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.
