One of Darcie’s favourite things to do is to create things. She always gravitates towards the art area at preschool and at home you can usually find her sitting up at the dining room table making some new, amazing creation. Drawing, painting, making junk models – she loves it all. I have a folder where I keep all (most) of her creations safe. I love that we can flick back through it together and it always makes me laugh how amazed she is to see her previous masterpieces with fresh eyes, gasping and saying ‘wow’. As much as it’s lovely to be able to do this and to have it all stored safely away, I know that in the future and as she grows lots of it will get forgotten. It’s easy to overlook a piece of paper, no matter how much joy went into creating the masterpiece it holds.
So recently when we were offered the opportunity to have one of Darcie’s drawings turned into a toy for her to keep, I jumped at the opportunity as I knew how amazed she would be to see one of her pictures come to life. Petplan Equine Horse Insurance gave us the task of drawing Darcie’s dream horse and, with a small amount of guidance from myself, Jelly the horse was born. At the ripe old age of three most of her drawings are circles and squiggles (she’s sitting next to me right now drawing as many ‘eggs’ as she can squeeze onto a piece of A4) so to create a horse drawing together was a really lovely moment too.
A few weeks later the real Jelly arrived. Determined as ever to keep as much magic in her childhood as possible, I sat Darcie down and reminded her about her drawing of Jelly. We got out the picture and I told her to close her eyes and do her magic, and when she opened them again, there he was! To say she was amazed would be an understatement! I was so impressed by just how alike the toy was to the drawing, and I wish I’d thought of this idea sooner – I’ll definitely be doing this again! Now Darcie and Jelly can have real adventures together. He sits up at her little table to eat dinner with her, he goes to bed with her and he comes out with us too. He’s such a special toy for Darcie to have and he’ll certainly be a lot harder to overlook than a piece of paper in a drawer.
I know a lot of you will be wondering where you can also get your child’s drawings turned into a toy so I have found a few places online and listed them here for you:
Budsies
Custom Cuddlies
Etsy
Doodle Your Toys
*This post has been possible due to Petplan Equine, all words and opinions are my own