About Us

Last updated 31st Oct 2011

The Important Stuff

Creative Therapy is a private, literate multi-arts guild catering for all types of artistic hobby. We welcome all types of artists and offer a relaxed and friendly place where we can all get together to share our work and find tips, feeback and inspiration.

The Idea Behind the Guild

In real life, creative therapy involves the use of creative arts such as dance, drama, music, painting and poetry as a form of personal therapy. Creative Therapists believe that a person can explore their inner emotions and thoughts through expressve arts, and that is exactly what we do here.

What We Stand For

We believe it doesn't matter if you're an expert in the arts or a complete beginner- what matters is that you have imagination and a creative spark. Art is not about perfection it's about variety and originality and with plenty of help and practice anyone can shine. We believe expressing youself in any kind of creative way is good for the mind and soul, so our motto is Let It Out!

Layout lineup

Bonfire/fireworks layout by ? (Nov)
Christmas layout by ? (Dec)
Unknown theme layout by ? (Jan 2012)
Valentines layout by ? (Feb 2012)
Unknown theme layout by ? (March 2012)
Easter theme layout by ? (April 2012)
Funfair theme layout by ? (May 2012)

Guild History

Creative Therapy was started by Phoenix back in July 2009. Since then it has grown to a successful, active guild with over 50 members and a wealth of artwork, writing, articles and tutorials as well as unique activities and events. We are now one of the most popular artistic guilds around and it's all thanks to the hard work of our talented members. If you'd like to know more about our history, please take a look at our scrapbook.

Guild Goals

To get our total messages up to 25,000.
To reach our 3rd birthday
~~To get our total messages up to 20, 000.~~
~~To get our total messages up to 15, 000.~~
~~To get our total messages up to 14,000.~~
To get our average daily posts up to 30 a day.
~~To get our total messages up to 13,000.~~
To get to the stage where 100% of our members have been active in the last month.
~~To reach our 2nd birthday.~~

Listed At

Credits

Coding template by Morgan's CSS, edited by creative_therapy.
Textures by missesglass@DA, edited by creative_therapy.
Neomail icons by Foomanshu.
Open/Closed signs by Phoenix Feathers.
All content by creative_therapy and guild members.

NEOPETS, characters, logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2011.
® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.
PRIVACY POLICY | Safety Tips | Contact Us | About Us | Press Kit

Reward System

Here at CT we like to reward your creativity and hard work with points for yourself and your team. At the end of each month these are added up to determine who wins Team of the Month and Member of the Month. You can also earn unique achievement badges for contributing your work and trophies for outstanding performance in the guild. Click on the links below to learn more about our reward system.

Points
Badges
Trophies

Info for Potential Members

So you're interested in Creative Therapy, huh? You must have a lot of questions. Here we have attempted to answer some of them for you, but if you are still unsure please neomail creative_therapy or feirycupcake who will fill you in!

What is the guild all about?

Creative Therapy is a private, literate multi-arts guild catering for all types of artistic hobby. We welcome all types of artists and offer a relaxed and friendly place where we can all get together to share our work and find tips, feeback and inspiration.

Stats

Last updated: 31st Oct 2011
Page Views: 221396
Members: 50
Messages: 21966
Founded: 1st July 2009
Days open:827
Average daily posts:26.5
Date went private:21st May 2011
Activeness report:(Drag and drop in url bar to view)

Layout Preview

(drag and drop to view full size):

What are the Teams?

There are four teams at CT: Artists, Writers, Techies and Performers, each catering to a different art form. You can learn more about them here. Teams compete to earn points and the Team of the Month trophy.

What are the activities?

There is so much to do here! We have weekly activities as well as monthly events through which members can earn points, achievement badges and trophies for their yearbook spot.

They can also earn rewards for submitting their creative work such as art, photography, creative writing, how to articles, recipes, song lyrics, creative tips, graphics and book reviews. As well as that we allow members to create clubs, run blogs, write for our magazine, run workshops and host their own events like guild plots. You're only limited by your imagination.

