Wanted Cards – Year Specific Anniversary Son & Son in Law
Year specific anniversary cards are special particularly for a hard to find, non-milestone year. Also cherished for couples that may have faced obstacles or controversy to their nuptials like a gay or lesbian couple where every year is celebrated as a milestone year.
Please consider creating year specific cards for any or all years for a son and son in law. They will go here:
Occasions >> Anniversary – Wedding Cards >> For Son & Son in Law / Partner >> Year Specific cid#14062
Consider creating a custom front design allowing shoppers to change the year to their needs.
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:
NOTE: be sure to follow the guidelines for Superscript Ordinal Indicators in your cover design (11th, etc.).
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!
Mindy Rosso
GCU Community Manager
mindy@gcuniverse.com
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Nuts and Bolts – Artist Interviews
Nuts & Bolts – Artist Interviews
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.
Be sure to read and learn more about …
April’s Winner, Shoaff Ballanger Studios
Congratulations to Jay and Susan on their fun and slightly groovy Design Challenge win!
Time to show some love for your favorite dog or cat breed by enter May’s Design Challenge. Submit your entries by Saturday, May 31st.
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
mindy@gcuniverse.com
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Wanted Cards – Thank You Neurologist.
Wanted Cards – Thank You Neurologist
Big thanks to Doctors and medical professionals are due when you or a loved one has had wonderful care.
Please consider creating thank you cards for a Neurologist. They should go here:
Occasions >> Thank You >> Occupation Specific >> Neurology / Neurologist cid#39184
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:
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!
Mindy Rosso
GCU Community Manager
mindy@gcuniverse.com
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Wanted Cards – Semiquincentennial Independence Day
Wanted Cards – Semiquincentennial Independence Day
2026 will bring the semiquincentennial celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Indepence – or in other words the 250th anniversary. Although more than a year away, celebration and fanfar will begin on Memorial Day this year leading up to July 4th, 2026 Independence Day
Please consider creating cards specific to this 250th year celebration that should go here:
Holidays >> Fourth of July >> 250th Anniversary Semiquincentennial cid#39158
As well as cards for 4th of July that specifically have “Happy Independence Day” on the cover that should go here:
Holidays >> Fourth of July >> Independence Day cid#39160
REMEMBER to follow the guidelines for superscript ordinal indicators (250th) here.
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:
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!
Mindy Rosso
GCU Community Manager
mindy@gcuniverse.com
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Nuts and Bolts – Instagram GCU Store Link
Nuts & Bolts – Instagram GCU Store Link
We’ve talked about getting social and about artists sharing their work and their cards on social media like Instagram.
Here are some prior posts and tips on the topic.
Here is a tip to consider:
Add a link to your GCU storefront from your profile so anyone can click and find your cards quickly
to do so: Go to Edit Profile – Links Add links – enter the url to your GCU storefront as Add external link
Other tips:
1. post often – there is no such thing as too often – don’t be shy!
2. consider posting reels and stories
3. be sure your account is set to PUBLIC so people can view and explore your content freeley
4. tag @GreetingCardUniverse in your content so we have the opportunity to like and share
Here is an example of what a profile link to your GCU storefront looks like (if clicked from mobile device which is most likely, it will launch your cards on GCU’s mobile interface), thanks to GCU artist Michelle Downs of MimmyD’s cards:
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
mindy@gcuniverse.com
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Fun & Furry: Birthday Card Text Ideas from Your Dog or Cat
Looking for the perfect way to make someone smile on their birthday? Sending a greeting card “from” their beloved dog or cat is a surefire way to add humor, warmth, and a little bit of tail-wagging or purring personality to their special day. Whether you’re designing cards for pet parents or just want to surprise a friend, here are creative, funny, and heartwarming text ideas to inspire your next batch of birthday greetings.
Why Send a Birthday Card from a Pet?
Pets are family, and for many, their bond with their dog or cat is as strong as any human relationship. Cards “from the pet” tap into this connection, making the recipient feel extra special and seen. Plus, it’s a playful twist that stands out from the usual birthday wishes.
