IMPORTANT! Please read - Postcard Design Deadline is Friday, 6/29

Yes, Everyone... The deadline for submitting your design for our postcard puzzle is Friday --not Wednesday -- 6/29. (One of our members had brought the error to our attention...thanks, dear!)

Gomen, ne?? Our apologies, minna, for the confusion.

Are you all hard at work with your designs??

Like we mentioned in Sunday's update, feel free to be creative! You can be as realistic or as abstract as you want!
Just make sure to follow the guidelines we gave... we really don't want to have to disqualify an entry on a technicality. And please incorporate the US and Canadian flavor... get those creative juices flowing!

We received a few questions and would just like to post them here in case any of you were also wondering and were just shy to ask:

The design will only be for the front of the puzzle, right?
- Correct. Only the front side of the postcard puzzle will display the design and the unified message(in Japanese). The back side will be reserved for our individual messages.

Is it okay if we put the design on an 8.5" x 11" sheet? won't we lose some of the image quality when we blow it up?
- You can, just keep in mind our final postcard puzzle size will be 18" x 24". The closer you are to the scale of the final dimensions, the more the space will be maximized. Say, you have a photo in the shape of a square...for you to make it rectangular you'll either have to stretch the sides (thus distorting the photo) or crop the top and/or bottom...either way, you have to alter the photo and lose the original image. If the photo was in a rectangular shape to begin with, the less the distortion to the image when it's blown up.

Any ideas on how I can scan my design?
- We understand that unless you work at Kinko's, it's highly unlikely any of us will have access to a commercial-use scanner/printer/copier for free. That being said, you can either:

1. scan your photo in sections. label each file appropriately, send it to us and we'll take care of putting the files together.
2. do the above, but you put the sections together and send us the file.
3. take a picture of your design with a digital camera (make sure the setting is on high res) and send the digital file to us

Or, you can go to Kinko's and ask them if they can scan your design (caveat: they may ask you to pay) XD If the above are not an option, do email us.

If there are any other questions, feel free to reach out to us!

We know there are some cool ideas for designs already in the works!! Gambatte!! We'll look forward to receiving your entries!