April 2011 Notable Toys — Arts & Crafts

With this make-your-own kit, a unique handbag design is only a few flowers and frills away. Kit includes: soft handbag with satin inner lining, six flowers, 4 ribbons, 3 jewels and 2 satin bow accessories. Each flower and bow has Velcro-like adhesive on back. Launch date: January 2011.

Kids can create and customize their own stickers online and print them at home with StickerYou.com's new product, Make Your Own Stickers.  Kids go on the StickerYou website, design the stickers, and print them on the special sticker paper. Using a code they will find inside their purchase, sticker-lovers can access popular licensed characters and the StickerYou's art bank of images, apply text, backgrounds and color tools, or use special effects and image upload features to create their own personalized stickers. "Stickers have been around for over 100 years, but the industry has always been about providing a readymade product,” said Andrew Witkin, president of StickerYou. “However, today’s consumer - particularly youth - expect to be able to customize their images, something they haven’t been able to do with stickers... until now.” The Make Your Own Stickers line offers consumers their choice of packs of stickers and labels in an assortment of shapes, including Make Your Own Photo Stickers and Make Your Own Sticker Albums. Launch date: June 2011

This manga-influenced art book draws on a variety of media including toys and apparel, creating a Pop-Surrealist collection that will appeal to art fans. This 112 page book is the first full sized collection of Camilla d'Errico's work, and features an introduction by artist Ashely Wood.

Each kit includes: a plush puppet body, felt to cut-out body parts, non-toxic glue, fabric puppet parts, instructions, animal facts, and puppet show ideas. The package converts to a puppet stage and the inside of the packaging is a ready-to-color stage scene, so there is no packaging waste. Children can “Simply Cut, Glue, Color, Play,” says Elaine Kollias, marketing director at Folkmanis. Consumer will need to provide their own scissors and crayons.  The Kits come in three varieties: Bunny, Cat and Frog.

Including a unique light table that illuminates every outfit, this kit helps kids create a full fashion line using acetate wardrobe pieces. Just add color, patterns, and texture. Comes complete with the fashion-forward light table, over 30 acetate wardrobe pieces, ten artist grade color pencils, and ten sheets of drawing paper.