Imagination Box Co., LLC Review and Giveaway (Christmas Wish List 2010)

Do you remember when you were a little kid playing with box like toys? I can! I remember instead of actually having dollhouses and play houses like the kids today have, making mine out of old cardboard boxes and painting and coloring them to make them just mine!! I can also remember my sister and I spending hours at a time creating our own little villages out of smaller boxes for our dolls and play toys, I still have a Christmas village that we made a few years back that I still display every year, but I don’t know about all of you but I think with all the plastic toys today our kiddos are missing out on some real creative fun that I know I used to have creating and painting my own little play houses and such, so while looking for some creative toys that would get my son’s imagination working I discovered the Imagination Box Co., and I was immediately drawn the their unique and creative toys, and when they agreed to a review and giveaway right here on The Cartoon Lovin’ Mama I was jumping for joy and could not wait to get started!

About Imagination Box Co., LLC (Taken From Website):

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about us. We are Kim and Russ Cash, creators and owners of Imagination Box Co. and we have been distributing our 100% recyclable art toys nationwide since 2007.

Our company is a direct reflection of our lifestyle and our basic philosophy of life. Raising three homeschooled daughters, we began to really notice how much waste was going into the landfills from all their toys and other "stuff" and thought to ourselves 'what can we do to make a difference'? So, we began making some of their toys! An old box (every kids favorite) became a way to stimulate their creativity and recycle at the same time. They loved them and so did all the neighborhood kids. Seventeen years later... Voila - Imagination Box Co. was born! All of the grahics on our toys are hand drawn by our very own Russ, making them even more unique.

When we began our business, it was with a vision of providing creative, fun, educational, eco-friendly toys that were safe for children and safe for the environment. We believe that today's children hold the key to preserving our planet for generations to come. Now is the time to educate them and show them a new way of looking at the world. We are pleased to be able to pass our commitment to the environment on to consumers by providing environmentally safe arts and crafts toys to children all over the country! Imagination Box Co.'s toys are 100% made in the USA and are 100% recyclable, even the packaging!

Along with our concerns for the environment, we also feel it is important to support our community. We work with a local manufacturing company, a place where we can just "stop by" to ensure the quality of our products.

Our toys are assembled by Panhandle Special Needs, Inc., a local hometown organization that gives people with special needs in our local community a place to learn valuable skills to take into the world. When you purchase one of our cardboard playhouses, you help support our local community as well, and we appreciate it!

We live in a yurt on five acres in beautiful northern Idaho where we thrive in all that Mother Earth has to offer. A yurt is an environmentally sensitive dwelling. We utilize solar power, including a solar oven and solar shower, tend a large garden and keep ten chickens that free-range and lay nutritious brown eggs. We also enjoy outdoor baking with our homemade mud oven! We believe a sustainable lifestyle means a sustainable Planet Earth!

When you buy a green, sustainably produced toy, you give a gift that keeps on giving! Thanks from us and from Mother Earth!

Our Thoughts:

We were sent the Paintable Play Barn for “Bug” to review and I have to say I think I was a little more than excited when the barn showed up at our door and once we had it opened and set up ready for painting it was like taking a step back into my childhood, when my sister and I would create our own towns for our dolls and such! Before I get to far into my thoughts I want to take a moment here to tell you a little specific details about the Paintable Play Barn (taken from site)

American Made and Green

Does someone love animals in your family or perhaps you have a budding equestrian? This unique paintable art Barn has hand drawn graphics both inside and out and will be sure to stimulate your child's imagination and creativity.

Just think of all the creative play with the
farm animals in your childs collection!

Made from 45% post-consumer recycled materials
Durable and 100% recyclable
Easy to assemble; Assembled measurements: 21"L x 24"W x 15"T
FREE set of eight non-toxic washable watercolors included
Works equally well with markers or crayons.
Ships flat for ease in coloring the inside.
100% Made in the USA.
Winner of a 2008 Creative Child Magazine Top Toy of the Year Award

Now that I have that out of the way back to our thoughts!!! It didn’t take me long at all to clean off our dinner table and set up the barn and get it ready to be painted and customized by “Bug” for his many animals, dragons and dinosaurs that he though needed to be on his farm and live in the Barn!!! I have to say that painting this barn with my little man was some of the most fun I’ve had in a while it was just like I was a kid again and seeing my little man’s creativity come to life was just wonderful! The barn comes with non-toxic washable watercolors but we opted to use our crayon and finger paints and the barn didn’t really turn out looking like a regular everyday, run of the mill barn, it turned out to be an awesome barn just for “Bug” with the primary color being his favorite color yellow!!! (I’m so sorry I don’t have a picture my camera is kinda on the fritz and it only works part of the time)

Once we finished making the barn our own we decided to let it dry and we set it up in “Bug’s” room so that he would have easy access to it with all of his farm animals or what ever he decided to house in the barn and the next morning it was ready to be played with, now I knew he would enjoy the coloring of the barn and I was pretty sure he would play with it some but I had no idea that it would take the place of some of his most favorite toys for so long, I know the first day he was actually able to play with the barn and his animals he spend a good 45 minuets to an hour or so moving his animals and such in and out of the barn into the fields and just having a great time with his imagination and to me that was the most rewarding part of this whole review was to see him using his imagination and not having a toy do the majority of the work! I just want to say thank you to Imagination Box Co., for allowing me to share a part of my childhood with my son and get his imagination working a little more than his other toys!

Since receiving the barn we have spent so many hours playing with “Bug’s” animals and such and the barn has held up amazingly well for the hours put in with a rambunctious toddler and I feel like it still has a lot of life left in it and can’t wait to spend more of our playtime at the farm :0)! It hasn’t just been a blast for “Bug” by my nephews and little cousins and my friends children who come over have really enjoyed playing with the barn and I just feel like this is one of the best toys we own right now because I truly feel it allows “Bug” and his friends to use more of their imagination than some of the other high tech toys we have!

Bottom Line:

We love our barn and we feel that it is one of the best toys of the year in our book! Not only does it allow your child to be creative in coloring and personalizing their barn but it allows their imagination to grow and I feel it helps their imagination grow without the help of high tech toys! I also love that it lets me share some of my own childhood memories with my little man since it’s a toy that I can relate to having something similar when I was younger.

I really recommend the paintable toys from Imagination Box Co., to everyone looking to give their little ones the gift of imagination this holiday season! Don’t give them another useless high tech toy that they will only spend a few hours playing with when you can give them a toy that will allow them to paint their own imagination and give them play for a long time!

Buy It:
To purchase the Paintable Play Barn visit the Imagination Box Co. website!

Win It:
Imagination Box Co. has offered one of my readers a Paintable Play Barn to help jump start your kiddos imagination this holiday season!

Mandatory Entry: Visit Imagination Box Co. and tell me your favorite paintable toy they offer! Please remember to leave your e-mail address if it’s not visible in your profile.

Want or need extra entries? Check out how to grab em’ below! (Mandatory Entry must be complete for these to count)

1. Become a public follower of my blog (2 extra)

2. Follow me on twitter @sgrant2005 and tweet this giveaway (can be done daily)

3. Subscribe to my feed via a reader

4. Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and to Imagination Box Co., be sure to leave me a link (5 extra)

5. Follow Imagination Box Co, on Twitter

Giveaway ends Dec 20, 2010 @ midnight CST. Winner will be chosen at random, using random.org and contacted by e-mail and has 48 hrs to respond before a new winner is chosen.

This review is based strictly my opinion. Others may have a different opinion with the product listed above. I did receive the paintable play barn mentioned above complementary for this review. No monetary compensation was received.