THIS is a pin I found on etsy a while back that is still yet to be purchased by me, or anyone else for that matter. From your observation of my blog header, you can probably see my special affinity for whales. I don’t know why, it’s just this feeling I have. More than a feeling. Boston.

In the midst of an uncertain market, college graduates everywhere are scrambling for any kind of job that will pay any kind of money. Does this sound like the beggining to an article you’ve already read? Yeah, me too. I sat down to write this because, yesterday, I was trying to think of what my dream job would be. I concluded with myself that it would be to write an article for a blog everyday about generally cute and pretty things. I like to write. I like cute and pretty things. I was doing this a while ago, but just never kept up with it. Well, this is my mid-year resolution to try to write everyday. I realized I could do my dream job and, sadly, not get paid for it, but I can also do it anywhere! As much as I love enthusisasticly answering the phone and saying the phrase “TT,” (part of “TTL”) and all the while trying not to sound like a six year old, I really love writing and being crafty and writing about cute, pretty, crafty things. I also like to think that I am a pretty funny writer, so hopefully everyone will enjoy it as much as I do. I will go no deeper than writing about cute, pretty and/or crafty things. Wish me luck.

I got my websites up for the 2009 ASA/USA Softball Player of the Year Candidates. Click the links to see the respective pages. I’m so excited!!

Brittany8.com
Kelley10.com
Charlotte34.com

I also redid my portfolio website. I did have the same whale theme as above, but I didn’t like the boxy-ness of it. I felt it was too restricting. I told Doug the other day, if you know my name, you know my website. It was at the basketball game and he and Roots asked me what I wrote about on my blog. I replied with, “Roots.”

The first of holiday projects include these mushroom tea towels and pot holders I made for my sister-in-law, Lauren. Yesterday I also bought some ____ fabric for Jack and I’m going to make some ________ for his room. It’s gonna be great!

I hope said sister-in-law does not discover this post before I give them to her.

Well I’ve finally got my portfolio and ‘general’ website up and the best thing is, it matches my new blog design, too! Check it out at http://www.erinchamplin.com.

If anyone is wondering where the whale idea came from, I have always liked the shape and color of whales. I bought a wood cut out of a whale in Bay Saint Louis two summers ago. I have it hanging in my room and I love looking at it.  I searched istockphoto for vector images and finally settled on these vector images by a really great artist. I bought the credits, and now I can use everything on this FOREVER. Can you spot the whale? And of course, I LOVE the elephant at the bottom. You can bet I will be using that somewhere soon.

I am reminded of artist Charley Harper, who is famous for wildlife art and posters. If I ever had a Christmas List with ridiculously expensive things on it, his book with Todd Oldham, An Illustrated Life, would be at the top. I mean just look at this picture:

(image from: amazon.com)

Worth $126? Maybe one day.

Has God spoken to us when he granted this little gift of Charley Harper books at (of all places) Old Navy for a mere $15. He has a line of illustrated childrens books for a limited time. I haven’t seen them at my local Old Navy, and I hate to say it, but I can just see them being on eBay in a few weeks for a lot more. So much for corporate art.

In this project, we had to find a book on the University of Alabama Press website, and re-create the cover for it. I once again used Live Trace on a picture of a tree found on Driftwood Beach in Jekyll Island. The book was called The Butterfly Tree, and this is the original:

Below is what I came up with. I found the font somewhere on a computer up in the lab and I had to use it. It just goes so well with it.

Please click for the optimal viewing experience.

This is a project in which we were exploring different design principles and also dealing with type. A good way to remember the design principles are CRAP: contrast, repitition, alignment, and proximity. Our assignment was to randomly cut three square inches from a magazine, take certain elements from it and make a free form design project. This was the three square inch cut out I found:

And this is what I came up with. I remember being really into using the livetrace tool with InDesign, so that was my big “take away” experience. When it came to my idea of a free form design project, I think I really took it to the max, and really ripped apart the text. And when it came down to critique time, some people couldn’t even spot the type. Can you?

This is one of the first projects I ever attempted to do in a graphic design class. I really just went in with trial and error, really having no idea how to use InDesign. I didn’t even know the difference between stroke and fill colors. But anyway, we had to design a stationary package to reflect us, or some made up business that we had. I’m not big on making up businesses that I work for, so I just stuck to something simple. The flower is a stamp I found in InDesign, and I used my favorite color kelly green. I really like the business card and curved writing of the letterhead. Most of the information is outdated. I’m not totally sure I would use this again, I would like to re-do it using some of the skills I have gained since then.

business card

envelope

letterhead

I found this really cute jacket on JCrew for I don’t even want to say how much, but I thought to myself, CERTAINLY I can re-create this masterpiece for a fraction of the price. I am going to go to Old Navy or TJMaxx and find some kind of shift jacket for cheap. Then, I’m going to go hand sew a ton of silk fabric flowers and then just tack them on. Marvelous! I will have a lot more time once school gets out next week, because I also wont have to put in 30 hour work weeks, and thus I have more time for CRAFTS. Updates coming soon…

It may be December first, but not TOO late to make this advent calendar I’ve been eyeing. I found it on Alphamom.com and surely I can re-create this to resemble a Christmas advent calendar that is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Our final project for my ART 424 class is due Wednesday and by then I will have a complete redesign of everything done for my main website, the blog and a portfolio!