http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/
Make Your Own Snowflake — It takes a moment to load, but after the thermometer falls to zero and you read Catch A Falling Flake, then the Create Your Own Snowflake spot appears below the scenic graphic.

After the scissors cut the folded paper, you use your cursor to cut your own pattern which can be previewed and undone until you like it enough to send out. You have the option to identify yourself as the creator of your snowflake. The snowflake you have created will be pointed out with an arrow as the snow falls down. Right click to zoom in and each dot you touch with your cursor (no clicking needed) becomes another crystal. There are snowflakes and messages from all over the world. No two alike, just like snowflakes!

http://www.crazymoonart.com
There are many artists and centers around the country offering process painting -- this is a great way to jump start your creativity.

Everyone was born to create, to live life with passion and zest. As children we created, colored and played freely, without worry about 'the final product.' But as "real world" adults, we no longer make the time or have the space to open wide and let our creativity and playfulness break through, and sometimes we even forget how.

Following the guidelines of process painting, you will shush the trappings of your mind - letting go of control, judgment and self-consciousness - and tap your creative charge. In Atlanta, the CraZy MoOn aRt RoOm you can rekindle that sense of spontaneity and aliveness.

Aha! 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and find your great ideas
by Jordan Ayan

A very readable and practical book on understanding and utilizing your creative powers. The bulk of the book describes ten strategies to aid the creative process. Serendipity, synchronicity, chaos, idea capturing, and journaling are covered.

The Artist's Way... A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
by Julia Cameron

This book had a profound effect on the way I looked at myself as an artist. A twelve-week, step-by-step guide to overcoming your creative sticking points, including fear, self-sabotage and guilt. Lots of interesting quotes from a wide assortment of people included in the borders of the book. I've bought this book as a gift for many people.

The Vein of Gold... A Journey to Your Creative Heart
by Julia Cameron

Written as a companion to "The Artist's Way", Ms. Cameron describes this as a book of healing and rehabilitation -- restoring your artist-child to health. It includes over one hundred imaginative, involving and energizing tasks which are innovative tools for mining the vein of gold within you.

The Right to Write
by Julia Cameron

Full of short essays and exercises, I found this book to be engaging and inspiring. The introduction contains the following description by Ms. Cameron:

"This book will be a cheerleader for those trying the writing life, a companion for those living it, and a thank-you to my own writing for the life it has given to me. It is my hope that this book will help to heal writers who are broken, initiate writers who are afraid and entice writers who are standing at river's edge, wanting to put a toe in."

Creativity
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

This book is based on analysis of interviews with exceptional people that used their creativity to dramatically impact their particular field or domain. Mr. Csikszentmihalyi writes: "The results of creativity enrich the culture and so they indirectly improve the quality of all our lives. But we may also learn from this knowledge how to make our own lives directly more interesting and productive."

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
by Betty Edwards

Applying brain research to the teaching of drawing skills, Dr. Betty Edwards presents a set of basic exercises designed to release creative potential and tap into the special drawing abilities of the right half of the brain. A quote from Professor Jerome Bruner, "This is a marvelously fresh approach to drawing and will make people not only draw better, but see better."

Drawing on the Artist Within
by Betty Edwards

Creativity. It is the force that drives problem-solving, informs effective decision-making and opens new frontiers for ambition and intelligence. Through simple step-by-step exercises that require no special artistic abilities, Dr. Edwards will teach you how to take a new point of view, how to look at things from a different perspective... how to bring your visual, perceptual brainpower to bear on creative problem-solving.

How to Think Like Leonardo daVinci ... Seven Steps to Genius Everyday
by Michael J. Gelb

Drawing on Leonardo's notebooks, inventions and legendary works of art, Gelb introduces the Seven DaVinci Principles... with interactive, entertaining exercises to help you master each principle. He reveals how any of us can fulfill our own untapped potential by following the example of Leonardo daVinci, one of the greatest geniuses of all time.

Writing on Both Sides of the Brain
by Henriette Anne Klauser

Highly rated by Amazon readers. An editorial review states, "A revolutionary approach to writing that will teach you how to express yourself fluently and with confidence for the rest of your life."

On Writing
by Stephen King

As a fan of Mr. King, it was fascinating to learn of some of his creative challenges while he was writing some of my favorite books. Even if you have never read any of his books, this is a unique look at the creative process of one of our century's most prolific writers. Rodger Brown, a reviewer with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, writes "When you finally put the book down, you're ready to apply the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair and do what you know you can do. King sends you into the game, chanting to yourself, 'I can do that!'"

No More Secondhand Art ... Awakening the Artist Within
by Peter London

Peter London offers inspiration and fresh ideas to artists, art students and art teachers -- as well as to people who think they can't draw a straight line but want to explore the joys of creative expression. Inside every person, he believes, is an original, creative self that has been covered over by secondhand ideas, borrowed beliefs and conditioned behavior. By freeing the capacity for visual expression... we awaken and release the full powers of that original self.

http://www.writersdigest.com
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