Trends : The Avatar Chicks
Friday, August 5, 2005 at 08:54AM This wasn’t sudden - both Clara Wallace and Dawn Stocstill (also known as Hunibuni) have been providing avatar chicks for some time now. But goodness have they taken off lately in the scrapbooking world, and particularly now you can see many of these chicks making appearances on blog and website banners.
Custom Chicks by Clara
Clara provides custom avatar chicks from her boutique site, Matter of Scrap under the name of Creative Witch Custom Chick Graphics. Unfortunately they are so in demand lately that there’s now a waiting list. You provide a photo of yourself and a chick is created in your likeness. Clara also bases this on some personal profiling for you also.
Clara’s chics are available for $25, and you get an avatar size 125x125px, 72dpi jpeg, along with a 400x400px 300dpi jpeg which you can use for business cards, stationery etc. They are for personal use only, but you will see these on many websites, and as avatars on many forums also.
There are many forums avatars credited to Clara, but I’m afraid that due to the fact they are customised, it is difficult to show you some sitting within websites and blogs. There are a few I’ve found which I’m tempted to say must be Clara’s work, but without the credit on the blogs I remain unsure. So, if my stab in the dark is not hitting the mark, please make sure to tell me.
- I think that Christina Blomburg’s personal site has a big custom Clara chic on it.
- Brenda Kempf also has one, although I can’t find a personal site for this.
- Krista Mettler, co-owner of a couple of digital sites - twoscrappychicks.com and digitalfreebies.com has a custom Clara chick used on her websites.
- The other half of twoscrappychicks, is Tracy, or Retrodiva. On Retrodiva’s site you will find what looks like another Clara chick on the banner.
Chicklets by Dawn
Dawn sells her chicklets through Scrapbook-Bytes. You can either purchase and put together a chicklet from a set of faces, clothing, and various hair styles, or purchase a full-bodied already made up chicklet.
Make a Chicklet
If you start off with the Bobbi Chicklet set (five eye colours, 2 mouths, 2 hairstyles, and 1 upper body) for $7, you can then add a range of different coloured hairstyles (blonde, brunette, redheads) for $1.25 and a Chicklet Jean Pack for $1.50. Add a shoe pack and a t-shirt pack if you wish also. Instead of Bobbi, you can also choose other sets such as Michi or Daisy if you want different skin tones.
The Gurlz
Dawn’s latest creations are called Gurlz - these are full-bodied chicks in a range of ethnicities and clothing, and funky hair colourings. They sell for $10 each, and are 5x7inches tall, at 300dpi. My favourite is the one with purple hair.
The gurlz are appearing all over the place - especially on some website / blogsite banners and sidebars. Some examples have been found for you below -
- Auntie Pea’s blog appears to have a gurlz on her banner.
- Trish Jones, who worked with Dawn on the Hawt CD, has been gifted with a sexy new gurlz on her own blogsite. This one is obviously customised, as the sexy girl on site is lying on her stomach somewhat seductively!
- Katie Pertiet is sporting an avatar on her blog
- Of course, Dawn’s blog has one on the banner.
- Pattie’s blog looks like it has a Hunibuni design on the banner -which has been customised to include some glasses.
- 911Mom’s blog definately has a gurlz type on that banner.
- Ashley Michelle has a custom Dawn chick which she uses on her own digital design kits as a logo also. You can see this one on her blog.Note: The above examples for each chick creator have been judged by the author’s personal opinion, and may well be incorrect. If you have any information towards this, please share and I will quickly correct who created what chicklets, when used on other websites.
The Chick Trend Summary
No 1: I think these are fantastic, stunning, great, funky, wonderful. I’ve always loved them.
No 2 : And I like it that these are becoming more predominant in the scrapbooking community. With the movement into digital scrapbooking of late, noticably many of the example websites / blogsites I’ve given you belong to digital scrapbook designers. Dawn’s larger gurlz type chics are now being used not only in packaging previews for digital designer goods, but in banners and large sidebar graphics on blog and websites. But Clara’s chicks are also appearing all over banners, particularly in combination with web-banner graphics design from such digital designers as Krista and Retrodiva’s companies.
No3: The chicks appear to be tied in with digital scrappers themselves, and designers most predominantly. This is a techie, but new industry and the funkiness of both designer’s creations mean there is a great match.
