Idea blog

your ideas make it possible

You could win tickets to see Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince!

All you need to do is create a comic strip. Your theme is "anything and everything is possible!"

Tell us your wildest dreams, your biggest ambitions - anything at all! So get started - create your comic in the Idea Factory here. But do it quickly, because your deadline is 12 June!

tell us your fave track - and win an iPod!

What you listen to speaks volumes about who you are and what you're about. What's your favourite track when you're doing homework, with friends or just chillin out? What do you listen to to make you feel happy?

We want to tell us your favourite track and why. Enter now on Idea Factory - you gotta be in it to win it!

cracking characters

Sorry I’ve not posted anything for a while. I’ve been locked away in my office at Idea HQ, judging entries from everyone sending their stuff in for Idea.

And I’ve got to say, I’m amazed, bowled over and inspired by your entries for the competition around Buddy’s friends. Here’s just a few of the packages we’ve had by post in the last few days, from classrooms all over the place.

There’s some great ideas – I can’t show them just yet, partly because they are still coming in. But I’ll post some as soon as I can!

hey good buddy

This little guy is Buddy. He's ChildLine's new friend for schools. 

From September he'll be visiting primary schools across the UK to explain what ChildLine does, how it can help children, and what they can do to help it. If you're in school, look out for Buddy on posters, in games, online and more later in the year!

In the meantime, Buddy is looking for some friends, so there's an Idea brief to help him. If you're interested, you and your school can help to create some for him...find out more here.

whatever matters to you, spit it out

So excited that Chipmunk and the legend that is Westwood are supporting ChildLine's Spit It Out campaign. 

Basically, if you've got the lyrics that say what matters to you, you could earn yourself a spot in ChildLine's Dubplate Drama ads. Meaning you'd not only get the seal of approval from a panel of hip hop industry insiders...you'd also get to showcase your skills on MTVBase, Channel 4 and MySpace.

Here's Chipmunk and Westwood to explain it better. 

 

Now go enter on the Dubplate MySpace.

want to present an online show?

 

Would you make a great TV presenter? Our Headspace project is looking for exciting young talent with great new ideas.

We want you to tell everyone about the stories in your area. The people, the burning issues, what's going on and why it matters to you.

Check out Headspace to find out how you can get involved.

new deadline for your comics

Well, the first deadline has closed so I'm having a read of your first round of comics - I'm so impressed. So, as well as putting my favourites up in the gallery, I'll be sending them to ChildLine, who will be doing something with them too!

But if you didn't get time to create your comic first time around, there's still time! You have another fortnight - until Friday 3 April - to do one around the theme of whatever your worry, it's better out than in. 

So check out the brief here. And I'll blog about some of the first entries later this week.

"me am a creator, thrill is to make it up..."

You have a new brief on Idea.me.uk!

Your mission
Create your comic and win yourself a new Idea t-shirt, goody bag and £20 of Forbidden Planet vouchers - Go create!

what do you do when you're worried, need to talk?

ChildLine's giving you the chance to get published in its "Worried? Need to talk?" booklet. 

To share your advice with other children and young people, and hopefully see your ideas in print for the first time, all you have to do is answer a few easy questions here. Or add your replies to this post:

1. Why is it so important to talk to someone when dealing with your worries? How has it helped you?
2. What would you say to someone affected by bullying or something else being done to them?
3. If someone’s feeling bad about themselves, what advice would you give?
4. How can ChildLine help?

comics are awesome

Whether down at your local newsagent, cinema or bookshop stories in comics have never been more popular. In the last few years Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, Transformers and the Fantastic Four have all hit the silver screen - and there are more to come in 2009.

And I was thinking about that. Maybe it's because comics allow you to tell a story in a way that isn't really easy otherwise. Amazing things can happen. You can show how what people say makes other people feel. Anything is possible.

So then I thought, how about making comics a new brief on Idea? I think you could do something incredible with comics, so it's only fair to give you a go.

So that's exactly what I've done. Check it out - the writer of the best comic wins an Idea t-shirt, goody bag and vouchers.