First step to being creative is the desire to do something yourself instead of buying. It is true we all need help from someone elses patten but following them to the tee is nothing more then following the leader. As a writer I have come to embrace the fact aptly put by one publisher- If you think you are writing something new you're not. Somewhere along the line it's been done at least once- the thing you have to do is give your spin on it. For most of us it's not the issue of being creative- it's the- okay now what I got this far but now I'm sort of stuck. Think about it- if you have been around for a while all the new craft sewing books are spin offs of projects you've seen before just simply with new colors or a variation to the directions