No 4 : Did I mention how much I luv ‘em?
Michelle@Scrapability
New Dolls from Dawn
In my first entry, I discussed Dawn Stocstill’s Chicklets and the Gurlz. Since opening up her own website, called Modscraps, Dawn has released a new avatar chick called the Mod Sweetez. These come in a range of hairstyles, and you can purchase a new top for your Mod also. They are available for personal use as your avatar, on your website, blog, even coffee cups if you insist.
Each Mod Sweetez comes with Photoshop recolouring instructions, and a range of eye colours to use. I’ve chosen to show you the long curly haired one, because I have curly hair. Purchase the mod sweetz from Modscraps here.
Lil’ Sweeties by Mindy
Mindy Terasawa is now providing little custom sweetie avatars, which you will see all over the forums now. These can be purchased from The Digi Chick website at this link here.
Lil’ Sweeties come in 5x7 inch size, at 300dpi, and are available for personal use only. I am showing you the Lil’ Sara one on here, as I like her hawaiin look, but they come with different hair styles also.
And if they aren’t sweet enough for you, on the Digi Chick site itself, you will see that you will soon be able to get yours animated by Sara Carling. Some have already been animated and you will find those by looking around the Digi Chick forums.
You will see some sample Lil’ Sweeties all over the place, but one new convert seems to be the Shabby Princess herself, who is sporting a lovely Sweetie on her new blog banner.
Michelle@Scrapability
Dreamy Divas by Rhonna Farrer
The latest avatar craze to hit the boards (especially at 2Peas) are the Dreamy Divas by Rhonna Farrer. These are available for sale, via the 2 Peas in a Bucket digital shop, as a Digital Card kit this December. The divas come in several designs, and included in the kit are some accessories. As these were brought out in December, the card designs and accessories are towards Christmas or Seasonal winter usage.
As this is a digital file, the dreamy divas themselves can be re-colourised to suit yourself. The current set are being used simply as avatars for many 2Peas patrons.
Michelle@Scrapability
Well, not Quite a Chick or Doll, but We All Need ‘em…
Digi Bras by Dani
H
ow kewl are these, for your avatar - a custom designed Digital Bra. You can choose your colourings from the paper ranges at Designs by Dani, and order up a custom bra for $3. Make mine a 38DD, and we’ll both be set, Dani.
You can purchase these at the store link here. 100% of the proceeds form this product will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
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Reader Comments (4)
I've never been a fan of the Matter Of Scrap ones (just personal taste) and wanted one of Hunibuni's, but they got overused just a tad. So, when I saw someone NEW, I snatched one right away. Now I'm seeing them around quite a bit, too...but that's OK, cause I think they are ADORABLE! :)
In case you haven't seen them, here's the one she created for me:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/ditzyscrap/breeavatar_sweetmindy.jpg
Kym
Ps you are bad for my purse!
I finally made Scrapability! Yahoo! But seriously, I realized in reading your comment about my use of a Clara chick that I need to get out there and update my sig line, well, everywhere. I am no longer an admin at Digital Freebies and Two Scrappy Chicks ended up being nothing more than a fantastic idea that never came to pass. But I do sell at Scrap Outside The Box, ScrapDish, and Digital Freebies, and you'll see my Clara chick front and center with a new site that I am one-third owner of that will be launching later this month (and my co-owners also have Clara chicks). I looked around a lot before I commissioned Clara to do my chick earlier this year. I felt Clara's chick design best matched my personality, and people who know me well (including my husband and my mom!!!) think my chick looks just like me. I think this is due to the customization that Clara does via her personality questionnaire and via use of actual photos to mimic hairstyle, etc. She said it took her a LONG time to get my curly hair just right, but she did. Anyway, I just wanted to mention my correct affiliations and put in my vote for Clara as a chick designer. I'm completely thrilled with the results and have used my chick for all sorts of advertising including a business card (which I posted in Clara's gallery) and my design portfolio.
Krista
Here's my new business card I made with my chick and new shades!
http://andrea.scrapoutsidethebox.com/businesscard_sfw.jpg
Now, my chick is a bit different--I threw Clara a curveball and she was very accommodating. I'm no stick girl, so I asked Clara to bulk up my chick a bit and put some more meat on her bones--she made a great adjustment. :)