Stickman.com

Whatever you're doing, STOP!

Check out drawastickman.com. All you need is a mouse/touch pad and a few minutes and there you have it, a creative, fun treat for you to enjoy.

Anyone can enjoy this, however creative you think you are.

Good old fashioned drawing...with computers!

For some reason, mine's a bit grumpy. It's just how he came out. There's a character waiting to be created...are you up for the challenge?

Caravan for sale on ebay...apparently

I love the way life can inspire stories...if you pay attention.

Yesterday I had two missed calls on my phone with answer phone messages, so naturally I listened to them. Both of them were from a northern man asking me about my caravan, you know, the one I put on ebay.

Hang on...ebay? Caravan?

Then a lady called me too, asking about my alleged caravan. What the heck was going on?

Firstly I've never been on ebay and secondly, I have definitely never owned a caravan.

But what if I did and I've lost all memory of it...

What if I told them I did and had a big bartering war with them, running off with all the money...

What if someone set me up with a stolen caravan...

What if I met real owner and he turned out to be a killer who lures people in through ebay...

Life is the biggest inspiration. All we gotta do is pay attention. What happened to you today?

Owen Davey

So, I'm doing an intern at Bath Festivals at the moment and today I was putting together some info sheets about some authors who are visiting schools as part of the Kids Lit Fest. I was going from website to website and this one blew me away...

Check out Owen Davey. He's an illustrator and he's produced this beautiful picture book, Foxley's Feast and is soon to release a second. I think his drawings are brilliantly stylistic. I want one!

His talents don't stop at stories. He's produced work for the likes of Orange, The Times, Jamie Oliver and the BBC! An inspiration to all us budding creative types.

Take a look at his wrapping paper too. It's the coolest. Now whose birthday's coming up...?

Ralph Allen Writes presents Rebecca Tucker

Unfortunately Ralph Allen Writes 2011 competition is now totally come to an end. Winners have been announced. Prizes have been given. Anthologies have gone on sale. I certainly have learnt a lot from it and I think the pupils involved have learnt a lot too. Being creative is not easy, you know. It takes a lot of work but all the pupils who entered the competition are now published writers, which is amazing!

There was one girl, however, that missed out on the opportunity to be published. I'm putting it down to some computer malfunction. So here for your pleasure is a story that's definitely worth a Creative Thinkers post. Rebecca Tucker's chilling tale, Trapped Forever:

“Beware of the ring! Do not put it on your finger or you will be trapped forever!” The fortune teller’s voice was cruel and emotionless. As Harry walked out of the tent his face was as white and blank as an icy lake. He felt quite taken aback! Didn’t fortune tellers normally say what you wanted to hear?

            Over time, Harry’s family moved house, into an extremely beautiful Tudor building. After the family had settled in, Harry discovered an archaic basement. Feeling curious, he decided to explore the dusty rooms. Harry found a small box and, feeling inquisitive, chose to look. Harry opened the lid of the tiny container and found a ring with a grinning skull. Feeling rather disappointed that it was just an old ring; he put it on his finger. After all it was pretty cool!

            Suddenly, Harry found himself falling through the clouds and realised that the ground was getting closer. Harry hit the floor with a thud. He looked round the room, flooded with light. It was as empty as an abandoned cave. Without warning the light in the room got blindingly bright and it filled with fire, closing in on Harry like a hungry tiger…

            Harry woke up. Thankfully it was just a dream! Rubbing his eyes he noticed someone standing at the end of his bed.

            “Happy birthday!” his mum exclaimed. “I brought you breakfast, it’s your favourite!” She held out an enormous pile of pancakes.

            “But my birthday’s a week away!” Harry answered.

            “Don’t be daft Harry!” his mum said, handing him the pile.

Harry stopped arguing and ate his breakfast. He had to admit, it was lovely!

            At school that day everyone was unusually nice to Harry: Mrs Turner had given him chocolates for winning a maths quiz, his mum had made him a special birthday lunch, Mr Wood had given him a cake with pink icing and a candle and his class had sung happy birthday to him!

