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Dash of Inspiration: October 2020 Design Challenge

October 1, 2020
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Hard to believe October is already here! Hoping you all are well and safe as we kick off our next Design Challenge.

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Theme: Angels

Requirements:

  • One angel, many angels – your choice. Imagery must support the theme.
  • Any 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: Saturday, 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.

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Category:

Any category your Angel themed card fits.

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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: 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.
  • 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.
  • 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!
  • 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

Freebie Wednesday: Charlie.

October 1, 2020
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Freebie Wednesday:

 

Charlie is a modern calligraphy font, perfect for branding, logos, wedding invites, and every other design which needs a handwritten romantic touch. Set this decorative, handwritten creative style script font for your new projects. With multi-language support and lots of stylistic alternates. Comes in OTF and TTF Formats!

This beautiful freebie is brought to you by Zainstudio. Only available for a week on the Hungry Jpeg site!

 

 

 

This product comes with a commercial license.

 

Wanted New Cards: Granddaughter Car Christmas

September 30, 2020

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Wanted Cards – Granddaughter Car Christmas

 

A special request from a shopper:
“My Granddaughter is getting her driver’s license this year and I’d like a Christmas card for her with a car on it.”

 

The shopper will find these cards here:
We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function or your own graphic designs.

 

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”.

Sounds like this granddaughter is on the Nice list!

Nuts and Bolts: Artist Interview Melinda Pritzel

September 25, 2020

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Nuts & Bolts – Artist Interview Melinda Pritzel
 
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 enter September’s Design Challenge.

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy
GCU Community Manager

 

Wanted New Cards: Halloween Invitations.

September 24, 2020

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Wanted Cards – Halloween Invitations

 

While we are all scratching our heads about how to adjust our routines this year, how to celebrate Halloween is one of them.  Traditionally a time when keeping your distance and not touching things is far from the norm. Will there be trick or treating?  What will costume parties look like?

 

People have been creative and ingenious coming up with ideas on how to safely celebrate holidays and other important events during COVID’s social distancing conditions. Celebrating Halloween will be no different.

 

Please consider creating cards for these new Halloween Invitation categories:
>> Halloween Parade
>> Trick or Trunk
>> Virtual Halloween Party

These do NOT have to be COVID specific but if they are please choose your second category as the following which serves as a catch-all for all COVID cards:

 

We’d like you to create at least one card for these categories using the Stock Cards function or your own graphic designs.

 

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”.

Look on the bright side, it IS the season when wearing a mask is expected!

Freebie Wednesday: My Shine (font)

September 23, 2020
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Freebie Wednesday:

 

My Shine is a stunning handwritten font carefully created with a touch of elegance. This font is PUA encoded which means you can access all of the beautiful glyphs and swashes with ease! Avaiable for download on the Creative Fabrica site.

 

 

 

 

This product comes with a commercial license.

 

Nuts and Bolts: Artist Interview Pamela Jorgensen.

September 18, 2020

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Nuts & Bolts – Artist Interview Pamela Jorgensen

 

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 enter September’s Design Challenge.

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy
GCU Community Manager

 

Wanted New Cards: Thanksgiving Relation Specific.

September 17, 2020

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Wanted Cards – Thanksgiving Relation Specific
 
The following relationship specific subcategories could use some new cards for Thanksgiving.
Aunt & Boyfriend
Aunt & Fiance
Aunt & Fiancee
Aunt & Girlfriend
Aunt & Wife / Both my Aunts
Brother & Boyfriend
Brother & Fiance
Brother & Girlfriend
Brother in Law to be / Future Brother in Law
Cousin & Boyfriend
Father in Law to be / Future Father in Law
Grandnephew / Great Nephew & Family
Grandnephew / Great Nephew & Wife
Grandniece / Great Niece & Family
Grandniece / Great Niece & Husband
Nephew & Fiancee
Nephew & Husband
Niece & Wife
Sister & Boyfriend
Sister & Girlfriend
Son & Husband / Son in Law
Son in Law to be / Future Son in Law
Uncle & Boyfriend
Uncle & Fiance
Uncle & Fiancee
Uncle & Girlfriend
Unce & Husband / Both my Uncles

Note: for like image series, please be sure to add a Note to Reviewer like “this card is based on prior approved card pid#XXXXX”.

Freebie Wednesday: Rainbow Dreams Font.

September 16, 2020
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Freebie Wednesday:

Rainbow Dreams is a bouncy handwritten font with extra font doodles! Includes a doodle font – Rainbow Dreams Extras – with 52 decorative doodles! This font is perfect for quotes, branding, ornaments, shirts, mugs, headings, blogs, logos, invitations and more!

This beautiful freebie is brought to you by KA Designs! Only available for a week on the Hungry Jpeg site, make sure to download it ASAP!

 

 

This product comes with a complete commercial license.

 

Nuts and Bolts: Holiday Custom Request Design Change.

September 11, 2020

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Nuts and Bolts: Holiday Custom Request Design Change.

 

Holiday card sales have begun! For the next few months, we expect to see growing numbers of shoppers coming to find their perfect holiday card. We are already seeing a lot of custom card requests coming in. Many great new custom cards being created resulting in larger sales, happy shoppers, and happy artists! Unfortunately some of the requests are going unanswered by the artist. These are potential sales that you are missing out on.

 

 
Here is a wonderful example by GCU artist Stephie McCarthy:

 

From the shopper:  
Is this Beautiful card available in landscape? We have a wonderful picture to put on inside! Thank you! I would be ordering a dozen or so cards…  
 
Original Card:

 

Resulting Card: 

See this insightful piece on Orientation Considerations.
 
And another excellent example by GCU artist, MGDezigns:  
 
From the shopper:
Hello, I love this card, and was wondering if you had the same design with Happy Holidays on it? Thanks!  
 
Original Card:
Resulting Card: 
See this related piece on Leveraging Designs and specifically the link to Image Use Guidelines on the Forum re: Term Variations specifically.

 

Big holiday kudos to both of these artists for delighting these shoppers and helping them get the perfect holiday card ordered early!

Tip: Remember when submitting a new card that is a variation on a previously approved card to make a note in the Notes to Reviewers the pid# that it is based on.  “Based on approved card PID #12345”.  And remember custom requested cards can be set for FastTrack review.  Just leave the reviewer a little note for that too like “for a shopper’s request #14667 ”.

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy
GCU Community Manager