I know some of you are already thinking about your holiday cards. And if you weren’t already, you are now.  ; )

If you were around here a year ago, you might remember that we offered FREE digital templates here on beckyhiggins.com. Remember these?

I’d like to keep the tradition alive and offer you free digital holiday card templates again. All you have to do is digitally drop in a favorite picture and that’s it! Hooray for simplifying some things in our life, right?

So here’s the twist: I’m opening this up to YOU. If you are a graphic designer, or even if you have enough experience with Photoshop to know what you’re doing, I’d love for you to come up with one of our newly offered designs! If your card design is chosen, you’ll win:

1. Project Life

2. Spotlight on my blog

3. $100. That comes in handy this time of year, no?

Are you up for the challenge? Do you know someone with design skills that would be interested? (Direct them here.) This contest is open to anyone and everyone, no matter your industry or experience. I just want to see your best holiday card design. The winning 3-5 designs will be the digital holiday card templates that are offered on beckyhiggins.com this year. They’ll be available as free downloads for everyone to use as they wish.

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{ the nitty-gritty }

1. All artwork must be original art. You can’t use any paper or embellishments from digital kits.

2. Each design must be submitted as a 5×7 and 4×6. {Added note: Thanks to reader “Lori” for also adding that Costco will print custom JPGs in their special 6″ x 7.5″ greeting card prints. Sooo … please submit in that size as well!)

3. The orientation can be either horizontal or vertical.

4. Include the year (2010) somewhere in the design and perhaps a title or caption that is holiday-related.

5. Files must be saved as 300 dpi png files.

6. You must leave a blank space where the photo is to be placed. The photo should be prominent in the design.

7. As for style, well … that’s up to you. You’re the designer. But since I will be personally choosing the winning designs, I’ll give you a tip on what will likely stand out to me: Clean and uncluttered.

8. The deadline for submissions is November 6th; that’s next Saturday.

9. Email submissions to submissions@beckyhiggins.com

10. No more than two designs per person.

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All that said, I seriously can’t wait to see what you come up with! Good luck!

Added note: I have no rules about who you are and if we know each other. This is open to everyone. So whether you happen to be a personal friend or if you’ve never even heard of me before today … you have equal chances. I just want the coolest cards to share with my readers and my bias is only about the design itself.  : )

Another added note regarding fonts: Please be mindful of copyrights. Your safest bet is to use generic fonts like the Arials, Helveticas, Geogias, etc. Be sure to save your layered files for any slight changes you may be asked to make.