Yesterday, I listed my first Itsy Bitsy Spider creation that is geared especially toward children. I've been working on the set for about a week now and am really pleased with the results -- my Count 'n' Colors Cupcakes came out even better than I expected.
I was so excited about them that I posted the listing to one of the crafting groups I follow. Almost immediately, I saw this reply:
Oh gosh, if you're thinking of getting into children's products, you might want to go back and read all the posts under CPSIA here in the forums. It's quite confusing and...well...confusing.
...
Yes, I believe that all children's products will need to be tagged. I'm trying to get my mom out of toys altogether, between the tags and the testing, it's not worth the effort. I'm moving her over to bags and scarves. Not as much fun, that's for sure!
I looked into the CPSIA guidelines and completely freaked out. There are requirements for lead testing and labeling and what children might consider a plaything and well, let's just say that there was enough to make me seriously consider throwing in the towel on The Itsy Bitsy Spider.
The only person I know who has the ability to read legal-eese (and trust me, it is a foreign language) is my cousin, Z. So, I e-mailed her with my complete panic last night. Within a few hours, she got back to me and broke down each of the requirements that might affect my dolls. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!
I mean, not that she was able to translate the leagal-eese for me (I've said before that my cousin is an extremely bright and talented young woman). What was amazing is that she did this for me... she dropped what she was doing, scoured the CPSIA guidelines and wrote a wonderful summary of what affected me and how I can comply. At the moment, I am just beyond words to thank her.
Z, you are the BEST!
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