Design Spotlight: Christie Black
Today’s Design Spotlight comes from Christie Black at Creations From the Heart, a wonderful humorous illustrator.
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This is not my biggest seller, but it is my best seller of cards sold in singles, and this card is “favorited” the most. I chose it because I think it speaks volumes about what I love to do most as an artist…draw animals and play with words! This is one of my earlier cards added to GCU, so I wish I could remember if there was some interesting story behind why I drew it. However, it was probably just drawn on a whim. I really love drawing animals, and adding personality through expressions is always fun for me. My other love is putting a spin on words so I look for any opportunity to do so!
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We’ve got a winner!
Maryann Nolan has won our first contest – congratulations! And thanks to everyone who participated.
We’ll be announcing a new contest tomorrow. Hang onto your hats, peeps. You could win a $50 gift certificate from Amazon.com, which ain’t exactly chicken feed. 🙂
Stay tuned for the details.
Corrie
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Dash of Inspiration – May 9, 2011
A Dash of Inspiration…A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
The Text Says it All
For years prior to joining GCU, I was selling blank cards, however creating greetings with text was a new experience for me and one that I struggled with for months. Coming up with what to say has never stumped me, it was applying text to my artwork and having it legible, eye-catching and yet subtle enough to not overpower the image that was my challenge. The first step of tackling text on greeting cards requires experimenting with fonts. Though there are a tremendous amount of fonts out there that offer free commercial license, just because a font looks cool doesn’t mean it’s a good choice for a greeting card. Look at best selling card styles and you’ll see that the font styling blends well with the mood of the card.
Placement of the text is also critical to marketability. Greeting Card Publishers will tell you to place your message within the top third of the design for cards being sold in physical store locations, because that is the part a potential customer sees in card racks; however at GCU your options are truly endless. Think about placement carefully, if your text is placed over an area of the card that does not have a solid background, then you need to work harder to make that message pop. Consider using a drop shadow, bevel, outside glow or style to your text to ‘raise’ it from the image. Other ways of accomplishing this is to place something behind the text, such as a faded or colored strip.
Today’s tutorial comes to us from Text Tuts and will give you a basic understanding of how to use your photo editing tools to create styles you like. This tutorial will help you create a nice looking Gold Metallic Style. Also included are links to 10 Awesome Script Fonts and Yummy Text Styles. Always be sure to look at the license for use, I try to review all of them for you, but it’s your responsibility to double check! For those of you using Photoshop Elements, supposedly presets created for CS-5 work perfectly in Elements so give it a try.
Here are some examples of mine to inspire you to make text work for you!
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Guest Blog: Peggy Mundell – Photographing Pets
Today we have Peggy Mundell from DogBreedz, and she’s sharing with us some of her super tips for photographing pets (she’s a pro). Pay attention, folks – this is a guest blog chock full of sound advice!
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Photographing Pets for Greeting Cards
In last week’s Design Spotlight, Ernestine Grindal showed us that a snapshot of our dear pet can be turned into a fantastic greeting card that many can enjoy. And yet, when you submit your favorite fur-kid home photo, the Reviewers kick it back to you for edits. Or worse, they deny your card all together – what gives? My goal today is to give you hints to overcome some common problems when photographing pets and tips on how to make more of those photos usable in your GCU cards.
First things first – keep your camera within reach! How many times have you seen that oh-so-adorable sleeping puppy shot, but when you even think about getting up to find your camera, the moment is gone and your pup is at your feet, ready for the next adventure of the day? Having your camera always less than an arm-length away means you will have more opportunities to capture those “awwww!” moments.
Point of view can make a ho-hum photo into one that pops and gets the shoppers’ attention. Instead of standing to take the photo, get down on your pet’s level. Lay on the ground, or if your pet is in a chair then kneel down before you focus and click. A different perspective is often what capture’s a viewer’s attention.
Is red-eye an issue for you? The ol’ devil eye is caused by light reflecting off the retina in the back of the pet’s eye – the red is because of the blood vessels back there. Either shoot in a well-lit area so the pupils are not dialated (and therefore letting less light into the eye) or if your camera has a “double flash” feature, make use of it. The first flash will constrict the pupils and the second flash will light the scene for the photo. No double flash feature? If you can cover the flash with cheesecloth, it will allow the light to come thru while diffusing it just enough to reduce the red eye. Even better, if you can move the flash off the camera at all, having it on a different plane or angle from the camera lens will do the trick too. Of course there is always post-processing programs to help correct red-eye, if you have access to one.
Now you are jumping with joy – you know that your last photo HAS to be the photo-of-the-year, without a doubt! Your cutie-patootie pet just jumped up to bat at a butterfly and your camera was ready! But wait … when you look at it, all you see is a blurry tip of a tail – how the heck did THAT happen?! Many common point-n-shoot cameras have a slight delay – even tho you pushed the shutter at the precise moment Fido hit the top of his high-jump, the delay had you missing the shot. If your camera is one of those – be ready to take the photo a second before the height of the action. Or, turn your attentions to the more sedate, yet just as adorable shots.