           

Walking home, a sudden noise made Harry wake up from his daydream and, as he looked up, he realised that he had no idea where he was. The sky was filled with beautiful stars and Harry felt himself turning as he tried to see them all. The stars became a blur as Harry turned faster and in their place were terrifying ruby eyes.  As he watched, unable to move, Harry saw several monsters’ heads appearing out the darkness, then their bodies and, last of all, their hideous red tails. He heard a murmuring growl that grew into a furious roar of victory. Harry shut his eyes and covered his ears, hoping desperately that they would go!

            Without warning everything changed. The dreadful scarlet creatures were replaced by a flaming ring of fire, out of which emerged terrifying, headless zombies, dripping with blood.  Suddenly, Harry remembered something someone had said to him years ago. “I am trapped forever in my dream…” Harry realised as the Zombies closed around him, ready to kill.

To order a copy of the Ralph Allen Writes Anthology please email me. They are only £5 each with proceeds split between Ralph Allen School funds and Cancer Research.

Bertie and Jack in Bath

So my life has turned super busy and it may look like I've forgotten all about creativity, but I just wanted to let you all know that it's just not the case. In fact, you'll be happy to know that I have a new job (yay!) working on a little art stall in Bath called Bertie and Jack. They sell cute pictures of elephants, penguins and doves made of patterned paper. Perfect for wedding presents, birthdays, moving in presents ...basically there's one for everyone. The designs are so simple, yet really affective. They are perfect.

Check them out on Facebook: Bertie and Jack.

I LOVE working on the stall with Emma and Rebecca. I'll take some pictures today for you all to see.

Watch this space...

National Knitting in Public Day 2011

Get your knitting needles out and get involved people!



Where could you share...?

New Beginnings...

So, I just can't not write a blog entry today, even though I don't technically have to do it. It's kind of habit now. I have to let myself down slowly, you know?

Anyway, as you might have noticed the old blog's got a new page, dedicated to the competition I ran at Ralph Allen School in Bath. Thanks a bunch to all the cool kids who entered the competition. Your work is now in a book for the world to read! Winners will be announced shortly...very exciting!

The anthology is nearly ready to go on sale so watch this space for more info...

As for me, well, I think I'll go do a spot of knitting with my free afternoon...What creative endeavours will you get stuck into today...?

DAY 365!!! Be a Creative Thinker too...

Wow people! I have successfully reached the end of my blog challenge completing 365 posts to inspire creativity! I hope your have been motivated to get creative through at least one of the posts I have created over the last year. It's been great fun and I've learnt a lot about writing and about what creative opportunities going on all over the place, ready and waiting for us to get involved...

This is by no means the end for Creative Thinkers. Watch this space for more inspiration, but please don't be cross if I miss the odd day or two. So, as I sign off from my year of blogging, I leave you this challenge:

What do you to be creative? Write, bake, knit, dance, paint...whatever it is, try doing a little bit each day for a year and see what you can achieve. Take up my challenge and become a creative thinker for the world to see...

Be inspired. Be creative.

Day 364: Knitted Wedding Hearts

So, as it's the penaltimate day of my blog-in-a-year challenge, I thought it was about time that I told the world (through my blog) that I am getting married! What a perfect opportunity to get creative!

As is tradition at wedding, the Bride (that's me!) and Groom give their guests a gift, commonly named 'the favours'. Well, of course I was going to get my knitting needles out for this one! Since January, I have been spending my creative time knitting little hearts...

I'd love to say that I designed the pattern myself, but I borrowed it from a knitting blog. I did put my own creative stamp on them though, by adding the ribbons at the top.

If you're into knitting, have a go yourself, but put your own mark on it and make them your own. That's how creativity moves forward.

Day 363: A view to...anywhere

This is the sight out my window this morning. Pretty dull. It's raining and it's wet. There was some kind of commotion a minute ago with reversing cars and horns. That's about as exciting as it gets. Sometimes there's people walking past on there way to the park, but not on a day like today.

Wouldn't it be cool if every time you opened your curtains there was a different scene there. One day it could be a city-scape in lights, the next it could be misty mountains. Maybe you would see a volcano explode one morning. That would wake you up! Or you could be next you a raging river or the savannah in Africa. A giraffe could meet you on that morning!

It would certainly beat my window scene.

What would you want to see out of your window? Take your imagination on holiday with this one...

Day 362: The gift of the gab...

Since a very young age I've been pretty chatty, especially on a one-to-one basis. Meeting up for coffee with a friend is one of my favourite things to do.

