The Well Ten

Ten Things for Online Creative Fun

1. Sign up as an early bird to beta-test a very ambitious series of online creative tools and services over at Aviary.

2. First get your Chinese name here, then copy the result and add it to a Chinese painting here (the Phoenix is particularly gorgeous.)

3. Ballistic Publishing's page for Exotique 3, a collection of "The World's Most Beautiful CG Characters" has a very cool book previewer that allows you to (virtually) flip through the book online. Worth it just to see the quality of the artwork (via issue #77 of Art Scene International.)

4. Observe art in motion by watching F. Permadi's Fractal Twister applet, Moire Pattern applet, and fly through an imaginary terrain via the Voxel Speed Test applet.

5. Customize and write your own name/message graffiti on the Berlin Wall, the Mona Lisa and more over at Graffiti Generator.

6. Generate your own legends via archaic tapestry with the Historic Tale Construction Kit.

7. Customize the text on your own Chance or Community Chest cards with the Monopoly Game Card Generator.

8. I knew I'd find one eventually -- NestleTreasures.com has an online bookmark generator (the generator does add in promotional text/image for Nestle Treasures chocolates, but if you authors hand them out at your booksignings, that would mesh nicely.)

9. Put together your own word searches (great idea for authors needing some fun for their print newsletters or those of you who are homeschooling your kids), mazes, math squares and more with The Puzzlemaker.

10. Have your scribblings improved on by The Scribbler.

Finally, Hewlett-Packard offers a bunch of different projects to create, customize and print out over at their Activity Center. I was particularly impressed by the range of projects; they've got everything from calendars, cards and stationery to iron-ons, scrapbooking and projects. I ended up printing out some custom quilt labels for my own projects.