right to close a clinic for the day if the submissions become overwhelming. If the clinic has been closed, and you submit a card, your comment will be deleted.
- 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. Give us the link where we can see the card, such as your private gallery, Flickr, etc.
- 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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Rainbow Connection: Coffee
Most people drink coffee on a daily basis. Whether you prefer the perfect cappuccino, espresso, Americano, au lait, latte, mocha, frappucino, macchiato, or just plain black coffee – the shades of brown, khaki, tan, and cream fit with many complimentary colors like pink, orange, blue, etc. And since brown paired with an accent color like blue remains a popular choice among designers, having coffee inspired palettes in your arsenal will never go out of style!
Want more? Check out 15 Delicious Coffee Inspired Color Palettes. Some VERY nice palettes here!
As always, these are RGB colors. I’ve given you the hex numbers to make it easy to use these colors in your favorite graphics editing program. Have fun!
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Design Spotlight: Lora Severson
Today’s Design Spotlight shines on Lora Severson, a wonderful photographer with an amazing eye for detail!
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I am a certified floral and nature photographer and mother of two from St Charles, Illinois.
I love to take pictures of flowers and create wedding invitations, announcements and cards using my images. I have always wanted an outlet to sell my photographs, and through GCU and the Print on Demand Industry, I am able to do so.
Sunflowers are my absolute favorite flower and I love to use them in my products.
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Tips and Tricks: Custom Requests
I hear from GCU that customer requests remain a popular option for shoppers looking for that extra special, personalized card design – yay!
I also hear that at the moment, a more than usual amount of custom requests are going unanswered. That’s not so yay.
If you’re going on vacation and taking a summer holiday, remember that you can alter your automatic message to customers by going to Manage Store > Images & Cards > Global Preferences. Here you can make changes to your custom request message such as, “On vacation and unavailable until 8/12. If your request can wait until then, I’ll contact you on my return.”
If you don’t want to accept custom requests at all for whatever reason, then go through the same steps above, except your custom request message should then be something like, “Thank you for your interest in my cards at GCU. At this time, I am not accepting custom requests. I’m sure another artists will be able to better accommodate you. Have a great day.”
At that point, if you STILL get a custom request (because let’s face it, people sometimes don’t read), then do not ignore it. Send the customer a message stating that you aren’t doing custom requests OR “reject” the request via the custom request tool (see below).
The point is, you need to make some kind of contact, not just let these requests languish.
And speaking of contact… some artists are hitting “REPLY” to the notification e-mail. This sends your reply to GCU, not the customer! Instead, you should be using the custom request tool on the GCU site.
You’ll find a link in the notification e-mail, but you can also go to Manage Store > Images & Cards > Manage Custom Requests where you’ll find a list of all your custom requests. You can contact requestor, accept request, and reject request. It works, so start using it.
If you have questions re: custom requests, let’s have ’em. There are plenty of experienced artists here who are willing to help.
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