If you have a little designer or fashionista in your family, or on your toy list, I have some fun toy ideas for you. The Style Six line from Jakks-Pacific. With Style Six embellishing tools, girls can design and customize almost any item in their wardrobe to create their own look or set your own new fashion trends. Let girls tap into their creative side with the Style Six Silk Screener they can layer on cool and trendy printed graphics to t-shirts and other fashion pieces. The Silk Screener includes 2 silkscreen devices, paint bottles, blotter, roller, masking board, stencil sheets, supply tray, and a garment separator. It is recommended for children 8 and up, and retails for $39.99. The Style Six Gem Decorator lets girls turn ordinary items... [Read more]

You’ve heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I’ve got a new day to add to your holiday vocabulary, Free Shipping Day. If you’ve got plenty of toys to buy this holiday season you’ll be happy to know many online retailers are having free shipping day on December 17th this year. Over 300 merchants have already signed up to participate in this year’s Free Shipping Day, and founder Luke Knowles expects more than 500 merchants will be participating by the time the date gets here. Some of the merchants that have already confirmed they are participating include Toys R Us, JCPenney, Apple Store, Nike, Sears, Babies R Us, Eddie Bauer, PacSun, PetSmart, and Adidas. If you order on December 17th, participating stores will... [Read more]

Girl Gourmet has some sweet jewelry makers for the little girls on your Christmas list this year. From candy necklaces to candy rings these sets are definitely sweet. Check out these Girl Gourmet Sweets Jewelry makers from Jakks-Pacific. The Girl Gourmet Sweets Candy Jewelry Factory allows girls to design, bake, wear and eat scrumptious candy jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets and rings. The set features a small baking oven and a variety of molds to create jewelry charms and sweet gems. Kids fill the molds with the candy chips and pellets included in the set and add colorful sprinkles to decorate. Next up the Girl Gourmet Sweets Candy Bead Studio where girls can create their own necklaces and bracelets with candy beads and pendants strung... [Read more]

There’s a new virtual world for preschoolers and their parents to check out. Wiggletime.com, based on preschool favorite The Wiggles. Wiggletime.com is designed as a safe online environment for children to learn and play. The website features interactive play for children, and helps you as a parent introduce your child to the Internet, without the risk of children communicating with strangers. The new website is also completely free of advertisements. The Wiggles are big on getting children up and moving, so Wiggletime has  a “take a break” feature that encourages children to get up an wiggle every twenty minutes. “We wanted to take our Wiggles Fan Club to another level. We just needed to make sure we were going to be... [Read more]

Building a gingerbread house can be a fun project for you and your kids. It’s a great fall and winter family activity, especially around the holidays. You can even get together with some friends and have a gingerbread house making party Build one giant gingerbread house, or several smaller ones to take home. “How To Build a Gingerbread House” is a great guide to help you along the way. The book contains step-by-step instructions, easy recipes and over 200 color photographs to help you complete your gingerbread house project from start to finish. The best part is, all you need to get started are everyday grocery store ingredients and basic kitchen equipment. The author, Christina Banner, was winner of the National Gingerbread... [Read more]