Lisa Frank Paper Play Studio
by admin on Mar.09, 2010, under News & reviews
You can’t help noticing Lisa Frank stuff in the stores. Girls insist on having these”awesome” and “totally cool” stickers and stationery when you take them into most stores–it’s like they gravitate towards the stuff (like toddlers do to those big, expensive mylar balloons).
Well, there’s good news and bad news for parents of girls into Lisa Frank stuff. The good news is that you might not have to buy all of it from the store. Your daughter can make her own Lisa Frank creations. But, for the bad news, read on. I’m not sure this will save you much money, if any!
Girls ages 6-12 years usually go ga-ga over the pink bunnies, the yellow puppies, the glittery horses, and the lovable teddy bears on Lisa Frank merchandise–which has a huge range from stickers to stationery to software! Sure, it’s an empire with millions of loyal fans. They call them “Frankologists”, that is, according to the handy dictionary you’ll find in the CD-ROM, which also includes words such as “likodelic”, “colorageous”, “Friend Zen”, and “packcrud” (all the junk that settles at the bottom of your kid’s backpack–probably some Lisa Frank stickers and pencils, too).
Enter Lisa Frank Interactive’s Paper Play Studio! Although recommended for kids (it’s really aimed at girls) ages 5 and up, I’d suggest that anyone under age 10 be supervised when playing this software. There’s a reason I say this! EVERYTHING is printable and 18 projects, which include “groovy” stationery, greeting cards, stickers, invitations, postcards, card envelopes, card boxes, stationery envelopes, note paper, note cards, little postcards, certificates, signs, photo pages, bookmarks, pencil wrappers, wrapping paper and more are ink hogs and require plenty of ink. Forget the coloring crayons, mom and dad, this is serious ink.
Prepare to shell out some cash for a few new color inkjet cartridges when buying this software if you plan to give this software to your daughter –hoping it will keep her happy for hours . If buying plenty of inkjet cartridges is painful (inkjet cartridges aren’t cheap–around $25-30 per cartridge), then you should monitor your kid when playing this CD-ROM. At any rate, asking permission to print things on the family printer is always a nice habit for kids to get into. Otherwise, it could spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E the next time you need to print something important (like the book report that was due yesterday).
You’ll find over 100 sticker and stationery templates which truly are Lisa Frank designs. You can also create your own semi-original art. If you invest in some glossy paper, you can get a more realistic effect.
A plastic bag filled with decorations is included with the software. This little bag turned out to be the biggest hit–girls will find feathers, beads, lace, neon-colored ribbons and little plastic confetti-like cutouts (all of which eventually will wind up on the floor!).
Considering the fun factor (girls love making personalized award certificates, stationery and stickers!) and the long-term costs involved (figure $30 or less for the software and another $25 for a cartridge), this would make an ideal gift—with the holidays or a birthday coming around. Think of it this way, it would be an excellent present for a friend (you can let the friend’s parents buy the extra inkjet cartridge that way).
Three nice features includes a nice assortment of interesting fonts; an address book which girls can print out to include their friends, phone numbers, e-mail and mailing addresses and there’s even a space for the URLs of their own home pages; and the ability to import favorite photos into the program.
Oh, and about that little plastic bag of decorations—make sure your daughter or the girls playing with the software get on their knees and pick up all the way cool stuff before nasty Mr. Vacuum sucks it up! Kids who clean up after their art projects are nice to have around! Who likes to vacuum, anyways?