So why am I telling you this? Well, chatting away to people is pretty handy for a creative person.

Over the summer I'm going to be working with Bath Festivals who organise two literature festivals and a music festival each year, as well as going into schools and inspiring creativity through drama and writing. It all started when I got chatting to Karl at a book event I went to over a year ago now.

Yesterday I got chatting to this women on an art stall in Bath. As I bought a piece of her art, I was chatting about finishing Uni and doing my internship with Bath Festivals...then she asked if I wanted to come a work with them on the stall!

What area do your creative talents lie? Drama, dance, music, writing, textiles...? Wherever it is, talking to people in your field seems like the way forward. Just see what happens. Sometimes we fall into these things, but more often that not, it's not what you know, but who you know!

Day 361: Embracing Randomness

Today's challenge is to search for inspiration, but in a way that might lead you anywhere...

1) Think of two random words, the first that come into your head will do. For example, mine were 'life' and 'pogo'.

2) Go to Google Images, type in words and see what comes up!

Here's some of the cool/hilarious pictures that came up on my random search:

So, there you have it, 'Life Pogo' a slightly confused (rather frightening) dog, a plant-boy and some sort of knitted sheep?

What will you find...

When you find that little piece of inspiration you've been looking for, jot it down and see what becomes of the randomness...

Day 360: Bake off

Yesterday my sister, Becca came to Bath with two friends and the four of us decided to have a bake off. One team against another. Rules were simple; bake something we hadn't made before. Whoever's tasted best, won.

So we flicks through cookery books until we settled on ONE recipe each and popped down to Sainsburys. Once all the ingredients was bought, we were off. The baking began.

Grated carrot, roasted nuts, melted chocolate. You name it, we pretty much covered the kitchen with it before we were done.

But at the end, we had these to show for it...

A carrot cake made by me and Alice. Peanut fudge-centred muffins made by Becca and Grania.

Who won? Well, let me first explain that we didn't leave our cake in the oven for long enough, so it just kinda tasted of raw carrot really. Not quite what we were going for. Which means Becca and Grania won this bake off....

Day 359: Do you have a Creative Buddy?

I don't mean just any old friend, I mean a conscience.

Now that I've pretty much finished my Uni Degree I know I'm going to find it hard to carry on with Holly's story. I don't have that weekly deadline any more where I go into class and get comments on my work. If I don't write, who will know? It doesn't matter if I miss a week, right?

WRONG, I'll never get it finished if that's my attitude!

When I spoke to my teacher about it she suggested a writing buddy. I have to email them each week and tell them how many words I've written. If I don't do it, they send me an angry email back, telling me off. It's best if I'm a bit scared of the person too, so best not to be a friend! Keep it professional. Writing buddies works both ways. I become their conscience too and shout at them if they're not keep up their creative work. Fun, huh!

a lack of creative drive can be found in all creative folk at some point. We all need a kick up the bum sometimes to get moving, so why not find your own creative buddy? Someone to be YOUR conscience. You owe it to the world to share your unique creativity with it, so keep up the good work. Get a buddy.

Day 358: Flip by Martyn Bedford (part 2)

Often when I read books they will present me with ideas that inspire me, that spark my imagination. I get lost in my own thoughts and forget I'm even reading a book. Does that ever happen to you?

I read this in Flip by Martyn Bedford and was taken far away:

'Imagine radio and TV signals 

were visual - the sky would be

 full of them, a blizzard of sound

and image swirling through the air.'

That's exactly what I did. I imagined it. A world full of signals. You wouldn't be able to see anything but distorted images whizzing around. What if it happened to phone signals too? Nothing could be secret! As you walked along the road you would hear snippets of conversation rushing down the wires above you. What would you want to over-hear?

What cool ideas! I mean, there's potential for a Sci-fi movie/book right there.

Are you inspired yet??

Day 357: 'Flip' by Martyn Bedford

I first saw this book in Mr B's Bookshop in Bath and was captured by it's tagline:

Even wake up in someone else's body?

Sold. It sounded really exciting. A boy wakes up someone else's room, with someone else's family and has to go to someone else's school as Philip, or Flip to his friends.

But I really struggled to get into it. Is it because I find it hard to identify with a 15 year old teenage boy? I mean, I've never been one and never will be. I managed to get into the character of Lucas in Finding Violet Park and the character of Martyn in Martyn Pig, so it can't be that...

