Blog Redesign

While surfing around recently, I stumbled across Elizabeth Kartchner's adorable blog.
The moment I saw it, I said Yes! That's what I want my blog to look like! (Never mind that Elizabeth was Scrapbooker of the Year and her site was professionally done. And those cute little clothes are from her new collection for American Crafts).

Here is my attempt at a fun, whimsical feel like Elizabeth's. At least the redesign got me to fire up the new Photoshop CS4 that I got for my birthday. Even though I'm quite familiar with Photoshop Elements, there's still a pretty steep learning curve with Photoshop CS.

Just for fun, here are my previous blog headers, starting with the most recent. Although I love the photos in these, there's something fresh and clean about having more white space in the header.

Business Cards and Brochures

Last week, I got a call about a actual job involving web design, graphic design, and brochures! They asked for a portfolio (including at least two brochures) which caught me a little bit off-guard. I am expanding my skills to include web/graphic design as well as web programming, but my "portfolio" is a admittedly little thin as yet.

Here is what I can claim as my portfolio so far (excluding scrapbook designs):

Brochure Cover	Business Card

Giveaway Mini Album

Plus a couple of cards I have done for others:





Guess I'd better get to work and develop some other brochures and a website or two if I really want to pursue this.

Cafe Press

Let me start off by saying that I didn't put my work on Cafe Press because I thought it was so good that it just had to have a larger audience. It was a requirement for my design class, to get some experience in selling our work.

But I have to say, I do like this design on this yellow and black messenger bag. The color schemes fit so well together:


I may put the "Catfish" tesselation on some pet food bowls, too -- it's such a perfect fit!

"Cat-Fish" Tesselation

I wanted to post my latest design class project, a tesselation. It took me forever, but in the end I'm pretty happy with it:


The word "tesselation" comes from the Latin word for tile. The positive and negative spaces are supposed to both be recognizable shapes that fit together. This type of tesselation was pretty much invented by M.C. Escher in the 1930's. Sky Water is one of his most well-known works:


I am having the best time in this class. I had seen the Sky Water before, but had no idea who did it or what it was all about.

Design Class

This is the first project from my design class, which I am absolutely loving. When the teacher first saw this, she said I should be designing sheets for Sears (which I did not take as a compliment!) But later she apologized -- apparently she is from Chicago, and back in her day, that was quite a coveted job.


The shapes were derived from a pencil drawing I did, which was itself was derived by photocopying pieces of nature (branches and leaves, etc.) The colored paper is paint chips from Home Depot -- hence the stripes, which I actually like.

Fall Temptations

It's dangerous being on Pottery Barn's e-mail list -- so many tempting things arrive in your inbox. These gorgeous plates are a case in point:


I like orange, especially in small doses with classic motifs, like this.

The last thing I need is more dishes. But it's so tempting....


I will try to console myself by making something out of this fall paper from MAMBI (which is already in my scraproom):

Packaging Inspiration

OK, I admit I did not need these soaps from Old Navy in the least -- I bought them totally for the packaging! I find so much inspiration in packaging, and I'm a sucker for that black, white and green color scheme. (Actually, black, white and any color.) I also love all those connected circles. I think I see a scrapbook page with these characteristics in my future...