Made By Hands, Inc.

little hands ~ big ideas™

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dena Hirschberg

December 5, 2003 Made By Hands, Inc.

773.710.8948

Specialty Source – Booth 6247 dena@made-by-hands.com

Made By Hands™ Dives into Toy Fair with Their Award-Winning Make-Your-Own^TM Line

(Chicago, IL) – Made By Hands^TM can’t stop winning awards for their delightfully fun and innovative art activity kits. And they can’t wait to introduce all their award-winning products at Toy Fair. In specialty stores for just 9 months, The Make-Your-Own^TM line of art activity kits has garnered 3 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Awards, 2 Dr. Toy Awards and 4 Parents’ Choice Awards. “Their beautifully crafted and well-designed kits allow children to do what they do best – learn through play,” says Dr. Toy (a.k.a. Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D.).

Retailers and consumers have also responded enthusiastically to this new company’s products. “Made By Hands™ products are our #1 selling craft kits,” relates Doug Morris, owner of Little Hands Toy Shop in La Grange, Illinois. “Our first order sold out in a week!” And Robin Lehnert, President of The Lehnert Group which owns dotstoys.com, notes that “the Made By Hands™ kits sell beautifully.”

Simple in concept, unique in packaging and constructed of the highest quality, each kit contains hundreds of Pop-Outs!™, an awesome array of geometric & whimsical pop-out cardboard shapes that are perfectly die-cut for little hands so kids can create easily and independently without a grown-up's help. “What I think is really cool,” notes Amy Krouse Rosenthal, parent and author of The Mother’s Guide to the Meaning of Life, “is that…(my) kids were sticking with this for an hour! [And] the pop-out thing is so original. It’s really much more engaging than 90 percent of the art projects out there. “

There are currently 4 products in the Make-Your-Own^TM line, with a 5^th to be launched at Toy Fair in February. Make-Your-Own^TM Cards (for girls), Make-Your-Own^TM Cards^II (for boys!), Make-Your-Own^TM Frames and Make-Your-Own^TM Puppets have entertained kids and delighted parents since their debut last spring. Claire S. Green, president of the Parents’ Choice Foundation says, “The Made By Hands products show kids that they can, on their own, craft a frame, a greeting card or a stick-puppet.” Stephanie Oppenheim, publisher and co-founder of The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, suggests that “these handsomely crafted kits are perfect for playdates and parent/child projects.”

Co-presidents Ava Berry and Dena Hirschberg are excited to bring their wares to Toy Fair. “We may be a little fish in a big pond,” says Ava, “but we’re going to dive right in!”. What else would you expect from a company whose philosophy is ‘little hands ~ big ideas’? A “philosophy,” says Green, “that we can wholeheartedly applaud.”

Made By Hands, Inc., a mom-owned company based in Chicago, Illinois, is the manufacturer of the Make-Your-Own^tm line of children’s art activity kits. These products can be found in over 150 specialty toy stores, children’s clothing boutiques, art supply stores, gift stores, stationery stores, museum stores, independent bookstores, and even spas in the US and Canada. Suggested retail price - $17.95. For more information visit www.made-by-hands.com