Nuts and Bolts: Dedicate Yourself to the Details
2. the flow of the flower seems unnatural, have you tried it upside down so the flower points down? Again, up to you if you’re up to trying it.
In any of the above cases, we look forward to your resubmission, thank you!”
Before:
After:
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: You’ve Been Booed!
Wanted Cards – You’ve Been Booed!
A popular trend to celebrate Halloween is a friendly doorbell ditch treat bag activity known as You’ve Been Booed! With traditional trick or treating somewhat uncertain, this is a fun and social distancing way to celebrate Halloween.
Please consider creating You’ve Been Booed cards to go with the boo bags and baskets.
These cards should go here:
Holidays >> Halloween >> Boo Bag / Basket / You Have Been Booed
Do a little searching online about the activity and “rules”.
We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function (Bigstock) or your own graphic designs. 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: SEPTEMBER 2021 Design Challenge
Something different and fun this month which actually has a large market during the holiday season, so let’s get to it!
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Theme: Western Christmas
Requirements:
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Create a brand new design featuring a Western Holiday theme for any holiday season category well suited to your design.
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Write your own verse/message, be creative and write a message that clearly speaks to your imagery, occasion and recipient.
- Blank verse will not be considered for entry in this challenge.
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Entry Deadline: Thursday, September 30th
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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 Christmas holiday category.
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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: SEPTEMBER 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: 5.36K!
- 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 2,000 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 2021!
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 2,000 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 2021!
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Tips:
- TIP: GCU does not have a Western Christmas category, so be sure to create strong meta-tag data to represent the western flair of your new design.
- Nuts and Bolts: How to Write Product Descriptions
- Keep in mind that Western Christmas cards have deeper reds, more sage toned greens, here is some color palette inspiration.
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Be inspired to create and learn something new!
Doreen Erhardt©
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Freebie Wednesday: Sallomae
Sallomae, a playful display font, inspired by jungle cartoons and children’s books! Sallomae is designed with a cheerful monoline concept and adjusts well to keep the font’s legibility. Sallomae is a flexible typeface that you can use for many designs and themes.
This playful freebie is brought to you by Artefak Project! Only available on the Hungry Jpeg site for a week!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts and Bolts: August Design Challenge Deadline
Nuts & Bolts – August Design Challenge Deadline
August’s Design Challenge deadline is Tuesday, August 31st. This is a Stock Card Creations only challenge.
Theme: Retirement for Educators
Create a brand new design for the Retirement category specific to someone in the education field:
- Special Education Teacher
- Special Education Consultant / Advocate
- Reading Specialist
- School Psychologist
- School Counselor
- Speech Language Pathologist / SLP
- Educational Audiologist
- Teacher’s Aide / Teaching Assistant
- Educational Assessor / Diagnostician
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Grandparents Day for Glamma
Wanted Cards – Grandparents Day for Glamma
There are quite a variety of names for grandparents. Some grandparents are very particular on what they want to be called while others are happy to be called whatever their grandbaby utters even if in baby babble.
These days a very common name for a grandma is Glamma. This is for a grandma who doesn’t want to be called or thought of as the stereotypical grandma or granny. A glamma is as fancy and glamorous as it sounds.
Glamma can be defined as:
A glamorous grandmother, especially one who is relatively young or fashion-conscious.
These cards should go here:
Holidays >> Grandparents Day >> For Grandma / Grandmother >> For Glamma
We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function or your own graphic designs. 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: Chalk and Friend
Chalk and Friend is a cool and versatile display font. It will look stunning on any poster flyer or print. Use this font for your designs and explore its endless possibilities. Available for free download at Creative Fabrica for the next 6 days. Don’t miss out!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts and Bolts: Papyrus Inside Verse Returns
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Back to School for Parents.
Wanted Cards – Back to School for Parents
Back to school is always a time for excitement and anticipation. This year will be that plus more with most students having been out of the classroom for the majority of last school year. Parents of students will surely have mixed emotions with their students returning to campus – likely ranging the spectrum of continued fear and concern and unbridled jubilation.
These cards will go here:
Occasions >> School Days >> Back to School >> For Parents of Students
We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function or your own graphic designs. 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: Floralista Font
Floralista Font will be sure to bring all your girly and floral needs to your designs! Perfect for Procreate usage as well! Comes in OTF and TTF formats!
This fontastic freebie is brought to you by Salt & Pepper Designs! Only available for another 6 days on the Hungry Jpeg site!
This product comes with a commercial license.
GCU Community 