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Rainbow Connection: Color Inspiration.

June 23, 2020
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Some color inspiration I found on Pinterest this week:

 

 

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from → Rainbow Connection (Colors)

Nuts and Bolts: Dedicate Yourself to the Details.

June 19, 2020
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Nuts & Bolts – Dedicate Yourself to the Details
 
It is often the little details that escape the artist’s eye. It is always a good idea to step away from a design that you have been meticulously working on or ask a brutally honest companion to give it a once over. The review team is certainly a fresh set of eyes and often catches tiny fixes or areas of improvement. GCU is grateful for artists who are open to collaborating with the reviewers on minor adjustments that make a big difference.

 

Observation from the reviewer:

I think with the bucket in his mouth here can pass as a please give me treats look so going to approve but the Christmas version I will return with concerns that it may not fit the occasion as well.

Reviewer’s Request for Edits:

We feel the doggie’s expression is a little sad for this category and would not consider this for a Christmas relationship series. However, with an appropriate verse we could consider this single general submission for this category -Holidays >> Christmas >> Anti Christmas / Bah Humbug if you would like to edit and resubmit.

 

Original Image:

 

 

Resulting Image:

 

 

From the reviewer:

Thank you, Sharon, this is better suited. I guess you have to up the treats quota!
 

Thank you to GCU artist, Sharon Dominick Photography, for her extensive photo collection and collaborating with our review team to create a submission that begs for attention.



The difference is made in the details!

Mindy
GCU Community Manager

 

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Wanted New Cards: School Leadership Position Thank You 

June 18, 2020
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Wanted Cards – School Leadership Position Thank You 

 

Students in a leadership position have likely dedicated a lot of extra time and effort into their role to make their school and class year run more successfully, smoothly, and fairly.

 

Thank you cards for students serving these positions are in need and should go here:

 

Occasions >> Thank You >> Student Leadership Position …
>> Other
>> General
>> Student Body President
>> Class President
>> Vice President
>> Secretary
>> Treasurer
>> Head Pupil / Head Boy / Head Girl
>> Sports Captain
>> School Captain
>> House Captain


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 Forum – Wanted Cards”.

For standard front designs, consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track.

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from → Wanted: New Cards

Freebie Wednesday: Give it Colors.

June 18, 2020
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Freebie Wednesday:

 

Give it colors – set of vector patterns and background. Beautiful seamless wallpaper patterns set in classic style. High detailed and carefully drawn. 100% vector art. Vector versions allows you infinite scaling while preserving the beautiful hand-drawn characteristics. Ideal for wedding decorations, wallpaper, fabric patterns, packaging, cards and much more! Provided in vector and raster formats (Ai, EPS10, JPEG preview). Seamless designs

You will get:

  • 4 Ai file with seamless patterns, 4 EPS10 file, 4 JPEG preview (5000X5000 px),
  • 1 Ai file with floral background, 1 EPS10 file, 1 JPEG preview (5000X5000 px)

Note: mock ups are not included in download

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

 

 

 

This product comes with a complete commercial license.

 

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from → Fonts, FREEBIES

Nuts and Bolts: Describe Distressed Effects.

June 12, 2020
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Nuts & Bolts – Describe Distressed Effects

 

We have discussed before the importance of special notes to call attention to any special, unusual, digital effects or elements in a design. Online shoppers looking at a product image can assume and expect all kinds of things. In your metadata and product description (Artist’s Notes) is the place for you to explain to them exactly what the card is (and is not).

 

Here is the overriding guideline on Describing Digital Elements.  We have also included tips for Music related designs.

 

We will now add to the list of design effects that need footnoting; grunge, distressed, aged, worn, etc. GCU has had unhappy shoppers receiving cards that they feel “the printer ran out of ink” or “the mail truck must have run over it”.  We hear the strangest things!

 

When designing cards with any distressed, grunge or aged effects first consider the following. The review team will hold submissions to the following criteria as well:
1. does it look intentional – is it used in a manner that looks like part of the design and not a printing error?
2. does it add value to the design?  does it make sense in the overall subject matter of the design and occasion of the card?