Paw-some Dog Birthday Card Messages
Sweet & Heartfelt:
- Happy Birthday to the best dog mom/dad I know! Thank you for all the belly rubs, treats, and endless games of fetch. Love, your fur baby.
- If I could talk, I’d tell you how much I love you and hope you have the best birthday ever.
- Thank you for sharing your couch, your snacks, and your heart. I’m the luckiest pup in the world.
Funny & Playful:
- Firetrucks are RED, the sky is BLUE, I love you more than chasing squirrels and chewing your shoes!
- Eat, sleep, poop, play, repeat! Thanks for always putting up with me-especially the poop part.
- It’s your birthday, and I’ll bark if I want to!
- I hope you get lots of good stuff… for me to destroy!
Punny Dog Phrases:
- I woof you! Happy Bark-day!
- It’s pawty time! Let’s raise the woof!
- Happy Birthday to my best fur-end!
- If you thought I forgot, you’d be barking up the wrong tree.
Purr-fect Cat Birthday Card Messages
Warm & Cozy:
- Like a cat basking in the sun, may your birthday be warm, delightful, and utterly relaxing.
- Hope your birthday is as cozy as a cat curled up in a sunny window.
- May your birthday leave you feline good! Have a paw-some day.
Witty & Whiskered:
- It’s your birthday! Time to let the cat out of the bag and celebrate in style.
- I got you a gift. It’s a box. Because we all know how much cats love boxes. Happy Birthday!
- Let’s have a hiss-terical time on your birthday. Party like a furball!
- Celebrate with all the enthusiasm of a cat spotting a laser pointer.
Cat-tastic Puns:
- You’re the cat’s meow! Have a purr-fect birthday!
- Wishing you a day filled with ‘purr-thday’ love.
- Keep calm and purr on. Have a fantastic birthday!
- Have a meow-velous birthday filled with happiness and the warm purr of a contented cat.
Tips for Writing Pet-Themed Birthday Cards
- Add Personal Touches: Mention the pet’s favorite activity, treat, or a funny habit for extra charm.
- Stay Playful: Use puns and playful language-think “paw-ty,” “fur-end,” “purr-fect,” and “hiss-terical”.
- Embrace Pet Perspective: Write in the first person as the pet, with silly “paw-printed” spelling or a faux signature (paw print doodle optional!).
- Mix in Humor: Jokes about treats, toys, or classic pet mischief (like chewing shoes or knocking things off tables) always land well.
Example Card Texts
“Happy Bark-day, human! I hope your day is filled with treats (and maybe you’ll share some with me). Thanks for all the walks and the extra cheese. Love, your favorite furball.”
“Happy Birthday! May your day be as joyful as a cat with a new box. I promise not to knock over your cake… this time. Purrs and head boops, your feline overlord.”
Final Sniff & Stretch
Cards from pets let you celebrate birthdays with a dose of fur, fun, and heartfelt love. Whether you go for silly, sweet, or downright punny, these messages are sure to bring a smile to any pet lover’s face. So next time you’re designing a birthday card, let the dog or cat do the talking-after all, who could resist a wish from their best furry friend?
Happy Designing!
Corrie
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Dash of Inspiration: May Design Challenge
Happy May, happy spring, everyone! Let’s get our creative juices flowing and add some new content to some newly expanded sub-categories.
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Theme: Dog Breed or Cat Breed Specific Birthday
Requirements:
- Create a new Cat Breed or Dog Breed design that celebrates a dog or cat lover’s birthday by choosing ONE breed and creating a birthday related design.
- Choose the breed-specific category within Birthday >> Animals/Pets Birthday Cards
- No Stock card creations will be accepted.
- Blank verse will not be considered for entry in this challenge.
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Entry Deadline: Saturday, 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:
Birthday > Animals / Pets Birthday Cards > Dogs
OR
Birthday > Animals / Pets Birthday Cards > Cats
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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: May 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 – over 55,000 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: 14.9k!
- 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 10.6k 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 2025!
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 10.6k 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 2025!
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Tips:
- Dog Breed Pinterest Inspiration
- Cat Breed Pinterest Inspiration
- GCU Wanted Cards
- Nuts and Bolts: Fortifying Meta-data – Animals & Breeds
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Be inspired to create and learn something new!
