Wanted New Cards: Bridal / Baby Shower Seasonal Themes
It is popular to match a bridal or baby shower theme to the season of the event – winter, spring, summer, fall / autumn.
Consider seasonal designs for these categories:
Occasions >> Bridal Shower >> Season Specific
Consider also trending baby themes like a little pumpkin, baby in bloom, little ray of sunshine, baby it’s cold outside, etc. Here is a pinboard for inspiration.
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 Watercolor Christmas Chicken Clipart
This week’s freebie is watercolor chirstmas chicken clipart by cuoctober
Included in this set
– 10 PNG files with Transparent Background
– 10 JPG files with White Background
(3000×3000 px , (10″X10″), 300 DPI )
This Design is Compatible with sublimation, digital printing transfer. DTG, Screen Printing and event ink jet transfer.
It can be used for sublimation products, cards, frame artwork, scrapbooks, t-shirt, pillows, bags, mugs, sticker, etc
Comes with complete commercial license.
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Dash of Inspiration: October 2023 Design Challenge
Sorry for the delay – had an emergency with our dog yesterday and rushed her to the vet. She ripped a nail nearly off and it would not stop bleeding. So my day was interrupted, unexpectedly, delaying this challenge announcement. Okay, let’s have some fun with the holidays rapidly approaching.
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Theme: 2023 Holiday Color Trends
Requirements:
- Create a brand new design for for any winter holiday featuring a color palette from 2023 Holiday Trends. A link below will get you started.
- Write your own verse/message, be creative and write a message that clearly speaks to your imagery, occasion and recipient.
- No Stock card creations will be accepted.
- Blank verse will not be considered for entry in this challenge.
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Entry Deadline: Tuesday, October 31st
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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 winter holiday.
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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: October 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.
- Your designs should differ from those already offered in the category of your choice to offer shoppers a variety of choices, not more of the same.
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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 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 58,000 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: 12.9K!
- 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 10,800 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 2023!
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 10,800 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 2023!
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Tips:
- Holiday Color Trends for 2023 courtesy of Decorate and More
- Nuts & Bolts – Color Variation Considerations
- Dash of Inspiration: Mastering the Art of Greeting Card Design
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Doreen Erhardt© and SalonofArtGreetings
Be inspired to create and learn something new!
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Nuts & Bolts: Reminder September 2023 Stock Design Challenge
NOTE: Add a note to your Notes to Reviewer: Sept Design Challenge Submission
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Freebie Wednesday: Free Fall Flowers Clipart
This week’s freebie is Fall Flowers Clipart from Paper Artsthetics.
What you’ll get:
1 ZIP file
10 PNG files
3600 x 3600 px
High quality 300 Dpi
Comes with complete commercial license.
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Wanted New Cards: Brides in Black Gowns
This spring at New York Bridal Fashion Week, many collections featured options in black, leading experts to predict that they’ll be all the rage of the wedding fashion world by 2024.
Consider any of the subcategories under:
Occasions >> Congratulations >> Wedding / Marriage
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 Watercolor Flowers Clipart Collection
This week’s freebie is Watercolor loose flowers clipart collection available in two versions: with and without line artwork. I hope you’ll enjoy your new resources.
What is included:
6 (x2) compositions size approx.: 21″x 13″; and smaller
All files are high resolution (300dpi) and have a transparent background .
Comes with complete commercial license.
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Wanted New Cards: Birthday Son in Law Cooking Themed
A hobby focused request for a Son in Law’s birthday: Happy Birthday to My Son-in-LAW, he LOVES TO MAKE GOURMET MEALS
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:
https://gcucommunity.com/2022/06/10/nuts-and-bolts-new-artist-enhancements/
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 Winter Greenery Graphics
Our freebie this week is Free Winter Greenery Graphics from Kendra L features dozens of PNG files that are great for winter themed stationery like weddings & events, home decor, product packaging designs and much more!
- 30 Single Elements
- 4 Arrangements
- 5 Frames
You only need to sign up to the site to download the goods.
Comes with complete commercial license.
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Nuts & Bolts: Artificial Intelligence – Guest Post Corrie Kuipers
How do I use the images I generate in MJ? The process is pretty much as when I used to draw everything by hand. It all starts with an idea. I keep copious notes for those as well 😉 I have perfected certain prompts to get a consistent look and style that fits my brand.
Animals have always played the starring role in my work and now I can really go to town as Midjourney keeps getting more and more sophisticated. So I take my idea into Midjourney and try my prompts on it to get as close to a workable image as I can. Sometimes I can’t get exactly what I want, Midjourney still has certain limits, and then I keep working on it or leave it for the future where it might be possible. You need to have patience.
When an image has potential I save it to my hard drive. From this growing collection I select one I want to work with and take it into an app to enhance the size to make it big enough for print. Sometimes I use just one image as the main component for a card design, or it can be several. I mainly use Picmonkey to build my card (as in adding text, background and effects).
Do I feel using AI for my card designs is unethical? No. Not the way I use it. My generated images are photorealistic and not aimed to copy any living or dead artist. The whole argument of ‘you are ripping off artists because the AI is trained on their work’ is a bit too simplistic. Yes, AI used existing material to train on, but don’t forget it’s all broken down into ones and zeros. So they take minute pieces of everything and mix it into something unique by way of your prompt. You mix and remix and tinker with it until you get something nobody else can reproduce (unless they have your exact seed number, but that’s getting technical). And don’t think you can just waltz in, press a button and your design is done. It really still needs to go through that whole creative process, just like the way I used to make cards.
I love AI, and think I will ride that wave for as long as I can. There are so many new exciting things to come. It has given me and my card designs a new lease on life and I’m happy for it.”
Please remember to use GCU’s policy and instructions for submission:
https://gcucommunity.com/2023/05/05/nuts-bolts-artificial-intelligence-policy/
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
GCU Community 