 

Please include appropriate descriptive terms in the metadata (title, keywords) like:
grunge, aged, distressed, industrial, torn,
 
and in the Artist’s Notes (in CAPS) something like:  
THE TEXT ON THE COVER OF THIS CARD IS GRUNGE STYLE THAT INTENTIONALLY LOOKS AGED AND WORN OUT
THE EDGES OF THIS DESIGN ARE INTENTIONALLY DESIGNED WITH DIGITAL EFFECTS TO LOOK WORN AND AGED

 

This can prove to be an issue in the Artist’s Notes with a like image series to still attain the “unique” thumbs up.  So, consider using a thesaurus to help creative different variations of your effects disclosure statement to keep it unique. See Notes Uniqueness Tips here.

 

This is similar to circumstances where shoppers do not like the Papyrus font, of which GCU will be Removing Papyrus.

 

Here is a great example of a design where the distressed look on the cover font was too subtle resulting in a shopper thinking it was a printing error. The artist was asked to either make the effect more obvious or remove it.  Thanks to artist, Judith Gorgone Designs, for the quick edit on this cute design.

 

The difference is made in the nitty, gritty details!

 

Mindy
GCU Community Manager

 

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from → Wanted: New Cards

Wanted New Cards: Death / in Loving Memory Announcements.

June 11, 2020
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Wanted Cards – Death / in Loving Memory Announcements
 

 

There seems to be no way around such an abrupt title – an announcement to share the news of a loved one’s death. With a downturn in readership of formal obituaries in the newspaper, there is a growing trend of sending the news of a family member’s passing in an announcement, especially if there will not be a funeral, service, celebration of life or other gathering.

 

Consider your designs as a tribute and in loving memory of someone’s passing where shoppers can add additional details like an obituary.
 
Please consider creating custom front designs allowing the shopper to personalize the front with a photo and / or custom front text for name, date of passing and possibly other details. 
 
Consider gender neutral designs as well as for male and females. 
 
The cards should go here:
 

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 Forum – Wanted Cards”.

For standard front designs, consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track.

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from → Wanted: New Cards

Freebie Wednesday: Magical Sprinkles.

June 10, 2020
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Freebie Wednesday:

 

Magical Sprinkles is a one of a kind, cute hand-lettered font! You will love the fun and whimsical characters!

OTF and TTF are included for the full font. Multilingual Support for Western European Languages!

This cute freebie is brought to you by Affinity Grove. Only available on the Hungry Jpeg site for a week, so don’t miss out!

 

 

This product comes with a complete commercial license.

 

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from → Fonts, FREEBIES

Nuts and Bolts: Different Variations.

June 5, 2020
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Nuts & Bolts – Different Variations

 

GCU encourages card designs in variations to address differences like age, gender, hair color, skin color. These would go in the same functional category and be identified with appropriate metadata (card title, keywords, artist notes) to note the unique or different element of the card and help shoppers find exactly what they are searching for.

 

A card design redesigned with a meaningful variance (meaningful to shoppers to purchase one over the over) is permitted in the image re-use policy, and is permitted in up to 3 different variations.  See here on Leveraging Designs.

 

Here are some great examples:
Sandra Rose Designs
Thank you for your attention, submissions, creativity and be well!

 

The difference is made in the details!

 

Mindy
GCU Community Manager

 

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from → Wanted: New Cards

Wanted New Cards: Children’s Day.

June 4, 2020
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Wanted Cards – Children’s Day

 

Please consider creating new designs for the following category which can be considered Children’s Day or International Children’s Day.
 

 

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 Forum – Wanted Cards”.

For standard front designs, consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track.

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from → Wanted: New Cards

Freebie Wednesday: Hello Cello.

June 3, 2020
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Freebie Wednesday:

 

Hello Cello (by R. Studio) is a modern handwritten font with amazing heart-shaped swashes. Fall in love with its authentic feel and use it to create gorgeous wedding invitations, beautiful stationary art, eye-catching social media posts, and cute greeting cards. It’s free at Creative Fabrica for the next 5 days so be sure to check it out.

 

 

This product comes with a complete commercial license.

 

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from → Fonts, FREEBIES
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