So when is the Museum of Modern Art going to open up a Birthday Balloon exhibit?

Having waited in line at numerous family festivals and kids fairs to spend 15 seconds with a balloon-twisting clown, I know the magnetism that animal balloons have for little children.  Heck, why bring age into it? I’m blown away by how a thin latex tube can instantly be transformed into giraffes, lions, party hats, etc.

In case you missed it, I highly recommend that you check out the movie trailer for “TWISTED: A Balloonamentary,” which highlights some of the world’s most creative balloon artists.  Forget one-balloon creations. These ambitious folks have created balloon suits of armor for themselves and even made a balloon lounge chair that will support the weight of the average adult:

If you like this stuff, you’ll LOVE WallCandy’s Dog Balloon Wall Stickers for birthdays or just for overall playroom or bedroom decor when you want to add a splash to a boring plain wall.

As our clever marketing copywriters suggest (hey I can’t take credit for this), these doggies will provide you with “commitment-free cuteness.”  That’s right, all the fun and pleasure of owning a dog without having to worry what time you get home to let it out of the house.  No messy clean-ups. No “accidents” on the new rug or scratched furniture.  And no expensive food or vet bills.

Of course, I jest.

No hard feelings, dog lovers — I know in my heart that Dog Balloons will merely enhance your love for those precious pups and can never replace them.

Balloons that will never ever pop!

Speaking of dog lovers, if you’re not one of the more than 6.65 million people who have seen “The Bark Side,” the new Volkswagen doggie tribute to Star Wars, you absolutely must!  There’s a fantastic Internet parlor game going on to see if you can match the correct breed of dog with the right Star Wars character.

Darth Vader, Princess Leia and Chewbacca are obvious, but can you name the alter-egos of the rest of these cute pups?

Girls will have fun playing "Tea Party" long after the birthday party is over!

We’re apolitical here at WallCandy Arts — we fervently believe that the children of Democrats and the children of Republicans will equally enjoy the restickability and imaginative play elements of all our removable wall stickers and chalkboard decals.

So while the country is focused on the conservative Tea Party clash with establishment Republicans, we’ve decided to celebrate a more universal, traditional Tea Party.

We didn’t go all Alice in Wonderland on your birthday girl and stage a chaotic party that will stress her out. The WallCandy Tea Party is a serene social hour with nature, an opportunity to daintily sip iced tea (certainly hot beverages remain an option) with 5 birds, 4 bunny rabbits, 2 hedgehogs, 12 butterflies and a fox.

Watch out for those butterfiles…. from what I understand, they have deceptively huge appetites!

Birthday hat decals are included so the woodland creatures can fully participate in your little girl's special occasion!

The best part of the Tea Party Birthday Wall Decal Kit?  The birthday banner and hats can be stored separately, leaving your little Tea Partiers free to socialize in the woods all year long.  For that matter, the banner and hats can easily be mixed with any of our other Wall Decals for instant birthday fun.

Depending on your child’s fancy, you could have a Tea Party now and perhaps an Owl Birthday, a Princess Birthday or even a Jungle Birthday next time.

And don’t forget about our bouquet of Pastel Balloons Wall Stickers for any happy occasion!

By the way, if you do happen to be a member of the political Tea Party, we’d love to have your business, too.   Your political bumper stickers can easily be integrated into the woodland Tea Party scene, and your candidate will be delighted to know that all our non-toxic PVC Vinyl wall decals are proudly Made In the USA!

In case you missed last Monday’s Today Show, your favorite baby products have a new look thanks to the latest designer collaborations. Skip Hop has teamed up with Jonathan Adler to make diaper bags you’ll plan on recommissioning for use long after your little ones have graduated from high school, and Bugaboo met with Missoni to create adorably solid strollers (and matching bonus blankets) to inspire longer constitutionals through your local park.

And let’s not forget our own fantastic collaboration! WallCandy Arts has been working with the modern design masters at French Bull to bring you new wall decals, new ways to play with your kids, and new additions to our collection of removable wallpaper.

