06/12/2011 Blue Peter

A truly star studded Blue Peter today, Alexandra Burke and Georgia

Locke bring you the cool new looks from this year's Clothes Show.

Cressida Cowell will be here to announce the nominations for this

year's Blue Peter Book Awards. An international superstar is with us,

Nicole Scherzinger drops in ahead Hello. Barney is probably going to

cry when he finds out who we have in the studio today. He is away

doing panto, but we have a superare star and possibly the most

glamorous woman in the world. .Nicole Scherzinger Is an

international pop star and a judge on the American X Factor. With her

group, the Pussycat Dolls, she had Now she is going solo and her debut

album has already sold over 250,000 copies and to top it, her single

Don't Hold Your Breath went straight in at number one.

# So don't say # And here she is, it's Nicole

Scherzinger. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Come on in. Thank you.

Thank you so much for coming in. Have a seat.

Thank you for having me. First things first, I have to give

you your your Blue Peter badge badge.

I have been waiting for this. We have been inundated with

questions. A viewer says, "if you could be any

other celebrity, who would it be and why?". The first person who

comes to mind is Will Farrell because he has the most fun out of

everyone. He does always look like he is having a laugh.

Another viewer says, "What persuaded you to become a singer

and who is your favourite?". When I was five or six I heard The

Greatest Love Of All by Witney Houston. When I heard her sing, I

was awkward and shy and weird as a kid and singing was my way of

communicating. Weird in what way? I hid behind my

mum's leg and I felt awkward as a child, but when I heard music, I

just felt that's the best way I could communicate with people.

If you are shy and tall, look at what can happen!

Another viewer says, "What was your favourite subject at school?".

loved art. I loved drawing and painting and stuff. It is a real

subject. Another viewer says, "Have you thought of doing anything other

than singing?". When I was younger I wanted to - OK, I wanted to be a

professional surfer. Really? Can you surf? Kind of. I do

the stand up paddle boarding, but I loved the ocean so much so, yeah.

Coral says, "If you were just starting out, who you have gone on

X Factor? I got my start on Pop Stars. So before Pussycat Dolls?

Yes and before Pussycat Dolls. if you come on Blue Peter the whole

thing is you have to take on a challenge. Are you up for a mini

challenge? Absolutely. Perfect answer. Come this way

because we have a quiz based around this map. If you would like to go

to the other side of the map. You are touring the UK and Ireland, now

we have a a question about the cities and the towns that you're

going to. All right.

OK, so pick a city. I'm so excited about this tour. Birmingham.

OK, now, Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice, true or

false? I'm going to say false.

It's true. Birmingham actually has 22 miles of

canal. I should have known that. Pick a

city. Belfast.

The Titanic was built in Belfast, true or false? True.

Correct. Pick a city. Dublin.

Who is the patron saint of Ireland, St Patrick or St Nicholas?

St Patrick. Correct.

Manchester or London? London.

In London what delicacy is regarded as a traditional food. Jellied eels

or jellied frogs? Either sound gross!

People eat one or the other, jellied eels or jellied frogs?

Jellied frogs. Jellied eels.

Yes. Manchester, there are two many

football teams in Manchester. Can you name one of them?

Manchester United. Manchester United is correct.

And you are visiting all the places in February next year.

If you want to see Nicole then get online and get a ticket. Nicole, we

have to ask you about X Factor, you are a judge in America, but you

were guest judge in Britain this year. Which acts have caught your

eye. Who do you like? When I performed on it recently I

met Me sha B and I loved her personality on stage.

Sorry to break it it to you, but she went at the weekend.

If you are watching, you will do just fine.

Thank you for coming in. Lovely to meet you. From an X Factor judge to

an X Factor winner, we sent Georgia Locke to meet up with Alexandra

Burke. Hi, I'm Georgia Locke. You might

recognise me from CBBC. I have always been mad on clothes and I

love experimenting with new style, I have come to the Clothes Show

live in Birmingham to see what is in store for the fashion world of

in store for the fashion world of This is one of the biggest catwalk

shows in the country and it is a big deal in the UK's fashion

calendar. Complete with the newest, coolest trends, I don't know where

to start. I've always loved fashion, even

before I started presenting Friday Download. So this is really my kind

of space. I'm on a mission to find two must

have outfits. One for a boy and one for a girl in preparation for 2012.

Well, a girl has got to be prepared. So what's going to be next year's

mus haves. -- must haves? I'm going to to hook up with a fashion fan,

it is bad girl herself, Alexandra Burke.