Doreen Erhardt© SalonOfArtGreetings
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Wanted Cards – Musical Performance Instrument Specific
Celebrate the fine arts with congratulation cards for a musical recital and kudos for specific instrument performances. GCU has many cards for piano recitals but not for other instruments. Consider other specific instruments like flute, violin, viola, string quartet, guitar, harp, etc.
These cards should all go here:
Occasion >> Congratulations >> Performance / Recital >> Musical cid#27300
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:
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!
Mindy Rosso
GCU Community Manager
mindy@gcuniverse.com
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Nuts and Bolts – Design Challenge – Before and After
Nuts & Bolts – Design Challenge – Before & After
One of the newer features of GCU’s monthly Design Challenge is Judges’ Notes on all submissions. The notes can range from composition, font style, inside verse suggestions and more. As the cards have already been approved and have met the Submission Guidelines, these notes are simply suggestions and judges’ observations not required changes.
See this wonderful example by GCU artist Laurie Schneider on her most recent entry, PID#1913328
Judges’ Notes:
Thank you for entering the March Design Challenge. The judges would like to share their feedback: The judges all felt the design was colorful, pretty and cute for a cat lover’s spring birthday. Some were not fans of the yellow on yellow and although a fun birthday card for a sister, mentioned it did not have a strong ‘sisterhood’ theme.
Before:
After:
Laurie’s response:
I look forward to the feedback from the judges. It helps me improve my designs and grow. Every time I receive their feedback; I use it, and my design is always so much better. I appreciate everything about GCU.
Wonderful work by Laurie resulting in a more eye-catching design with colors that pop!
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
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Wanted Cards Extra – Take Your Dog to Work Day
Pawsitively Perfect: Fun Greeting Card Text Ideas for Bring Your Dog to Work Day
Bring Your Dog to Work Day is more than just a chance to show off your furry best friend—it’s an opportunity to bond with coworkers, boost office morale, and share a little lighthearted fun. Whether you’re handing out cards to your teammates or leaving a surprise note for someone else’s pup-loving desk buddy, greeting cards are a tail-waggingly delightful way to celebrate.
Need help figuring out what to write? We’ve fetched some playful and pun-filled greeting card text ideas for every office vibe—from sweet and silly to downright pun-derful.
🐾 Classic & Cute
Sometimes simple and sweet wins the day.
- “Work is better with wagging tails and wet noses.”
- “Thanks for letting your pup brighten our day!”
- “A little fur makes everything better—especially Mondays.”
😂 Funny & Punny
Who doesn’t love a good dog pun?
- “Paw-don the interruption—there’s a cuteness overload in the office today!”
- “You’re pawsitively the best coworker (and your human’s okay too).”
- “Take your dog to work? More like bring joy to the office day!”
- “Unleash the productivity… and maybe a little chaos too.”
🧠 For the Brainy Bunch
Got a team of techies, academics, or spreadsheet wizards?
- “Finally! A meeting attendee who doesn’t interrupt—unless there’s a squirrel outside.”
- “Doggos: The only acceptable form of workplace distraction.”
- “Low bark, high output. Now that’s efficient.”
🐶 For the Dogs (Yes, Really)
Leave a card by a pup’s water bowl? Why not.
- “You’re employee of the month in our hearts. And you didn’t even have to fill out a timesheet.”
- “Wag more, bark less—HR approved.”
- “Don’t worry, we won’t tell the cats you were here.”
💼 Remote-Friendly Ideas
Working from home? Send a virtual card or message.
- “Wish we could sniff each other’s butts in person, but Zoom will do!”
- “Your home office pup is the best coworker on the team—just don’t tell Karen in HR.”
- “Even through the screen, I can tell your dog deserves a raise.”
Whether you’re a seasoned dog parent or just an admirer of floppy ears and happy tails, Bring Your Dog to Work Day is the perfect excuse to celebrate your four-legged coworkers. So go ahead—spread the joy, share a pun, and make the day as fetching as possible!
Happy Designing!
Corrie
GCU Community 