During the Today Show segment, one host dubbed WallCandy wall decals the “easiest and cheapest way to decorate a kid’s wall” as she finished designing a set wall with our French Bull city wall decals. We might be a bit biased, but we think she’s on to something. Decorating your child’s nursery, playroom, or bedroom should be fun and peel-and-stick simple, not to mention completely nontoxic and safe for the surfaces you spent time and money painting. The city wall stickers kit is the perfect complement to your preexisting colors, no matter how you decide to arrange baby’s very first city skyline. Once you’ve designed an initial look, feel free to reposition the whole shebang. (Of course, you might want to take a photograph first, just in case you find yourself at the end of a rearranging frenzy and wish you could go back to where you started. Hey, it happens.)

What you didn’t see during the Today Show segment is our new French Bull Cupcake Land wall decals game. Gather your family and work together to arrange over 50 repositionable wall decals and design a classic game that doubles as cheerful wall art. Use the numbered square stickers to create the game’s path from start to finish and add stars galore, adorable animal faces, clouds, flowers, fruit, hearts, rainbow shortcuts, and arrows to make the game super challenging or easy-breezy. It’s an effective way to teach younger children how to count up to 40, and you can remove and reuse each piece to start a fresh game without damaging your walls in the meantime.

Our French Bull collection doesn’t end there. Stay tuned for a host of new removable wallpaper designs in striking, extraordinary patterns to inspire your coolest, most commitment-free room designs to date. Whether you’re planning to decorate a nursery in the near future or revamp your kitchen to include kid-friendly color and style, removable wallpaper is the easiest way to transform a space from so-so to stunning in no time.

Did you watch the Today Show spot? What did you think of the latest designs by Skip Hop and Jonathan Adler, Bugaboo and Missoni, and WallCandy Arts and French Bull? Join the conversation by leaving a comment or sending us an e-mail at hello@wallcandyarts.com!

December’s end calls for positive thinking. As the holiday tunes disappear from your local radio stations, visiting family members and friends return home to their busy schedules, and your trees and wreaths transition from living room to compost heap, it’s important to do what it takes to stay healthy and happy. We find the post-holiday season especially challenging because our everyday environments go directly from decorative and warm to dull and chilly. Blech.

Still, a new year inspires new goals and brings new possibilities. It also just happens to be the best time for introducing new wall decal designs for decorating your favorite spaces new and old. January might not always measure up to December’s merry frenzy, but reflection eventually leads to invigoration and making cheerful changes to our personal spaces is still as simple as peeling and sticking. Get started with six easy-to-keep resolutions inspired by our newest wall decal designs:

Explore at least one new city. No matter where you’d like to take your first-time-ever trip, you need only make a plan to get started. While you’re dreaming of corner bistros and sidewalk shopping, build your own bustling dream destination with repositionable city wall decals (shown above) that can spike a nursery, playroom, or bathroom with instant activity. Should you decide to relocate your cityscape, these removable, reusable wall stickers won’t leave shadows or smudges on your surfaces.

Start a family game night. As the old adage says, “The family that plays together stays together.” Not that the absence of a family game night is a devastating breach between parents and kids, but it sure can’t hurt to spend a few evenings every month playing classic board games or creating your own kind of tournament with French Bull’s cupcake wall decal game. This dynamic kit contains over 50 adorable wall decals you can use to design and redesign your family’s favorite new game.

Spark your own unique brand of creativity. If traditional creative pursuits such as taking a photography course or starting a novel don’t appeal to you, find a project that speaks to your style and let go of any self-imposed limitations. Imagine what the world was like before someone decided to dabble in the art form known as balloon twisting. We’re guessing things were slightly bleaker, which is why we’ve been working on a decorative wall sticker kit to encourage extraordinary art. These removable, reusable dog balloon wall stickers are a nod to all things creative, not to mention cute, cuddly, and static-free.

Love, love, and love some more. Get a jumpstart on your Valentine’s Day décor and design a wall to remind you that love is free and exists in many forms, shapes, and colors all year long. Add removable, rearrangeable overlapping heart wall decals to your daily landscape and let the abundance of brilliant hearts influence your priorities every time you pass through the room.

