Saturday, 8 January 2022

I.B.F.Fs & I.B.F.Fs: Friendship Bites

I have two new story anthologies in the works, which I'm only going to do after days I go to Brora. On days I don't go to Brora, I'll do one on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday. Let me introduce you to them. Warning: they are my first proper titles.

First, there's the proper debut for I.B.F.Fs, I.B.F.Fs: Imaginary Best Friends Forever. It features four stories featuring characters from Scream Street and Bluey: in A Place To Sleep, Luke, Resus, Cleo and I fall out of bed and try to find a new place to sleep. In Movies, this is a remake of the Bluey episode 'Movies' where my siblings and I face a difficult decision whilst on a trip to the cinema, with characters from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed helping out. In Monster HQ, Luke, Resus, Cleo, Bluey, Bingo and I visit the place where the trio's job at CBBC was first accepted and tell me and my two friends about their first day on air. Finally, in Cousin Six, it's just a simple story that involves me, my cousin Six and my aunt Dr. F on a trip to the beach.
I.B.F.Fs: Friendship Bites is a series of short vignettes based on the jokes from the Scream Street joke book. They usually involve my friends, siblings, neighbours and me involved in all kinds of shenanigans, from Dr. Skulley posing as a music student to join in with music class to Alston developing a rage over steak at a fancy restaurant.

Trust me, I'm an author, these ideas are grrrrrreat!

Bingo - DIY Tetris Inspired Puzzle

When he was younger, Bandit used to love playing arcade games with his brother Stripe in the '80s, especially Tetris, especially as he tried to match all the coloured blocks together. With his two girls now visiting the arcade sometimes, especially during the time they tried to win a prize at the claw machine, Bandit can recreate his childhood experience at home - using wood blocks, liquid watercolour paints and, for adults to handle only, a glue gun. You can follow along and make this childhood arcade game if you grew up in the '80s!

This puzzle is all part of a series of activities themed around the Bluey episode 'Bingo', which you can access on Loose Part's website:

Fruit Bat - Homemade Bat Mobile

For her new bedroom, Bluey and her mum made a beautiful bat mobile to hang over her bed, so that the shadows of her fruit bat brothers can always help her remember when it's time to enter her dreams of becoming one of them, eating fruit in gardens and rainforests and watching Dad score touchdowns on the football field with his mates. You can give it a try too! Use black card, yellow card and paint to bring Bluey's new mobile to life!