Are there any jobs going?

If you enjoy having an active role in your guild, we have lots of jobs to offer such as hosting pages, writing your own blog or magazine column, hosting activities and events, being a spokesperson for the guild to recruit new members, helping with the admin side of things, starting and running your own club, running classes and writing tutorials, designing guild graphics....the list goes on. Take a look at the ranks and staff page for more info.

What is the literacy level?

We are a literate guild, so we prefer members to use correct spelling and grammar wherever possible and to avoid using chatspeak, but we do allow use of phrases such as 'lol' or 'brb' and smilies.

What are the requirements to join?

You don't have to be a certain skill level in the arts to join CT, both experts and beginners (and anyone in between) are welcome. We only ask that you are interested in some kind of creative pursuit and that you like to actively participate by sharing your work, doing artsy activities and offering tips and advice to others. CT is an active place so we are really only looking for members who want to get involved with the various clubs and activities and contribute their work, and to chat with us on the boards od course. We have a monthly member sweep to get rid of any members that haven't been posting or joining in, but we always give warnings when we do this.

How do I apply?

There's no exam-like application process to endure before joining. We simply get you to fill in a short form so that a) we have all your info to build you a member profile and b) we can check that your interests, activeness and attitude fit in with our community. You don't have to prove that you have any kind of artistic talent, just that you enjoy doing it and want to improve. Please send this form to creative_therapy (leader) or feirycupcake (admin). Please note that we are pretty busy and we may take a while to respond but we'll try to reply asap.

If you're not sure what team to join please take this quiz.

Thanks for showing an interest in CT and good luck with your application!

New Members

If you're a new member to Creative Therapy, thanks for joining and welcome to our guild! You probably have a lot of questions as CT is a big guild with a lot of pages and it can seem quite confusing. Here is a list of things you can do to get you started:

Check the yearbook to see if your member profile has been put up and that the details are correct. If anything is missing or wrong please neomail creative_therapy to get it fixed.
If you didn't choose a team when you applied, please take this quiz and neomail your result to creative_therapy.
Please introduce yourself on the message board so we can get to know you!
Go to your profile settings and make sure guild mailing is turned on so you will get all the guild updates.
Familiarise yourself with the rules.
Add your birthday to the calendar so we can celebrate it!
Check out the magazine to see what's been going on in the guild lately.
Go to the activities page to read about our weekly and monthly events.
If you fancy having a more active role in the guild, check out the ranks and staff page to see if there are any staff positions available.
Read up on how to earn points for your team. You can send in artwork, writing, tips, tutorials, articles and ratings to the library, craft workshop, graphics studio and art gallery.
If you plan on sending in a lot of things, it might be worth making a petpage to put all your creative therapy submissions in one place.

If you have any questions please neomail anyone on the council or post your message on the guild board for a quicker response. I hope you enjoy it here at Creative Therapy. Whatever your creative talent is, let it out!

Rules

The rules are important as they help keep the guild, fun, friendly and active. You can remember our guild rules with the acronymn FLARE: Friendliness, Literacy, Activeness, Responsibility and Enthusiasm.

Friendliness

Please try to get along with your fellow members. We don't want any drama or name calling on the boards.

Literacy

Help keep the boards clean and tidy by watching your spelling, avoiding chat speak (except for things like lol and brb) and trying not to spam.

Activity

The whole point of the guild is to interact with other artists and to get involved, so it would be shame to waste the opportunity. We expect all our members to post at least once a week. We understand it can be difficult because of things like work, school and holidays, so if you are going away or you know you won't be able to get on much, please neomail creative_therapy and let us know and it's not a problem. We have a monthly member sweep on the last day of each month. A week before then inactive members will be given a warning to post, and if they don't post or neomail within a week they are removed from the guild (unless they have given us prior notice).

Responsibility

Being responsible means not abusing admin powers if you have them, and following TNT's terms and conditions-we don't want the guild to get in trouble so please don't break the rules by scamming, posting offsite links, etc.

