Yes! BridgeWood Toymaker ‘Love Letter’ kits were designed to be easy enough for complete beginners to make beautiful toys for their loved ones. Follow our short ‘Toymaking Basics’ video tutorials to learn the tips and tricks to make toys easily. And don’t worry. Your Toymaker kit also contains the tools needed to quickly fix mistakes.

Can you make toys?

Yes! You can.

Making toys is FUN. We’ve designed the BridgeWood Toymaker Kits to be a quick, easy, and thoroughly enjoyable experience that you will look forward to! But if you are under a timeline (Eek! That baby shower is a week away!), here is how long you can expect it will take to make personalized and gorgeous toys!

Ultimately, the true answer depends on how complicated you want to make your toys and the size of your Toymaker kit.

For very simple projects, the 9-block Love Letters kit could take a complete beginner 4 to 6 hours to make. Similarly, a 36-block kit will take around 8 to 12 hours.

But most folks will find they want to take more time, adding more color and images to their toys. In this case, a beginner should prepare to take at least 5-8 hours on their 9-block Toymaker kit and 10-15 hours on their 36-block Toymaker kit.

Experienced Toymakers can finish a complicated 9-block Love Letter set in about two hours and a 36-block Love Letter set in under seven!

If you are hosting a Baby Shower or Family Night ‘Block Party’, expect that it will take each person thirty minutes to do two simple blocks. That estimate includes the instruction time to show your guests how to use the silk screen stencils and presumes they only make simple patterns.

Note: These times do not include the recommended drying time for the sealer. Although thin coats of sealer will be dry to the touch within fifteen minutes, we recommend at least 72 hours before they are gift-wrapped or stacked to avoid sticking and paint transfer.

We hear this all the time! And the short answer is… You CAN head to the craft store, pick up some blocks, and start painting.

           BUT. You won’t be making playable toys—just pretty home décor.

           We designed the BridgeWood Toymaker Kit to:

• Make SAFE Toys 
• Save MONEY
• Save TIME

How? Let us explain.

Toy Safety

           When it comes to your little ones’ safety, you don’t want to take any risks. We have done all the research and safety testing for you, so you:

• Don’t have to learn how to find and read Toy Safety Standards regulations.

• • Ie. Toy Safety Regulations are there for a reason. They prevent death, severe injury, or poisoning from playing with unsafe toys. The regulations are very dull and challenging to read. But they save lives! NEVER make toys without knowing the safety guidelines first!

• • • Everything in the BridgeWood Toymaker Kit has been carefully curated to align with regulatory toy safety standards.

• You don’t have to carefully read art labels, searching for toxic ingredients.

• • Ie. Many popular paints and sealers are NOT safe for children’s toys. Pigments and other additives can be toxic. Sourcing paint to make sure it is lead and toxin free is essential, and sometimes, the only way to know for sure the paint is safe is through expensive third-party testing.

• • • We have done the expensive testing for you, so you KNOW our paint and sealers are toy-safe!

• • • • Note: NEVER mix your toy-safe paint with paints or supplies you have at home. We can only guarantee the safety of the components when they are kept separate from other craft supplies.

• You don’e have to research which woods are toxic, safe for hand play, and test them to ensure they weren’t treated with toxic chemicals.

• • Ie. Did you know babies shouldn’t be given toys made from pine? Pine is a softwood, and it splinters. Think of those sweet, baby gums getting a splinter stuck inside of them from chewing on soft pine blocks. OUCH. And walnut has a toxin in it called juglone. Again, OUCH.

Our woods are made from toy-safe, non-toxic, and untreated hardwoods. Our hardwood blocks also have the great benefit of being long-lasting and beautiful!

You can research to learn how to make toys safely. After all, that’s how we started and fell in love with toymaking! But, from our experience, be prepared to take you to spend dozens, if not hundreds, of hours doing research, and be sure to maintain constant vigilance to ensure that your chosen paint/sealer companies don’t change their formulas.

Or buy the Toymaker Kit and save yourself the pain of researching!

Second, buying the Toymaker saves you MONEY!

           How? We’ve invested in very high-quality components and, bundled together, sell them for less than what you would find in a retail store. You can buy the toymaking components in the Toymaker Kit separately, but you will spend more money.

           This becomes even more exaggerated if you want to start buying woodworking equipment to make toys! We would highly encourage this if you LOVE woodworking and it’s your passion. He LOVES woodworking and can tell you how expensive it is to buy the right tools. It took him years to slowly build up his tool collection, and he still doesn’t have many of his ‘dream’ tools. It also takes a lot of time to set up a safe woodworking space, ample space to do your woodworking and store your tools and projects, and hundreds of hours learning how to perfect your craft. He LOVES it, but woodworking isn’t a spur-of-the-moment or cheap hobby to pick up over the weekend.

           That’s why we took all the trouble to give you excellent hardwood blocks. Did you notice we chamfered the edges to soften them and make them more comfortable for little hands?

           Lastly, The BridgeWood Toymaker Kit saves you TIME.

           Aaron and I (Natalie) often laugh, saying folks will never know hard we worked to make toymaking fast and easy. The first toys I made took me over a month and cost hundreds of dollars (which I wasn’t expecting!) And, honestly, they didn’t look very good!

           But now, after experimenting and making THOUSANDS of toys, we have perfected the skills necessary to help people easily and quickly make beautiful toys! We can teach people how to make heirloom toys in under ten minutes and reduce the time it takes to make toys from a month to under three hours with our Starter Toymaker Kit. WOW.