Remind yourself there’s much more to come. The newest addition to our family of patented chalkboard wall decals is full of jungle flair. Add a wild chalkboard jungle to your kitchen, home office, or playroom walls and use the included colored chalk to create to-do lists, jot down your official vacation countdown, or schedule a movie night for snuggling with the kids. Should you need a little inspiration to get started on your latest creative project, try designing a line of evening wear to attract sophisticated chicks, elephants, and giraffes.

Plan your next big shindig. Once you’ve got a clear space on your schedule, nail down a day to invite those long-lost cousins, nieces, nephews, and neighbors over for celebrating a birthday or holiday. The newest design in our line of party wall decals is a tea-riffic tea party birthday wall decal kit that begs to be paired with crumpets, cupcakes, and coffee for the grownups. If it’s a Valentine’s Day hug-a-thon you’re hoping to hold, design a background with candy heart wall decals and watch them fall in love.

What are you hoping to accomplish in 2012? Got a specific design project in mind? We’d love to hear about your goals (and maybe lend a hand, if we can). Leave a comment or send an e-mail to hello@wallcandyarts.com.

In order to debut our new kid-inspired designs for 2012 in the most stylish way possible (and maybe get a few extra imaginative perspectives on how each infinitely positionable wall stickers kit might be arranged), we enlisted the help of a national talent agency, The CuteKid, to help us find a handful of enthusiastic cuties who love playing dress-up and having their pictures taken. They introduced us to 20 kids between the ages of 2 and 7, all of who arrived excited and accompanied by their encouraging parents.

We set up shop in New York City’s 28on27 Studio and designed a few different backgrounds to welcome our adorable cast. Because we’ve all directly experienced how difficult it can be to keep a child waiting, we had the foresight to add a classic distraction for the kids waiting for their call times on the sets. We covered a large space with our patented chalkboard wall decals and created a blank, inviting canvas with several bowls of colored chalk. Just as we hoped, the chalkboard wall was a big hit and the kids (along with a bunch of parents who couldn’t resist) had a blast choosing pieces of chalk and drawing their own masterpieces.

Fortunately, none of our cuties had to wait too long between set redesigns. One of the glorious things about our peel and stick wall decals is that they can be removed and reused over and over again, which is a key feature when you need to decorate and redecorate a set quickly between shots (or rebuild a gift show booth that burned to the ground in the middle of the night).

The props were another crowd-pleaser. Our prop stylist, Maureen, compiled an array of hats, scarves, toys, and costume jewelry. The kids tried on costumes – the cowboy and cowgirl props were definitely the day’s winners – and presented smiles both wide and genuine for Mike, our warm and patient photographer.

While we’re not quite ready to reveal our new designs, we’d love to share a few images from what amounted to a pretty fantastic (and exhausting) day. If you’d like to see more shots from our photo shoot, we’d love to show you! Visit our Facebook page and flip through the album called NYC Photo Shoot/December 2011. Enjoy!

Maureen's prop table was so much fun.

Drawing on the wall is a dream come true. Our removable chalkboard wall stickers were a hit!

Two more cuties writing on our patented chalkboard wall decals.

Our lovely CuteKid participants decorating with reusable Dottilicious polka dots wall stickers.

Remember when the expectations for making a gingerbread house was the 3D equivalent of a children’s stick-figure drawing with simple crosses on the windows?

Those days are long gone.  The above architectural cookie masterpiece is a replica of the Winchester Mystery House, a 160-room Victorian mansion with twisting halls and secret passageways built by Sarah Winchester, the heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune.  The allegedly haunted house is now a huge tourist attraction in San Jose, California, drawing especially large crowds around Halloween.  No word if this gingerbread version of the Winchester abode is occupied by ghosts as well.

The Winchester cookie mansion is one of a slew of over-the-top gingerbread designs featured on WebUrbanist, a hip architecture site.

With the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire Primary right around the corner, I’m partial to this fabulous White House design:

This one just looks too gorgeous to give to Sasha and Malia Obama to snack on — not that their health conscious mom would let them munch too far!

Walt Disney World, which once coaxed me into buying a gigantic $8 candy apple that I felt pressure to finish, has mastered the art of cookie construction.

Disney is famous for creating life-size gingerbread houses which their costume characters can “live” in and greet amusement park guests.  Check out the sugar-coated fun that Stitch from “Lilo & Stitch” fame is having this year.

