Freebie Wednesday: Brigitha Font
Brigitha is a refined, all round, and cursive handwritten font. It has beautiful and well-balanced characters and as a result, it matches a wide pool of designs.
This font is PUA encoded which means you can access all of the glyphs and swashes with ease! Available on the Creative Fabrica site for 5 more days. Don’t miss out!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts & Bolts – Image Updates for Older Year Specific Photo Cards
With year specific cards, especially Christmas, CNY, New Year’s, and Graduation, GCU asks artists to update card images for the new year. We have recently done so for the 2021 graduation season.
Attention for year specific PHOTO cards that you have edited the image. Many are NOT showing the new image in the review tool or on the site.
As a remedy, please try one or both of the following:
1. file type mismatch – make sure the updated image is the same file type that was uploaded for the original image (png vs jpg)
2. Try removing the stock photo used as the placeholder photo and re add it to the design
Please give these solutions a try!
NOTE, a little bit of good news is that despite the old image appearing on the site, when a shopper purchases the card the NEW image is in fact being used for printing.
Here the issue was addressed on the forum: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1614377036
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Mother’s Day Bonus Mom
Wanted Cards – Mother’s Day Bonus Mom
Too late for this year but good for next year and to get ready for Father’s Day.
Bonus mom on Mother’s Day – a bonus mom is a step mom, or a female who parents / raises a child who is not their birth child.
The shopper will find these cards here:
Holidays >> Mother’s Day >> For Bonus Mom / Mother
Also consider cards for bonus dads on Father’s Day here:
Holidays >> Father’s Day >> For Bonus Dad / Father
Remember bonus parents come in all ages and nationalities / ethnicity. Be sure to refine your meta-data accordingly.
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 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: Cinco de Mayo Stickers
This set of 25 cute Cinco De Mayo themed stickers will be sure to get your celebrations on for the event! These stickers come in AI, JPEG, PNG and EPS formats!
This amazing freebie is brought to you by HelgaKOV!
Only available on the Hungry Jpeg site for a week, so don’t miss out!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Dash of Inspiration: MAY 2021 Design Challenge
It’s time for another FUSION challenge! These really get your imagination rolling so get inspired and have some fun!
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Theme: Fusion Design
Requirements:
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Create a brand new design by choosing at least three objects from the list of eight objects below and creating a greeting card design. You may use more than three, all of them, or add additional items, including people and animals – but a minimum of three from the list must be clearly visible and important elements in the overall card design and message:
a remote control – a mirror – a mailbox – an orange – a daisy – a beach towel – a bird – a coffee mug
- Any category which your card speaks to.
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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: Monday, May 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 category well-suited to the imagery/occasion/message.
Note: if your submissions is clearly COVID specific, please use these categories:
Holidays >> ….. >> Coronavius / COVID 19
Collections >> Health Awareness >> Coronavius / COVID 19
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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 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:
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Dash of Inspiration: Composition – Balance of Elements
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Nuts and Bolts: The Right Image
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Nuts and Bolts: Don’t Fall Into These Traps!
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Be inspired to create and learn something new!
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Nuts and Bolts: Artist Interview Linda Gladman
Nuts & Bolts – Artist Interview Linda Gladman
One of the many perks of being a GCU Design Challenge winner is an interview. These mini-interviews are fun reads and a peek into the makings of the winning card.
Here is March 2021 Design Challenge winner, Linda Gladman, interview.
Congratulations to Linda on her winning card.
Today is the last day to enter April’s Design challenge, Roses, which is a Stock Card Creations challenge.
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Encouragement Ex Husband
Wanted Cards – Encouragement Ex Husband
The desire to send words of encouragement may be strong but often finding the right words and sentiment is hard. These are general encouragement cards for an Ex Husband. Not specific to the divorce.
These cards should go here accordingly:Occasions >> Encouragement >> For Ex Husband
Consider cards for all of the Ex family members (ex wife, ex brother in law, ex sister in law, ex son in law, ex daughter in law).
The cards do not have to be literal but the verse should strongly and clearly imply the relationship.
Submit these cards for FastTrack review. We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using your own graphic designs or Stock Card Creations. Be sure to leave a note in the Note to Reviewers like “requested on the blog”.
Be inventive, be considerate, and creative.
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Freebie Wednesday: Rainbow Patterns
This collection of cutely designed rainbow patterns are sure to pique your cutesy arts! All patterns come in JPEG format!
This cute freebie is brought to you by Chikovnaya! Only available on the Hungry Jpeg site for a week, so don’t miss out!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts and Bolts: Artist Interview Shoaff-Ballanger Studios
Here is February 2021 Design Challenge winner, Shoaff-Ballanger Studios’, Interview.
Congratulations to Jay and Susan on their winning card.
The difference is made in the details.
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Welcome, Chef
Wanted Cards – Welcome, Chef
We have the following business industry request. Welcoming a new chef to the team in the hospitality industry (hotel, restaurant).
These cards should go here:
Business >> Employee Relations >> New Employee / Welcome Aboard / to the Team >> Industry Specific >> Hospitality Industry
Please consider gender neutral cards as well as cards for a male or female chef. Be sure to fortify your meta-data accordingly.
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”.
Be inventive and creative!
GCU Community 