           But that time savings only comes because of the careful attention to details we hope you will never notice, such as how the stencils are perfectly designed to align on each block. Trust me; designing and carefully calibrating our custom stencils took a LOT of time.

           Our goal in inventing the Toymaker Kit was to make the joy of toymaking accessible to almost everyone. We reduced the barriers that made it difficult for most people to make toys and are very proud of the beautiful toys that folks have been able to create using the Toymaker Kit.

           If you want to create an amazingly thoughtful gift for your loved ones, the Toymaker Kit will make it possible! Shop for yours now!

   Great question! Handcrafted toys are pricey for excellent reasons. But, with the Toymaker Kit, you can save a LOT of money; we break it down below.

           But, more importantly, what do you and your loved ones GAIN that even the best artisan in the world cannot give you?

           Your personalized and beautiful toys come straight from your heart into the hands of your little ones. Your handmade toys capture and communicate your love for them in a way no other gift can provide. That is PRICELESS!

But let’s get to some practical numbers. Ultimately, how much you save depends on the skill level you can put into creating your beautiful toys.

Beginner Toymakers Can Save:

           The Toymaker Kits can help beginners easily create personalized alphabet and character toys. Toys executed at a similar skill level can be found on Etsy for anywhere from $6-8 a block. That means commissioning a set of nine hand-painted blocks from Etsy could set you back $72, plus tax and shipping.

           Buying a Starter Toymaker Kit gives you high-quality supplies you can reuse repeatedly, PLUS the nine blocks. You save more than $27, not counting the added value of the toymaking supplies you get to keep and reuse to keep making beautiful toys!

Experienced Artisans Can Save:

           Experienced artists can pour their years of skill into making stunning toys. It would not be unusual for an artist to charge around $45 or more per block, plus shipping and taxes. If you have artistic chops, the Starter Toymaker Kit allows you to save over $360! WOW.

Absolutely! BridgeWood Toymaker kits are great to do either by yourself or with your loved ones! Your Toymaker kit has enough tools for one person, but if you want more folks to join the fun, check out these brush packages. That way, everyone has the chance to make beautiful toys.

Date Night: A perfect activity for you and your special someone.

Family Time: For spending quality time with the ones you love the most.

Party Pack: Whether it is a baby shower, ‘Girls’ Night In,’ or holiday celebrations, hosting a ‘Block Party’ is a great way to bring people together!

Hosting A Baby Shower? Check out our handy blog here for our best tips and tricks for helping everyone have a grand time making toys!

Fixing mistakes is easy! The great news is that, with wooden toys and silk screens, you can choose to either completely start over from scratch or make small changes to fix tiny mistakes. Your Toymaker kit comes with sandpaper and a detail brush, which you can use to fix almost any slip-up.

We made some videos to show you tips and tricks for quickly fixing mistakes. Check it out these easy-to-follow tutorials and move forward confidently, knowing you will do great.

Yes! And… no. BridgeWood kits are designed to be an adult craft and can be used by children six years old and up. But it is up to you, as the adult in their life, to decide whether they are ready.

Every child has different capabilities at different ages. Ask yourself these questions when deciding whether your child is ready to make their own toys. Do they have good eye-hand coordination? Can they sit still to listen to the directions on the ‘How-To’ videos? The paint is designed to last for many years; are they responsible enough to immediately clean up paint spills or messes? You know your kiddo! What is the right answer for them?

For young children, we recommend sitting next to them and making your toys together! You will be building memories as you create beautiful things together. Someday, they might find themselves playing with those same toys with their children, telling them about the happy day they spent making them with you.

Wouldn’t that be amazing?!?

Want more tips? Check out ‘How To Make Toys With Children‘!

Any age!

Your colorful DIY toys will be great for newborn eyesight development.

They will be great for tiny babies grasping and stacking skills, which helps to refine motor development. Babies also start absorbing important lessons, such as volume, weight, and sound, through playing with these educational toys.

They are wonderful for teaching toddlers colors, numbers, and letters. And for building castles and towers!

Older children can practice spelling and reading with their Love Letters.

And don’t forget the love notes, inspiring thoughts, and silly messages that teenagers and adults can leave for each other around the house!

Note: We do not recommend that small children place the finished toys in their mouths. Although the toys are completely safe, their tiny but powerful teeth can scrape off the paint. We recommend that you play with the toys with your small child, using them as an educational toy to help their little brains grow. Remove the blocks when they start to mouth them.

Embrace the ding! That mark is not an imperfection. That dent on your homemade toy is capturing a memory of happy playtime, laughter, and making memories with loved ones.

The only way your Made-With-Love toys will remain perfect is if you place them high on a shelf, out of the reach of children. They won’t be built into rainbow castles. Paint won’t be scraped away by tiny teeth. They will stay pristine. Yes, they will be beautiful. But they also won’t be filled with the memories of playtime and laughter.

If you let children play with your Made-With-Love toys, their edges will start to wear, a patina from little fingers will begin to appear, and the paint will slowly get scuffed away. They may not look ‘perfect’.

But every dent, ding, and scrape will be a memory of your loved ones laughing, playing, and learning together. Treasure it! A life well lived is a beautiful thing!

That said, if the dings from playtime bug you, you can quickly fix them. Take out your detail brush. A stroke of fresh paint and a swab of the sealer should get your toys looking tip-top once again