In Search of Creative Blogs

Been perusing the internet lately. As research for my school art blog, Deep Space Sparkle, I've been looking for other blogs that share the same art philosophy. In my search, I've come across beautiful blogs filled with energy, creativity and humor. Only a few relate directly to teaching elementary school art, but tons, and I mean TONS are on living a creative life.

Check out these fun but utterly random blogs:
Flat Betty
Gennine's Art Blog
Gourmet Momma
Today's Creative Blog
Kelly Rae: Taking Flight into Art, Love and Life

I know, none of them have anything to do with writing, but I love how the essence of their personality is displayed on the page. And besides, just because we are writers, we can still have artistically exciting blogs.
So, back to being creative...I wanted to redesign my blog header to capture more of who I am. It's been a challenge learning how these blasted things are created. My sensible side tells me to just pay the $50 bucks and have someone who knows what they're doing design my blog, but the creative side in me demands that I at least try.

If you're interested in changing your header, I believe you will need some type of creative photo-editing program like Photoshop. I use Picnik, because it is mostly free ($24 for the year for the advanced version).
All you need to do is download a few photos (Stockxpert has great ones) and start playing. Okay, so it's not quite that easy. I found this great tutorial at Photoshop Support which guided me through the process. I won't even try to explain it the way Jennifer does, so I will bow out now and just say that it helped a great deal.

If all of this makes your head swim, check out Eight Crazy Designs which has great pricing and layouts. This gal is truly creative and I love the variety of designs she has. For the time it takes to figure out how to do it on your own, her pricing makes the prospect of hiring out very appealing.
Note: Here's another great site to help you design your blog: Tip Junkie

Here are a few author blogs that I thought were worthy of a creative pat-on-the-back.
R.L. LaFevers for her new blog that really sets the mood for her books.
Laini Taylor's Grow Wings for her mix of artistry and writing nuts 'n bolts
Barrie Summy's blog for perfectly capturing her audience
CookieBooky for a clean, simple, yet charmingly creative blog

Runner's up:
Read, Imagine, Talk for the simplicity with a shot of Kandinsky!
Pixie Stix Kids Pix for the cool banner


Do you know of any superbly creative writing blogs? If so, i'd love for you to pass them on. A little inspiration always helps.
Have an artful day everyone!