41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Favorite Present!, March 25, 2010
This review is from: My Style Studio: Design & Trace Your Own Fashions (Misc. Supplies)
My wife and I got the Style Studio for our 6 1/2 (now almost 8) year old daughter for Christmas in 2008 for about $17. On Christmas Day, my daughter opened this present and took it over to the table to explore. She spent the rest of the day creating fashions, stopping only for meals and bedtime. When my wife and I finally got a look at it later that night, even we were impressed with how much $17 got us. The design book is comprehensive, while written at an 8 year old level, and the concept was well thought out (home run KLUTZ!).
The Style Studio comes with a design book that has lots of great suggestions, examples, and additional items to trace. It shows how to create and trace designs, layer colors, create patterns, and do some freehand designing. The book also includes pockets for the fashion clings (4 pages), texture plates (2 plates with 4 textures each), and tracing paper. The design book is attached to the design "desk" that includes a compartment for the colored pencils (6 included), pen, rubber eraser, and pencil sharpener.
Now, 15 months later, this continues to be our daughter's favorite present. Her bedroom wall is covered with fashions (60+) that she has drawn and colored in. And after a year+ of steady use, the set is still holding up fairly well. This is a definite buy for girls who like to draw! This also makes a great birthday present for their friends.
Here are some suggestions we have to make the Style Studio last even longer:
* The clings are so small and tranparent that it's easy to lose them if you drop them on the carpet (especially the faces). Unfortunately, I think we've vacuumed up two. Put down some white butcher paper if you have a dark table (ours is black) so they don't get lost. Try storing them in a plastic baggie too.
* Sometimes the tracing paper comes off of the pegs as my daughter is tracing. We use a little bit of sticky tacky (the kind used for hanging posters on walls) over the pegs and on the corners to hold the paper in place.
* The set comes with only 6 colored pencils, which doesn't seem like enough once you get started. We bought my daughter a set of 24 Crayola colored pencils as a supplement, and this has added to the design options. These won't fit in the design desk with the other supplies, so we keep the Style Studio and supplies in a plastic storage bin.
* We ran out of tracing paper fairly quickly. For extra tracing paper, buy a pad of 8 1/2 x 11 tracing paper and cut the sheets in half. Use a 3-hole punch on the short (5 1/2 inch) side of the half-sheets. The holes will line up with the pegs on the tracing desk. [Don't use a large-hole 3-hole punch (i.e. 1/2" diameter) or the paper will slide around while tracing].
* After a time, the fashion clings tend to lose some of their clinginess (body oils from handling). Gently wash them in water with a little mild detergent mixed in. Rinse well with water and dry flat.
* If the fashion clings start to curl up, hold them between your fingers and hold them under a blow dryer on low (don't burn yourself!) until warm. Let them cool on a flat surface before using (so they stay flat).
* The tracing paper has a tendency to curl and tear after a lot of handling. We are starting to move the designs from the wall into a 3-ring notebook 'portfolio', taping them on two to a page onto white printer paper, and storing them in plastic sheet protectors.
* Consider getting the Style Studio Extra Stuff! This has added to our daughters enjoyment and the design possibilities. the Extra Stuff comes with 4 additional fashion cling pages, 2 additional texture plates (8 additional textures), and 100 additional pages of tracing paper.
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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful open ended fun, August 6, 2009
This review is from: My Style Studio: Design & Trace Your Own Fashions (Misc. Supplies)
My 10 year old received this art set and soon after the 8 year old was begging for her own set. We've given this as a gift to many 8-10 year old friends and it's always been a huge hit. If moms out there had Fashion Plates as a kid, this is something similar but it has far, far many more combinations and the end results look so much nicer. A girl can just get started and start designing with this kit but if she's inclined to read the book that accompanies it she will get all kinds of great ideas and inspirations.
I will try to describe the way the design kit works. You have a clear sheet of stiff plastic with a generic body shape drawn on it. It has two holes punched at the top. Those holes fit over pegs on a design board then the designer chooses a face and hair from a sheet of vinyl clings (like the old Colorforms), a shirt, a skirt, and shoes to place over the generic figure. Then a sheet of prepunched tracing paper fits over the pegs on top of the deorated figure. You use a very fine tip black marker (included) to trace around everything; you of course will draw the shirt and ignore the lines of the generic figure underneath. You can add a purse or many other accesories. When you're done with the tracing part you can choose clear textured sheets to lay underneath your tracing to color over to achieve a patterned look to the clothing. The set comes with an assortment of colored pencils, an eraser, and a sharpener in addition to the tracing marker. All the drawing tools store in a little compartment under the tracing board; a nice plus.
Amazon's price is great, girls who like drawing or are interested in clothes will love it. My guess at ages is 8+. A younger kid could do it after she's shown how once or twice as long as she can trace steadily and understands the whole concept of only tracing parts you want to show. Klutz makes a refil pack with more clings (some super cute stuff), a couple sheets of texture rubbings, and a big pack of prepunched tracing paper.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the best fashion design kit for Children, January 3, 2009
This review is from: My Style Studio: Design & Trace Your Own Fashions (Misc. Supplies)
My 9 year old daughter has been on a "fashion design" kick lately. (that is what she says she's going to be when she grows up). She had a little spiral notebook with all of her designs in it, so I thought for Christmas this year I would find some actual fashion design kits for her to work with. This one by far blew away the other 2 that I purchased. We sat on Christmas day for at least 4 hours straight designing outfits. It's so much fun and they all look great when you're done. It gives your child so much opportunity to be creative and choose colors and outfits and even accessories and it's so easy to use. This is one of the best art type kits I have ever purchased.
The great thing about this kit is you can easily go to the store and get more paper and colored pencils. Plus the design options are endless.
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