Enthusiasm

Our guild is about doing fun, creative activities and meeting great people to chat about what you have in common. There's no point in joining if you aren't going to post or join in with our activities and events, so please get involved and enjoy yourself!

Thanks for reading! If everyone follows the rules we can keep the guild a fun place to hang out!

Points

At Creative Therapy you can earn points for yourself and for your team by participating in a range of activities. At the end of each month, all points are reset and the winning team and individual member can collect their rewards! You can see team points and individual points on the guild home page, by hoverng over the word points.

How to earn points

Recruit a new member- 20 points (or 40 points on Monday Megadrives).
Win a competition- varies (see activities page)
Design a guild banner- 20 points
Design a guild userlookup- 30 points
Design a guild homepage layout-50 points
Rank up- 20 points.
Submit traditional or digital artwork-20 points.
Submit poem-20 points.
Submit photography-10 points.
Submit article or tutorial-20 points.
Submit short story-30 points.
Submit a rating out of ten with a short comment on art/writing-3 points each.
Send in a song for the theatre-20 points.
Send in description of a dance move/position for the theatre-5 points each.
Caught advertising on the boards- 10 points.
Design a guild font-10 points.
Design a guild button-20 points.
Start a guild club-30 points.
Host a guild page-30 points.

If you have completed any of these challenges, please neomail creative_therapy or feirycupcake, or there's a chance you might not get your points!

Team of the Month

The team of the month is the team with the highest number of points on the last day of the month. That team gets a shiny trophy for their team page which each member may put on their userlookup.

Member of the Month

The member of the month is the guild member with the highest number of points on the last day of the month. MOMs recieve a personalised trophy for their profile on their team page and their userlookup. They may also choose ONE of the following treats:

Get full admin powers for a week.
A custom banner, background, adoptable, or font.
A piece of custom artwork
A custom story, poem or article
Get interviewed for the magazine
Get your site advertised on the guild
A full review of your artwork or writing.

Ranks and Staff

Here at CT we use the ranks to indicate what jobs we have in the guild. If you would like to apply for any of these jobs, please neomail creative_therapy with the subject heading "Staff Application". Then please fill in this short form:

Newbie

This is the default position when you join. Newbies have no admin powers and no responsibilities.

Contributor

For this rank you need to have been in the guild for at least a week and contributed some of your own creative work to the guild. You also need to have posted on the board. You will recieve 20 points for ranking up to this level. Contributors have no admin powers and no responsibilities. You do not need to apply for this role, you will be automatically ranked up when you fit the requirements.

Funstar

Funstars work to make the guild as enjoyable as possible. They come up with new ideas and make their own activites and events for the guild which they put into the calendar and advertise. They can host special guild events such as the guild prom, story-a-thons, 1np auctions and trades etc. and competitions for the other members to win points. They can also organise groups or classes such as a book club or poetry class. They are also responsible for keeping the boards fun and active by chatting regularly. They get the calendar admin.

Nilla (mgsk8ergurl)

4 more spots available.

Spokesperson

Spokespeople are in charge of spreading the word about the guild to potential members and passing messages on to other members. Duties include referring as many new members as possible, making advertising boards at least once a week, getting the guild put in directories or rated on review sites, sending welcome messages to new members and sending guild mailers with important pieces of news. They get the guild mailer admin.

Lydia (superlydia15)

4 more spots available

Designer

Designers are responsible for making premade graphics for the guild graphics page, designing layouts for the guild homepage (and other pages when neccessary) and making custom graphics for guild members when they earn it. Designers get layout admin.

Cindy (love_bbc)

4 spots available, applicants needed urgently!

Team Leader

You can be a team leader in addition to having any of the other jobs. Team leaders are responsible for hosting the page appropriate to their team eg. the Head Artist hosts the Art Gallery, the Head Writer hosts the Library, the Head Techie hosts the Graphics Page and the Head Performer hosts the theatre. Duties include putting up work that members send them, regularly editing the page, giving ratings or reviews for the work submitted and encouraging their team to enter activities and earn points.