# The bad boys are always catching my eye

# I said the bad boys... # I can't wait to to talk to her

about fashion. Alexandra has designed her own clothing range. So

this is a a girl who is really in the know when it comes to style.

I'm on a mission to find an outfit for a boy and a girl for next year

and what's going to be on trend. I hear you do design designing

yourself? I love everything about fashion. I have done the dress for

Children In Need. Can you give me advice about what's going to be on

trend for next year? For the girls, it is always going to be, I mean, I

love colour. So I think the next season will be all about neon

colours, bright, bold, in your face. Very dramatic and energetic, you

know. Showing that you can wear a bit of colour, a bit of orange,

pink and hot pink, my favourite colour.

And for men and boys, quite earthy colours, quite toned down, Native

American. Even though it will be summer, it is all about the long

sleeve a little bit, maybe the V- neck as well.

That sounds cool. Thank you. Let's get started. I will see you later.

Thank you. Well, I'm back.

You have been shopping? Yes. It has been good.

So this is the girl's outfit. So we've got like quite a neon, like

bright pink. That's what I'm talking about. You

know it is my favourite colour. I love that.

I thought it is really cool. This is a body con.

Well done, you. I thought that was really nice.

So for the boys, I've got a Native American print. Yes.

This jumper is pretty awesome. Quite earthy colours.

Gorgeous. Yes, I thought it was cool.

I would wear this to be fair. I really, really would. There we go.

You think I have done all right then? I think you have done an

amazing job. High five. Well done. Next year, it will be all about

neon for the girl and American prints for the boys and I'm

confident that come next summer, I'm going to look pretty cool and

ready to go. See you on Friday Download.

There is a new feature on the Blue Peter website, it is called Helen's

Boutique, you can cut me out and dress me up and make me look as

stylish or unstylish as you like. If you head to the CBBC website and

click on the Blue Peter logo, you can find it.

Barney is away doing his panto, but we have been keeping him busy with

a project involving something he loves and knows a bit about,

photography. We are going to create a photo calendar for 2012 which you

can print out for yourselves and put on your fridge or your bedroom

wall. He is going to try out a series of photo techniques and pick

the best picture for next month. Barney might even include some of

your photos. Lets start with January with Barney's favourite

technique. Imagine seeing the world in extreme

close-up? You can, usek macrophotography. Mcry means large

and macrois my favourite photography. So for January, our

subject is going to be creepy crawlies, but at this time of year

they are thin on the ground so I have come to the living rainforest

to see what I can find. It is an indoor rainforest in Berkshire,

home to over 700 species of plants and animals, the perfect place for

taking macrophotographs. Georgie Jefferies is helping me choose a

good subject to capture. Hi Barney.

So you are going to help me with my subjects today? I hope so.

Any of the insects got modelling experience? I don't think so, but

there is a first time for everything.

What have you got here? This is an amazing insect. These come from

around Asia. If these were superheroes, this

would be the bad guy? He would. He is is from Papua New Guinea.

He is a big fella. This Is a hissing cockroach.

If you had a ball, would he climb over it? Yes. This is a beetle.

he got wings? He has. I'm worried he might fly away.

And this is a spider? This is our bird eating spider.

She is massive. That is a form of photography, if you have a pet or

hamster or cat, you can take a lot of the whiskers and paws, but I'm

not going to do that today because I don't want that spider to eat me!

I have got got loads of inspiration, time to set-up my macrostudio.

Imagine this is the dining table, I have some props here and coloured

card. It is down to the you. I'm going to go for green and I'm going

to use this plant pot. Put one that way and one on the bottom. If you

have no light, you have no no photo. Make sure you use a lamp or the

bulb hanging over the table. Here are my tips for taking

macrophotographs. Tip one, look for the mac roe

button. -- macrobutton. Tip two, fin a subject.

-- find a subject. Look around anywhere, in little holes, behind

the the cabinets and you will find something. I have found a spider

about to eat a ladybird. It is gross, but I want to take a picture.

Steady your camera. Make the camera as steady as you can by balancing

it on something that's not going to move and then when you take your

picture it will be in focus and look like that.

The simplest things can make a great macrophotograph.

