Trendy Tuesday: Scandi Ethnic
Scandi Ethnic, Nordic Boho, Nordic Folklore, Scandi Boho. You probably heard of one of these, but what does it stand for? Scandinavian (Scandi) decor is all about neutrals, minimalism, earthy tones and clean lines. While Bohemian (Boho), on the other hand, is all about bright colours, lively patterns and maximalism. It first came to prominence in the 1950s, around the same time as modern style took hold in America and Europe. Part of what makes it so aesthetically pleasing is its lack of clutter.
Nordic Animals Folk Kit, available on The Hungry Jpeg.
Nordic Tale – Folkart Font Family, available on The Hungry Jpeg.
Dribble is also a nice site to explore (and download) Scandinavian Font Designs, Templates, and Graphic Elements.
For your perusel, Nordic Style Magazine – online fashion, design, art, culture.
Ethnic Scandi Stock Illustrations and Vectors at Dreamstime.
Scandinavian inspiration at Vecteezy.
Nordic Boho gifts and Merchandise on Red Bubble.
Inspiration for graphic ideas on Creative Fabrica.
I hope this will leave you with plenty of helpful ideas for your next designs.
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Nuts and Bolts: Dedicate Yourself to the Details – Text Placement
1. The underside of the neck of the donkey in the foreground looks like it needs a little softening on the edge so it blends a little better and does not look pasted on.
2. The text placement is not ideal and we feel a speech bubble from the donkey would be the perfect answer to contain the text and take the humor up to the next level.
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: 1st Christmas Bereaved
Wanted Cards – 1st Christmas Bereaved
Please consider creating new cards for the 1st Christmas Bereaved: “remembering you at christmas, First Christmas in Heaven or Praying for you at Christmas.”
These cards should go here:
Holidays >> Christmas >> In Remembrance >> 1st / First Christmas Alone / Bereaved >> General
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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Freebie Wednesday: Free Funny Turkeys
This cute Funny Turkey cliparts and pattern pack are perfect for your Thanksgiving designs! All items come in AI, JPEG, PNG, SVG, and EPS formats!
This festive freebie is brought to you by Lexi Claus! Only available on the Hungry Jpeg for a week!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Trendy Tuesday: Kintsugi
For Spring/Summer 2022 we see an inspiration for fragile ceramic patterns brought back to life in the art of Kintsugi. The mix of different patterns fused together in a new and exciting style.
What is Kintsugi? Find out more about the japanese art of Kintsugi and the philosophy behind it.
Urban use for Katsugi.
Some Kintsugi design for print sets on The Hungry Jpeg.
Etsy has a lot of Kintsugi inspiration on offer.
I hope this will leave you with plenty of helpful ideas for your next designs.
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Nuts and Bolts: NEW In-Store Pick Up Update
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Christmas for Fire Department
Wanted Cards – Christmas for Fire Department
Gratitude for public servants has never been higher – create holiday cards that celebrate and thank fire departments (or fire brigade in the UK). Consider custom text fronts allowing the location / station of the department to be included as well as variations for Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Season’s Greetings.
These cards should go here:
Business >> Christmas >> Industry Specific >> Public Service / Safety
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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Freebie Wednesday: School Chalk Free Font
School Chalk is a cute, fun and friendly display font. Whether you’re using it for crafting, digital designing, presentations or greeting cards making, it’s perfect! Available for free on the Creative Fabrica site, don’t miss it!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Rainbow Connection: 2022 Color Schemes
I’ve got some fresh color schemes for 2022 for you this week:
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Dash of Inspiration: OCTOBER 2021 STOCK Design Challenge
Here we are again, approaching the end of another year and the last Stock Card Challenge of the year, so make it good and make it fun!
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Theme: Chinese New Year 2022 – Year of the Tiger
Requirements:
- Year of the Tiger specific Chinese New Year designs only.
- ONLY Big Stock cards will be accepted in this challenge.
- Write your own verse, be creative with this will be extremely important in this challenge.
- The judges will be looking for professional quality text layout, typography placement and font combinations in addition to a unique and captivating message that tells the story of the stock image you choose. Your added value needs to wow the judges!
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Entry Deadline: Sunday, 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.
NOTE: Submissions will appear immediately in your Private gallery as they await review. If approved, the reviewer will move them to the public gallery – they will then become ‘live’ in the marketplace within 24-hours or so just like regular submissions. Be patient and wait.
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Category:
Choose from: Holidays > Chinese New Year Cards > 2022 / Year of the Tiger
Any of the subcategories or general category is accepted.
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Rules:
- Submission must meet GCU’s Submission Guidelines and be Approved through the usual Review Cycle. Big Stock creations are automatically identified as Fast Track – please add 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.
- Big Stock Card Creations ONLY will be accepted.
- Your designs should differ from those already offered in the categories above to offer shoppers a variety of choices, not more of the same.
- No BLANK cards will 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 speaks to the Category the artist chooses for the card submission.
- Creativity, Execution and Marketability. Your overall ‘added value’ determines this.
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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:
- Visit all the available tips, tricks and guidelines offered on the Big Stock Creation blog page!
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Be inspired to create and learn something new!
