Returning to products of fellow creativity consultants this week's CC was "sparked" by a Elaine Beich's "IDEA SPARKLERS" deck of cards. You can obtain a deck and learn more about her work by writing to her at box 657, Portage, Wisconsin 53901.

My personal deck is shuffled. I believe there are 55 or more individual IDEA SPARKLER cards. I have taken five of them and modified them into slightly different versions or sparkers for you to have fun with this week while you are expanding and enriching your creative thinking skills.

MONDAY
SEARCH YOUR COLORS
Pick your favorite basic color from the rainbow: red, green, orange, blue, yellow, purple.
Name 12 to 24 different shades of that color.
Then list one object for each of the color shades you have listed.
Carry a note book or pad with you during the day. It may take all day to complete this exercise thinking about it a couple minutes or seconds at a time.

TUESDAY
WILD AND STRANGE
You want to build a movie theatre on a site where a gothic church exists. Generate 6 to 12 Wild and Strange ways you might accomplish this. No limitations at all.

WEDNESDAY
DREAM BOOK TRAVELING
Leaf through mail order catalogs trying to generate or find ideas for new ways to store books from your library that you have never seen before.

THURSDAY
CHANGE IT TO MAKE IT CREATIVE
Choose an object.
List 12 to 24 ways you could change or alter the object.

FRIDAY
FINDING SIMILARITIES
List as many things you can that come in plastic bags. Strive for 12, 24, 144.

Have fun SPARKLING your creativeness this week.

© 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 Robert Alan Black, Ph.D. CSP