Work on training in everyday life. Teach your pooch to sit on command before the food bowl hits the ground at dinner time and you can use that handy sit command when setting up a “spontaneous” shot. You have your dog now in a perfect sit, but his attention is elsewhere once the camera is raised? Hold the camera with one hand, and in the other hand have his favorite toy, a ball ready to throw, or a super yummy to-die-for treat – as you bring that hand in closer to the lens of the camera, you’ll have a dog that is posing like the true ham that he is when you take the shot. The next time your Rover guts a squeaky toy, don’t throw the squeaker out with the stuffing. When you are out at the park or exploring the back yard, focus on your pet and give a couple of quick squeaks – the head will come up and snap to attention in your direction for a perfect photo! Does Fluffy have a favorite spot where she likes to hang out? Hang a solid color sheet behind to cut down on the clutter that will show in your final photo – and have an instant home studio!
These are just a few tricks that I use in my professional photo shoots. I hope they come in handy while you take your own photos. Let’s see those animals on your greeting cards! If you have any questions, please leave a comment – I’ll be happy to help if I can.
Here are three examples of my greeting cards:
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Corrie: And here are some examples of poor pet pictures, provided by Greeting Card Universe. Yes, one of the reasons we’re forced to wait so long to get card approvals is the submission of cards with snapshots like these on them. Please remember, if you want to sell cards, they must have commercial appeal. Meaning, they have to be something someone else will actually pay for. Peggy’s cards are great and her advice is priceless.
Take our advice: if you’re hankering to put your pooch (or your kitty) on a card, use her tips to ensure a good result that not only doesn’t waste the reviewers precious time (and that of your fellow artists, too) but might put a little money in your pocket when a shopper buys it.
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Guest Blog, Tom Rent: Facebook Ads, Part 2
As promised, Tom Rent at Comical Captions has given us Part 2 of the Facebook Ads video – this time, he talks about his results, which are very interesting. You know, if a group of us advertised on FB, we could raise not only our own profiles, but GCU as well, which could only help sales… if there’s any interest, I’ll do an article on writing effective advertising copy.
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Community Shout Out – Contest Reminder!
Our CONTEST ends tomorrow, May 8th. If you haven’t already, enter today by dropping me a note. Artists eligible to enter the contest are those who have made a new blog post or Squidoo lens containing at least 3 links to GCU cards within the last 2 weeks. You can read all about it in our Newsletter.
So far, the following artists have been entered into the drawing: Monica, Janet, Tora, Judy, Bright, Sher, Mary Ann, Peggy, Cindy, Carole, Christine, Shelley, Naquaiya and Doreen.
Edited to add: Betsy and Denise.
Edit II to add: SunAtNight, Jannina and Pattiann.
You have until tomorrow, May 8, to get your entry in. The winner will be announced May 9th. A new CONTEST will begin May 10th. Stay tuned for details!
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Peggy at DogBreedz has a new blog post where you can – in addition to drooling over some gorgeous pet photos – learn about the Community Art thread ongoing in the GCU Forum. If you haven’t checked it out already, you should – this is a fun concept! Peggy’s blog post is an excellent example of how to integrate links to GCU greeting cards into your original content. Go and learn, young padawans.
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This Week’s Design of the Day Winners:
Oma Ramkhelawan 5-4-2011
Annielim 5-5-2011
Gerda Steiner 5-6-2011
Doreen Erhardt 5-7-2011
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Artist Interview: Tanya @ Moonlake Designs
Today we interview Greeting Card Universe artist, Tanya, aka Moonie, who joined GCU in 2008.
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Moonie, what drew you to join GCU?
So many designs and not a clue what to do with them, so I goggled greeting cards, and up popped GCU, so here I am.
Please tell us who you are, where you are, and what you do.
Not sure who I am exactly, I guess that changes like the weather. I am retired so I do my thing at home every day, too much of the day. The rest is walking and taking photos with the hubby at our local nature reserves.
I live in Northumberland, a small town called Blyth right near the harbour. I’m happy. I am Welsh but left there 12 years ago to be with the hubby, who is a paramedic by trade. I am 46 going on 16 most of the time, until the morning and it takes a while for my face to wake up.
What’s your favorite greeting card on GCU that you’ve created?
Oh heck, now that is a hard one! Well, as it was one of my first and one of my regular sales, and basically started me off on 3D art, it has to be this one. She sells a lot so she deserves to be my favorite.
Birthday for Granddaughter by Moonlake Designs
Where else can we find you?
You can find me on
Facebook (personal)
Facebook (Moonlake Designs)
Twitter
Squidoo (where my Zazzle designs are live updated)
Blogspot
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I am painfully shy. I can’t even promote my cards offline. I hand make mohair teddy bears that have sold around the world since 1999 (in the process of restarting Avalon Bears). I play too many MMO’S (massively multiplayer on-line games) and have just lost 7 stone in weight.
How did you become an artist?