Phoenix (creative_therapy) is Head Writer.
Chelsea (feirycupcake) is Head Artist.

2 more spots-Techies and Performers still available.

Admin

Admins are the same as council members. They are in charge of hosting and running pages, editing the guild home page, keeping track of points, ranks, achievement badges, trophies, advertising and everything else that goes with running the guild. Admins are given appropriate guild admin privaleges depending on what job they want to focus on.

Phoenix (creative_therapy)
Chels (feirycupcake)
Cindy (love_bbc)

2 more spots available. Seeking experienced, mature members with lots of skills.

Badges

As well as points for your hard work, you can also collect achievement badges for specific activities. To claim a badge, you need to neomail creative_therapy saying what you have done, this will be checked and then your badge will be added to your section of the team page. Have you earned one of these badges? Neomail creative_therapy to let us know.

Trophies

Trophies are given out to individuals who really shine in Creative Therapy. If you have earned a trophy it will appear under your name on the team page with any badges you have earned. You may put trophies you have earned on your uselookup too (ask Phoenix for the code if you need it). Trophies are not easy to win, so don't despair if you haven't got one yet. Just keep trying and one day you will succeed!

Teamwork Trophy

This is presented to the team with the highest number of points at the end of each month.

MOM Trophy

This is given to the member with the highest number of points at the end of each month.

Best Newcomer Trophy

This is given to a member who has joined CT in the last month and has contributed a lot to the guild through posting, sending in writing or artwork, coming up with new ideas and entering competitions.

Writers Trophy

This is given to someone who has produced an outstanding piece of writing that deserves special praise.

Artists Trophy

This is given to someone who has produced an outstanding piece of artwork or tutorial that deserves special praise.

Digital Artists Trophy

This is given to someone who has produced an outstanding piece of digital artwork, graphics or tutorial that deserves special praise.

Performers Trophy

This is given to someone who has produced outstanding song lyrics or choreography, or contributed a huge amount to the theatre page.

Advertise

Advertising on the guild boards or elsewhere is a great way to promote the guild and recruit new members. The more members that join, the more fun and active the guild will be as we will have more people to chat to on the board and more people participating in the activities. Also, an extra incentive is the fact that you earn 20 points for every member you recruit, 10 points for every new member that joins your team and 20 points for every banner you design.

Referral Records

Chels-11
Cindy-3
Lydia-2
Grysh-1
Ash-1

Advertising Tips

Always wait to read all of the guildless person's posts to see what they are looking for.
If they say they don't like arts or writing guilds, don't bother posting. But if they don't mention it you can politely ask 'would you consider multi-arts?'
If they don't say what they are looking for or put anything about their interests check their userlookup and petpages to see if they have any art or writing up. If they seem like an artsy person you can post, but if it looks like they would be better in a NR guild then don't bother.
Take the time to write a paragraph about what CT has to offer and include links to the home, webbie or portal
Personalise what you write with their name and your name and respond directly to anything they have said in their posts.
Stick around to chat instead of just posting and leaving.

Banners

We have a lot of banners to choose from, and you can check them all out here.

Premade Board Titles

Make your board stand out by using a premade title:

❥█ ▌CREATIVE THERAPY! ♫ ♬
☮♥✎ Calling all artists!☞
❤★Unleash your creativity!☆✿
Ⓒⓡⓔⓐⓣⓘⓥⓔ★Ⓣⓗⓔⓡⓐⓟⓨ
✒████Writer's block? You need Creative Therapy.
Creative Therapy!✄✿ Let's get crafty..

Or make your own by mixing and matching any of these creative symbols:
♩♪♫♬☺☻★☆☼♠♣♥♦☮☯✍✎✏✐✑✒✄✿❀✦✧✼✽✾✩✪▲△➠◈

Premade Fonts and Siggies

Please note that the fonts were made by sunnyneo and edited for the guild's use by creative_therapy unless otherwise stated.

Made by Lucy (click on image for credit sites):