New Product Inspiration

Sometimes inspiration for my toys comes from the strangest places. 
Today while at the shops I saw a little girl sitting in a shopping trolley counting stars on the side of a cereal package. 
My minds thinking I can make a cute counting toy - maybe a softie with different things to count on it or different colours to identify ?

The inspiration for these cute fold out cottages came from a book by Mummysam called Fanciful Felties. In the book she makes super cute square softie cottages. I like to keep my toys and games small and light and flat when ever possible since they are being posted. So my cottages are made to fold up flat and are great as travel toys.

The inspiration for the pirate adventure sets came about because I saw the wonderful pirate paper in a scrapbooking shop and thought I could do something with that.  The paper is glittery with raised embossed pieces and thick so perfect when lined for a treasure map. After a bit of experimenting and brain storming the accessories came into being, a parrot finger puppet, gold coins, pirate flag and patches. Sometimes I have come across other map paper so I have a few different treasure maps now but the original one above is still my favourite.

These high tea felt play sets came into creation after I had enjoyed a wonderful high tea with friends at Fernwood.  They have an adorable rambling cottage garden decked out with vintage treasures, lace table clothes and buntings and soft music playing.  Gorgeous!

The current toy I am working on are some felt kids dress up masks inspired form some paper cut outs I saw at a $2.00 shop.  They are still in the planning stage as I am still perfecting the size, colours and pattern.

Where does your inspiration for your crafts come from?