I was living in a small village in Wales, remote, depressed when I passed a telephone box. I don’t know why I went in but there on the shelf was a leaflet saying Free Computer Course – anyone welcome. I don’t know again why I went but I did, and a week later I had passed my first GNVQ 1 with distinctions in Computer Literacy. The rest is where I am now it was a long road but well worth the walk. Photography… well, that is a more recent thing. Drawing is a very long story and would bore you. I do love to draw when I can, but I suffer with so much self doubt with hand done things, most end up in the bin.
What or who inspires you? And what motivates you to create greeting cards from your photographs?
Everything inspires me from the sea to a colour I see on a particular day, Goths (yes, I did say Goths), my husband and other artists, although that can be a depressing route if you start yearning to be as good. I just take outside and bring it back and design.
I think it’s more of an obsession to design that comes first. The second – oh wow, people like them! But it feels so so good that one person likes a card enough to actually purchase it, that keeps me going and trying to make people happy with the designs I do. Even after this length of time and 9 thousand card sales in total (6,765 from GCU), I get so excited when that mail comes in saying Card Purchased. It really makes me so happy, and I always hope the recipient really enjoys my designs no matter how odd they may be.
Where do you find ideas for your work?
I start with an image and play with it for a while, then it either ends up scrapped or I start to see it emerging. Recently I struggled with a rabbit in a tea cup, eventually things started to come together. I have always worked like this. Holidays really govern what and when I do things. I do what I do for my own pleasure usually and if I like it at the time, it ends up as a card, if not it is binned or kept one side until I work on it again. I always hope if I thought – oh yes that is the one! – that other people will find the same. It does not always work like that, of course, but well… it’s so enjoyable and I just love doing it all the time.
What tools do you use to create your work?
Wacom, Lightroom, Poser, Vue, Photoshop, Illustrator, Sony A700, Art materials of all kinds, scanner. Can’t live without any of them.
Why did you start selling your designs as greeting cards?
So many designs and not a clue what to do with them, so I goggled “greeting cards” and up popped GCU, and I thought that people might enjoy my art but at a more affordable price, rather than huge prints and posters. Pricing is also why I make a lot of postcards of my large productions so that anyone can enjoy. This seems to do well for me.
What do you do to promote your greeting cards on GCU?
Not a lot of promotion is done. I find it rather awkward. I really should do it but even with blogs and things, I find I am left not quite knowing how to do that, and just hope people find me. I can’t promote outside of the house. Now and then I will submit to search engines (never sure this works). Also I really don’t like being pushy, so apart from Facebook and Twitter, I can’t force people to check out my designs plus most of my friends on Facebook are graphic designers and artists from Wales. They would not be impressed, I think. 🙂
Is there a tip about GCU or promoting your GCU designs you’d like to share with other artists?
Promotion – no, although you should at least every few months do a free online search engine submission, I think.
Name three other GCU artists whose work inspires you or that you admire.
Corrie Kuipers: Why? Because I just love those animals – bright, colourful, cheerful. And no, it is not because it’s Corrie’s blog. It’s genuine admiration.
Salon of Art: Basically because she is so versatile and like me seems to go from style to style. I like that a lot.
Robin’s Coloring Book: How cute are they!
Miss Printed Editions: Because she has a heart of gold, and her items – again like Doreen’s (Salon of Art) – are versatile and stylish.
Christie Black: They make me smile.
Many more to be honest – I’d fill the blog up!
What blogs to you follow?
Not many, to be honest. I always look when artists on GCU post their blog etc. but do not actively seek them out. Everyone with a blog should post so that we can see who to follow.
Is there something you’re really proud of having done?
Apart from the having children and bringing them up, I guess my weight loss is No1 at the moment.
If you weren’t an artist, what would you be?
Miserable 😀 but if I could be anything, I’d be a writer – hilarious when you’re dyslexic. Or an interpreter of many languages. This has always been fascinating even though I can barely manage English and Welsh *laughs*
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Thanks for the interview, Moonie! If you would like to participate in an upcoming Artist Interview, get in touch: gcucommunity(at)bigdates.com
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Salon of Art Update!
One of our GCU Community Superstars, Doreen at Salon of Art, has updated her blog and included some lovely images (and links) of other artists’ greeting cards at GCU. Go check it out and leave a comment (if you don’t know WHY you should leave a comment, read this week’s Newsletter #3).
If you make a blog post with links to cards at GCU, we want to hear about it.
Corrie
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Guest Blog: Tom Rent – Facebook Ads
Recently, Tom Rent at Comical Captions experimented with buying Facebook ads to advertise his greeting cards at GCU. Like the helpful guy he is, he’s made a video showing you the steps to take to put your own ad on Facebook. Thanks, Tom! He’s promised a second video letting us know his results – I can’t wait to see that one.
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NEWS: New GCUniversity Video is Available
I’ve just gotten word that our respected GCUniversity has a new video tutorial on using the Card Template. Folks, this is critical information. You probably have no idea how often the hard-working reviewers have to send cards back for editing because of margin issues. Every artists – newbies to experienced oldsters like me – will find this video invaluable. Brush up on your skills or learn something new…check it out!
Remember: the more we can reduce artist errors at the source, the quicker submitted cards will move through the review queue, and approval times will get a lot faster!
GCU Community 