Designer Challenge Rules

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Designer Challenge Rules

I'm sure these will be modified over time, leave comments if you have suggestions.

Basic rules:
The only rule for the designer challenge is to try your best! The designer challenge exists to help challenge and motivate you to step out and try something new. So if you're doing that, then you are doing the right thing.

To participate you should:
Since we currently have no way for designers to post their designs on the site, you will need to have an off-site location to host your files if you wish to share them. Please leave an image and a link (if offered) in the appropriate challenge thread. See here for info on posting an image to the forum.

Hummm...not sure if my submission is what was intended for the challenge. I did create the circle template myself but the papers are from elsewhere.

I had a stab at a kite - now just need to look for the forum for the challenge...

well, I've been busy doing other things, so I'm out of the loop on this.

Question: Is it okay for us to use CU products in our creations? for the papers and elements?

Thanks

@Laura: You can use CU things, just as long as you're still challenging yourself. People are at different levels for what they find challenging, so I don't want to regulate things too much.

Thanks for the clarification, Marisa!

I don't look at this part of our wonderful pixelscapper forums very often but when I do I am absolutely amazed by all the talent and how much everyone has learned since they started designing - seriously, take a moment to look at the fist mini kit or whatever that you made and the newest one that you have made. Awesome! Great work everyone.

What are cu things? smiley

Thank you
Trying to find out the rules can create things hopefully i dont break any rules? I also am wondering can we use mask and templates from this site to make our kits? and it is ok? not a copy right issue?

Thank you again sorry im such a newbie

You can use templates from here to make things based on your license. If you have a $20/mo. membership, everything here is CU4CU--you can use anything from the kits and graphics sections to make papers and items to be sold on for commercial use. If you have a $10 membership, you can create stuff for the blog trains and such, but your creations can only be licensed for personal use/scrap for hire/scrap for others. It's not a copyright issue here...though other sites and other CU (commercial use) designers have different terms of use for their products. Some will allow freebies to be made with their products, while others say you can't use their flowers in a freebie cluster to give away on your blog as a promotional item for your kit. DigitalScrapbook.com designers and terms are a lot more permissive than most, which is a good thing when you're starting out.

It's fine to be a newbie--we all were, once...and not so long ago for some of us. (I started designing elements for myself a couple of years ago, and really started doing more once I joined DigitalScrapbook.com in early 2014.) While it takes time and effort to learn how to make fantastic elements from scratch, working from templates is very easy and a great way to start out. Best of all, there are lots of people here who'll encourage you as you learn. smiley

Ok cool hope I am able to keep this all straight lol I just made 10 papers for the challenge but im not sure I saved them correctly because they are HUGE 40-50 mb each so im sure that i need to save them smaller? I am working on elements now for the challenge we will see how my first mini kit ever comes out and how many rules i break?!?! I sure hope someone will guide me if I Do?

Thank you
Rachelle

Flatten the papers and save them as JPG at 300 pixels per inch, 12 inches square, on a reasonably high quality (usually 9-11 in Photoshop, but not sure on how Elements does it, the exact number depends on paper complexity). That should bring your file sizes down to 4-12MB per paper.

As far as your elements go, you'll want them in PNG format, sized roughly according to the info on this page. I found it really helpful when I was starting out.

If the formats confuse you, just remember that JPG gives smaller file sizes but can't show transparency, so you only want to use it on things that are perfect rectangles. Everything else should be PNG, which has transparency but can get huge due to being a lossless format--so make sure you trim around your elements so you don't have a ton of empty space around them.

If you make a layout template using shapes, you'll usually want to release that in a layered file. I use PSD format for releasing them since almost every major graphics program out there can open a PSD correctly, while only some open TIFF files correctly. Then I keep the release ZIP backed up in several places and the TIFF file in my layout templates, because TIFFs are smaller.

oh ok i was saving them as png that was the problem

Hi! I want to try my hand at designing, but I am confused about a few things. If I make something for a challenge, I can put it on my blog as a pu freebie for anyone, correct? But what if I use something from pixelscrapper in that freebie, is that still allowed? Only if I use the cu version I assume? Am I right that pu items can't be used in something that's a freebie for public download? And then I also saw something about 50% somewhere... how does that work?
And then next question, what do I need to be aware of in order to sell what I make? I read Holly's comment about cu4cu licence for things from pixelscrapper. If I use something from somebody's blog train contribution, and I got it from their blog, I assume it is not included as coming from pixelscrapper itself? So then I would need to use it according to the TOU they have included in their zip download?

Thanks for answering all these newbie questions ☺

Justine, if you make something for a challenge, you should use CU elements from PixelScrapper if you want to distribute them. You can make something for a challenge with PU elements for your own personal use, but cannot distribute it, even as a freebie.

In order to make something that you can give to the public, you need to use CU items, and follow their TOU. Some "CU" TOU's don't allow you to make freebies, or insist you can't use that element as an individual element, but only as part of a cluster, so watch that carefully. Most will have a "only x% of your kit can be my CU items" clause; PixelScrapper's is 50%. Most will also require you to alter the element significantly (perhaps add a new center to a flower, sprinkle it with glitter, add a bow to the stem, add another couple of layers to a paper pattern, etc.)

In order to sell what you make, if you want to sell it as PU, you need to follow the same steps as above for things you can give to the public...but you'll be able to use elements that don't allow freebies to be made with them.

In order to sell CU items, you'll want to use CU4CU-licensed items (PixelScrapper's CU license includes CU4CU as allowed) or create your own from scratch (via drawing, painting, crafting, etc., and then photographing or scanning and extracting them).

Items downloaded from blog trains are subject to the TOU that came with them--some will be PU, others CU (for PU products only), and some may be expressly CU4CU. It's up to the individual designer. You need to abide by them to avoid copyright violations, though.

As a side note, watch your fonts when you're designing things too--some typefaces' extended ("commercial") TOUs only allow for using as part of a flattened design where the individual letters' shapes can't be easily extracted. This comes into play mostly in word art. (Make it part of a cluster or fill with a pattern to get around that one, or create subway art on a journal card.)