The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted Cards – Twins / Triplets / Quads 1st St. Patrick’s Day
Double or triple the luck of the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day with cards for baby twins, triplets or quads 1st holiday.
Please consider new cards for this subcategory:
Remember to follow the ordinal superscript guidelines if you use 1st on the cover. And consider design variations for gender, skin and hair color that should also be fortified in your metadata.
Lastly, here are some holiday appropriate tips for St. Patrick’s Day.
Note: cid# is the speed entry method of adding a category to your card via category id number (cid#) vs using search terms or click and hunt. See here on the blog:
To expedite the review of these cards, please check Fast Track Review on the card image details page when you create your card and add a Note for Reviewers like “for BLOG– Wanted Cards”.
Consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track. Remember, when you’re submitting your new stock 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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Dash of Inspiration: March 2024 Design Challenge
We are going to try something new and fun this month so read the instructions carefully in order to participate and good luck!
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Theme: Make Over – Old is now NEW
Requirements:
- Choose an old card in your store which has no sales and give it a make over by creating a NEW card. DO NOT change the old card – but DO reference the PID of the old card in your posting of the NEW cards challenge submission.
- The category and recipient MUST REMAIN the same as the old card.
- The wording of the message, both card front and verse, may be modified as long as the overall theme of the original card is not changed.
- Blank cards will not be considered for entry in this challenge.
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Entry Deadline: Sunday, March 31st
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How to Enter: Post the PID (card number) of the NEW CARD – AND – the PID of the OLD CARD with the URL (public storefront link of BOTH the old and new versions – please WAIT for the new 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:
The SAME category as the card the new submission is replacing. Once the challenge is over, GCU will take the OLD version offline, so choose wisely.
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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: March Design Challenge Submission – AND – include the PID of the card it’s replacing, 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 or it will not be included in the challenge.
- Stock Card Creations entries will not be accepted.
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BLIND Judging: We hope each of you enters every month. Entries are submitted anonymously for judging by the GCU Challenge Jury which means that before and during the challenge, judges do not have any way of knowing what artist is behind each entry. This eliminates any and all concerns with ‘favoritism’. Results will post on the Community Blog. The jury will judge the entries on the following criteria:
- How well the card meets the Challenge Requirements and Theme.
- How well the card make over appeals to the marketplace.
- Creativity, Execution, Professionalism 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 – over 55,000 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 may not be featured as 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 GCU’s Pinterest Page followers: 13.34k!
- 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!
- GCU will create a Meet the Team board for the winning artist under the Pinterest GCU account where the winning artist will be able to pin and promote her own storefront and all that makes them a unique card designer and one of GCU’s artistic community team member.
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Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 10.6k followers and counting!
- GCU will create a Meet the Team board for the winning artist under the Pinterest GCU account where the winning artist will be able to pin and promote her own storefront and all that makes them a unique card designer and one of GCU’s artistic community team member.
- 10 free greeting card credits added to your GCU account. Apply them at checkout and they never expire.
- A Design Challenge GCU digital award for 2024!
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 may not be featured as 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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Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 10.6k followers and counting!
- 5 free greeting card credits added to your GCU account. Apply them at checkout and they never expire.
- A Design Challenge GCU digital award for 2024!
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Tips:
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Be inspired to create and learn something new!
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Wanted Cards – Easter for Great Great Granddaughter / Great Great Grandson
Easter is near and early this year on March 31st. Please consider creating new cards for Easter to a Great Great Grandson and Great Great Granddaughter.
Remember great great grandchildren come in all ages, just not littles. Create designs accordingly as well as fortify your meta-data for age range:
New cards should go here accordingly:
Holidays >> Easter >> For Family Relation Specific >> Great Great Granddaughter cid#37932
and
Holidays >> Easter >> For Family Relation Specific >> Great Great Granddaughter cid#37934
Note: cid# is the speed entry method of adding a category to your card via category id number (cid#) vs using search terms or click and hunt. See here on the blog:
To expedite the review of these cards, please check Fast Track Review on the card image details page when you create your card and add a Note for Reviewers like “for BLOG– Wanted Cards”.
Consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track. Remember, when you’re submitting your new stock 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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Freebie Wednesday: Free English Tea Set Collection
Discover the essence of English elegance with our exquisite English Tea Set Watercolor Collection. Elevate your designs with 24 high-resolution JPEG and PNG files featuring delicate tea cups, vintage tea pots, floral patterns, and more. Perfect for invitations, stationery, and home decor projects, this charming bundle brings the timeless charm of tea time to life in stunning watercolor illustrations. Experience the beauty today at TheHungryJPEG.com!
Available for free download for 6 more days, so don’t miss out!
Comes with complete commercial license.
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Nuts & Bolts: Reminder February 2024 Design Challenge
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Birthday for Esthetician
Wanted Cards – Birthday for Esthetician
Pamper someone who pampers you! One special service is a skin care professional; an esthetician.
Please consider creating cards for this new sub-category. These cards should go here:
Birthday >> Occupation Specific >> Esthetician cid#37902
Note: cid# is the speed entry method of adding a category to your card via category id number (cid#) vs using search terms or click and hunt. See here on the blog:
To expedite the review of these cards, please check Fast Track Review on the card image details page when you create your card and add a Note for Reviewers like “for BLOG– Wanted Cards”.
Consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track. Remember, when you’re submitting your new stock 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 & Bolts: Best of 2023 Feature Page
Nuts & Bolts – Best of 2023 Feature Page
GCU proudly announced the Best of 2023 Founders’ Choice Award winners! See all the winners here on their very own landing page which is linked from GCU’s homepage.
Best of 2023 Founders’ Choice Award Winners
This is GCU’s annual “Best of” awards as part of the monthly Design Challenge series. Be sure to check each month’s challenge as it may be a perfect opportunity for you to submit a design that’s been on your mind, or something totally new, getting you outside of your comfort zone or overcoming an artist’s block.
Design Challenges are run each month and announced on both the GCU community blog and GCU Design Challenge forum board. There is still some time to enter February’s challenge, see details here.
Tip: for a design challenge, and any new card for that matter, take a look at what is currently offered in the category and do a little brainstorming to offer something DIFFERENT not just more of the same. This will help your card stand out from the crowd and offer shoppers more choices, and ultimately sales!
Here are some Design Challenge Tips from GCU artist Betsy Bush.
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Paintball Bachelor Party Invitation
Wanted Cards – Paintball Bachelor Party Invitation
A themed bachelor party adds to the fun and what better “clean” fun than a paintball themed bachelor party offering bonding and a relatively safe adrenaline rush.
These Invitations should go here:
Invitations >> Bachelor Party >> Paintball cid#37900
Note: cid# is the speed entry method of adding a category to your card via category id number (cid#) vs using search terms or click and hunt. See here on the blog:
To expedite the review of these cards, please check Fast Track Review on the card image details page when you create your card and add a Note for Reviewers like “for BLOG– Wanted Cards”.
Consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track. Remember, when you’re submitting your new stock 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 & Bolts: Re-run Designer’s Schedule
Please reflect back on Designer’s Schedule
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
GCU Community 