The blurb describes it as a phycological thriller, but to be honest, it's just not that thrilling. Apart from the fact Alex is living in Flip's body, nothing particularly out of the ordinary really happens. There's a lot of theory about what's happened to him and description of how he feels about it and...that's it. It kind of just went on in a loop of emotion and reaction, emotion and reaction.

Until the end. I finally got into Alex's story about two thirds of the way through and wanted to know how he was going to figure this all out. Is two third' too late?

Like I said, I'm not a teenage boy, so give it a go. It's always best to make up your own mind about books and film or any creative media for that matter.

Check out the trailer too...

Day 356: My Creative Adventure

As I haven't done it for a while, I thought I'd spend a few lines telling you how my novel is going. Sadly, I had my last lesson on Friday with my 'writing for young people' class, so now I am on my own with it. I've left the nest!

BUT, I am going to finish Holly's story. I thought by announcing this to the world might make me more determined...

An outline, for those of you who need it:

Holly is 16. Her best friend, Penny has left for another town. He big brother's a pain and her mum's virtually a drunk. After another argument over who can use the computer, Holly storms out the house and finds herself in a posh neighbourhood. There she steals a laptop from an open window. That's how she'll keep in touch with Penny. Back home she finds she's stolen a diary in the bag too. The girl who owned it was called Jenna but it's Holly's now.
Back at school, Holly has the task of showing the new girl round, none other than Jenna Hampton!
Against it all, they become friends, good friends, but how do you keep your best friend when you know all their secrets?

So there you have it. That's Holly's story.

I'm roughly 19,000 words through my first draft and it's going pretty well. The trouble is, I've now got to the part where I'm jut joining up the dots. I have ideas for events in their story, but it's getting there from where I am now...

It's fun doing something creative you've never done before. There isn't a right way to be creative, you just have to get on with it and see what happens...will you join me?

Day 355: Finding inspiration in a busy day

Today I am working from 1:30 until 10:30 and the same tomorrow, so how could I possibly fit creativity into that day?

What do you do when there is no room for creativity in your day?

Is there such a day?

Inspiration can come from anywhere or anyone and if we are creative by nature then surely any situation can bring about an idea which will inspire creativity.

Today's challenge is to inspire creativity. Find something in your day that will spark creativity, even if the creative activity does not actually occur today. That's the challenge.

Find inspiration...Go.

Day 354: Vegan with a Vengeance

In order to get all my big assessments completed for final Degree hand-ins, I have found it best to treat myself to a spot of creativity AFTER I've done some work. That way, I have something to look forward to as I slog away.

So yesterday, for example I decided to make some 'Big Crunchy Peanut Butter - Oatmeal Cookies' from my new Vegan cookbook. I am not actually a vegan, but my boyfriends is, so if I can make something that will please his tummy, I'm up for it!

The thing with baking is, well, it's a bit of a trail and error game really. The cookies tasted great, but the first tray spread into each other and they came out looking more like slices of granary bread than cookies! The second batch I made smaller and left them in for longer, but then I couldn't get them off the tray which resulted in some bloody fingers come the end!

But, I had fun (apart from the cut fingers) and now have some pretty tasty cookies to eat for the next essay writing session. All the things I've learnt NOT to do, I've written on a sticky note and put on the page.

Next time I might add chocolate chips too. If you can't fit chocolate into it, it's often not worth eating as far as I'm concerned! But first I MUST do some more essay writing...

How will you treat your creative side on the final slog?

Day 353: Olympics 2012 Designer!

12 year old Hannah Clegg from Wiltshire has had her design chosen for the Olympic Park 'Landmark Garden' which will be created especially for the 2012 Games. 88 designs were submitted, but Hannah's beat them all and will be combined with the winning adult design submitted by Rachel Read.

What an exciting competition to win! Can you imagine walking around the Olympic garden knowing you designed it! Just think how many millions of people from all over the world will walk through it!

Because of Hannah's creative talents, the world will see her designs in action.

How could you get invovled in London 2012? Hosting the Olympics is an amazing opportunity that may never happen again in our life time, so we gotta jump on it and get involved, just like Hannah. Let's take inspiration from her amazing achievement and step up for 2012. See what you could do. The Olympics needs your creative talent!