Freebie Wednesday: Nordic Fantasy – Folk Art Collection.
Introducing this week’s freebie, Nordic Fantasy – Folk Art Collection!
This Northern inspired collection includes illustrated elements, compositions, prints and seamless patterns. These assets can be used for creating cards, logos, invitations, home decor, packaging, fabrics and stationeries.
This beautiful freebie is brought to you by Auramarina! Only available for a week on the Hungry Jpeg site!
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts and Bolts: 3Q and 4Q Free Card Adjustment.
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Wanted New Cards: CNY 2021 Year of the Ox.
2021 celebrates the Year of the Ox on February 12th. The time is now to start designing and submitting new Year of the Ox cards.
Holidays >> Chinese New Year >> 2021 / Year of the Ox
There are MANY specific subcategories in need of CNY Year of the Ox cards.
Please consider this new subcategory for your card’s second category under Collections >> Chinese Zodiac >> Ox
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Dash of Inspiration: November 2020 Design Challenge
If, in our lifetime, there has ever been a need for a new year, this is the year. This being the final design challenge of 2020, I thought it appropriate to ring in a new year with this month’s theme. Hoping you all are well and safe as we kick off our next, and last of the year, Design Challenge.
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Theme: A New Year
Requirements:
- New Year theme in design and verse. Traditional designs will be accepted, but the unusual and unique to THIS year will speak loudly to the judges. New Years as well as Chinese New Year will be accepted.
- Any New Year themed category which your card speaks to.
- No Stock card creations will be accepted.
- Blank verse will not be considered for entry in this challenge.
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Entry Deadline: Monday, November 3oth
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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 New Year
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: November 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 56,000 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: 2K!
- 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!
- NEW starting this month, 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.
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!
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Tips:
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Be inspired to create and learn something new!
Doreen Erhardt©
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Nuts and Bolts: October Design Challenge Deadline
See October’s Design Challenge details. We look forward to seeing all of your submissions.
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Wanted New Cards: Retirement For Her
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”.
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Freebie Wednesday: 30 Free Script Fonts.
Freebie Wednesday: 30 Free Script Fonts.
Webdesigner Depot has a wonderful freebie available. 30 Scripts fonts for free!
The collection includes scripts ideal for branding, scripts perfect for imitating lettering, and scripts made for communicating. There are masculine scripts and feminine scripts, traditional scripts and contemporary scripts, elegant scripts and grungy scripts. 30 different voices for expressive typography. Once you take into account the variations in weight, style, and swashes, there are 65+ font files to download and enjoy.
In the download you’ll find: Alessandria, Andora, Anthasic, Aprillia, Aveline, Beautify, Bender, Blendhes, Blusty, Fibonaccy Journey, Fountain, Frutilla, Hadfield, Jelytta, Kitten, Lauren, Magnolia, Manyland, Matane, Milea, Monday Bay, Pink, Sansterdam, Santelia, Selima, Sophistica, Spirited, Sweet Buttermilk, Sydnee, and Valerissa.
This product comes with a commercial license.
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Nuts and Bolts: Stock Card Creation, Image Offline Edit
Nuts & Bolts – Stock Card Creation, Image Offline Edit
Here is a little background on stock images no longer available. GCU used to Decline Stock Card Creation cards that used stock images that were no longer available. Since changes back in April 2019 we now can Return for Edits these cards vs decline them.
When this happens you will receive an email from the review team w/ this note:
GCU has taken this card offline as the stock image it is based upon is no longer being offered by Shutterstock.com as part of their Partner Program. Please consider looking for a similar image offered and updating this card. Thank you for your understanding.
In Manage Cards, please Edit this card using Change Image to choose a new image. After, please be sure to update the meta-data if needed (card title, keywords, Artist’s Notes), inside verse as well as append Notes to Reviewer if appropriate. Lastly, be sure to Resubmit for our re-review. Thank you!
Note:
This is a big time saver by not having to start the submission from scratch. The stock IMAGE will still need to be re-created but elements like meta-data, inside verse, etc. can be edited vs recreated. Plus any sales history and search indexing will be preserved as you are keeping the same pid# vs creating a new card.
Oftentimes we have found that the artist finds an even better image the second time around!
Please see other tips and examples here on finding a new image for a Stock Card Creation card that is Return for Edits because the image is no longer available. Finding new stock image Tips
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted New Cards: Doctor of Ministry Custom Name card
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Freebie Wednesday: Child Witch
Freebie Wednesday: Child Witch
Child Witch is a fun and spooky display font. It is bold yet fun and it will look ideal on each of your Halloween designs! Available on the Creative Fabrica site.
This product comes with a commercial license.
GCU Community 