OK back to my calendar shoot. I've picked three models. First up the

stick insect from Borneo in Asia. It can shed its limbs to escape

predators and grow new ones. I have decided to place it on a mini globe

as if it is taking over the world. This is where depth of field comes

into play. After rick ka is in focus -- Africa is in focus. If I

turn the focus ring, that becomes blurry and the back of the globe is

in focus. I need to pick a place where I want the focus to be and

make sure when our bad guy stick insect stands on the globe, he

stands in focus. Hopefully he will be nice and still or not. Let's try

this again. This could be fun. We We have got a picture of his bottom

on there at the moment so that's probably not good.

He has been out a couple of minutes. After that, we will put him back

with the others. Are you talking about me or the insect?

Colour is a big part of macrophotography. Focusing on a

strong colour can make your shot more powerful. You can add colour

yourself through background and props. I have a red apple, a yellow

background. My second model is the hissing cockroachks one of the

largest cockroaches in the world. He makes this sound when he is

uncomfortable. Although, he can't fly, he loves to climb.

Hopefully he will be still for us. I'm going to pop him there.

He is ugly. What a gorgeous shot though. This is why I love

macrophotography. Look at his foot. You would never know a cockroach's

foot had that little panel. You can see see details that you wouldn't

normally see. I have got some good photographs

and some not good ones. The stick insect moved too much which made it

focus too much. I loved the colours in the cockroach photos. But there

is one more, my final subject, the fruit beetle. Its shell warns other

animal not to eat it even though it is not poise oution.

-- poisonous. It lives for eight months and I have got to be careful

this one doesn't fly off. We are going to create an image

where the banana is in the foreground, but this bit is blurry,

a bit more light. Do we have our fruit beetle? We do.

Right on there, that's beautiful. I want a shot. What a well behaved

beetle. He is looking right at the camera! This is my favourite shot.

Sometimes things just really work I love it! I love it. This part of

photography, for me, is why I keep doing it. It is why I take more

photos because you are spend hours getting right shot and some things

don't work, but when it does work, it is amazing. Brilliant. I'm happy

with that. And here it is, my photo for

January, the first for our 2012 If you want that calendar, all you

have to do is go over to the Blue Peter website and print off the

first month. We will have a new one to add every month throughout 2012.

It is time to look at new books you might like to read over the

Christmas holidays. You remember the Blue Peter Book Awards, we have

been celebrating the best children's books since 2000. Last

year Lauren St John won the award for her book, Dead Man's Cove which

followed the adventures of Laura Marlin. It is time to announce

which four made it to the shortlist this year. With me is a famous and

successful writer. Cressida Cowell has has written many children's

books. She is famous for the how to train your dragon series. There are

nine books in the series and the next will be called Day of the

Dreader. There is nobody better to talk us through the nominations for

the Blue Peter Book Awards than Cressida Cowell.

Thank you for coming in. We know our viewers love your books. They

are scattered around there and you double up as a dog dog whisperer.

This is the Considine Curse. Fantasy, wear wolves, if you like

Harry Potter, if you like Lord of the Rings, fantasy, it is a

vampire-type book. So if you have got a good

imagination? Yes, if you like my books, orphan tasy books -- or

fantasy books and books about dragons. There is a mystery in it.

You are being careful not to give too much away.

The next one is the Official Countdown to the Olympic Games.

is good for somebody like me who knows about sport. It is good to

know who everybody is, who are the big hopeful for Britain and it

fills you in on the facts about the Olympic Games.

If you are not into sport, there is no avoiding it next year. That's a

good guide. Yes.

At the front we have A Year Without Autumn. It is time travel, but

emotional? It is a best friend story like Jacqueline Wilson or

lawyer ren Or Lauren Child's, what if you lost a year of your life? If

you suddenly woke up a year older. Right.

So it has a mystery bit to it as well.

One for those with a good imagination? Yes. But it is in real

life. It has Jacqueline Wilson, real life, if you like those books.

A bit like Doctor Who? No, no, if you like Doctor Who Considine Curse

is the one for you. Extreme World. I love the Extreme

World, that's about extreme weather conditions, volcanoes, extreme

sports and it has weird animal facts in it it which I love. The

innocent looking sea cucumber throws up its super sticky guts

over an attacker while several kinds of seabird projectile vomit

more than three feet... Thank you. A really yucky one that one. I love

that book. Just as everyone is about to sit

down for their tea! The winner will be announced next

on World Book Day and the person who takes the title will get a Blue

Peter trophy. If you read these books, let us know what you think

via the CBBC message boards. They may make a good Christmas gift.

What is it for today. Join us next week on Blue Peter when we are