But as impressive as the world of Larger Than Life 3D Cookies may be, there is still an amazing appeal to decorating gingerbread houses with absolutely no mess (or chances of ants or mice occupying the home).

WallCandy’s Design Your Own Gingerbread House is a way for kids to repeatedly enjoy the nuances of ice cream cone and lollipop construction without fear of long-term dental implications or a lecture about the childhood obesity epidemic.

The removable wall decal set comes with gingerbread walls and roof, candy cane lamp posts, ice cream cone chimney, snow ball pastries, snow icing, snow mounds, jelly rolls and various hard candies, gum balls and jelly beans.

It’s a way to extend the holiday fun all winter long, whether you live in a snowy climate or not.

Happy decorating!

Photo credit: Ian Barnard

Christmas Day is only two weeks away, but your shopping list isn’t getting any shorter. Between your kids, relatives, friends, and the lucky colleague whose name you picked from the Secret Santa bowl, there are probably still a few handfuls of folks you’d like to surprise with a little something special this year. ‘Tis the season to feel elfish, right?

Giving gets even better when it’s done without breaking your holiday budget. We’ve compiled a quick list of 10 great holiday gifts under $50, which we’ll gladly ship to any of the 48 contiguous states for free until the last day of December. When you give a gift from WallCandy® Arts, you support a small mom-owned-and-operated business that designs products proudly made in the USA with non-toxic, high quality materials that will last for years to come. So, go ahead – shrink your shopping list with universally appealing wall décor from our 10-under-$50 gift guide:

Luv Letters – $6 per letter

Help your coworker claim his cubicle with starry blue stick on letters, provide your family’s patriarch with a proud surname to display on the foyer wall, or personalize your daughter’s bedroom with peel and stick letters in a whimsical bird print.

Superstar Chalkboard – $14

Give your niece a removable, reusable chalkboard star sticker to decorate her bedroom door now (and her dorm room door later). It’s removable and reusable without damaging surfaces, so her parents and future resident advisor won’t have to worry about chips or smudges.

Mini Chalkboard Panels – $18

Redesign your beau’s office space or your son’s pretend workshop to include mini chalkboard decals he can use and reuse to manage his to-do list without damaging that cherished Mets-themed paint job.

Mini Whiteboard Panels – $18

If there’s only one way to show your child’s teacher some thoughtful holiday appreciation, it’s giving him or her a trio of peel and stick dry erase decals for the classroom, kitchen, or home office.

Watch Me Grow – $32

For your family’s littlest growers, a cheerful growth chart wall sticker provides the best way to check vertical progress daily without marking up the walls.

Design Your Own Snowman – $38

For your aunt and uncle’s family, a design-your-own-snowman kit packed with removable, repositionable winter wall decals will encourage them to spend more than a few snowless afternoons sipping hot cocoa and building snow pals indoors.

Rococo Chalkboard – $36

This regal-looking decorative chalkboard decal is gorgeous enough to fit in with your best friend’s posh living room décor and functional enough to provide your dear mother a place for working out her latest recipes.

Chalkboard Heart – $36

No kitchen is complete without a peel and stick chalkboard heart for jotting down phone messages, grocery lists, or love notes. This spacious chalkboard wall decal is the perfect place to write “I adore you” all year long.

Night Lights – $48

Surprise your dear mother with a screened-in porch decked out in glow in the dark wall decals that emit just the right amount of moonlight without electricity or recharging. Each peel and stick strand is removable and reusable, so she can easily transfer her design to the guest bedroom in case visiting grandkids need a little nighttime light.

My Sunshine – $48

Know a nursery or playroom in need of some warmth? This all-in-one sunshine kit comes with a brilliant sun wall decal and the celestial accessories to keep blossoming babies always looking on the bright side.

Need your gifts by Christmas Day? Order with ground shipping by Dec. 16, or with expedited shipping by Dec. 20. We can’t guarantee that orders placed after those dates will arrive in time.

Happy holidays!

One member of our staff likes to invite her young nieces and nephews over for some homemade macaroni and cheese, which they eat while a Frazier Fir from Home Depot unfolds in the living room. After dinner, she helps the kids hang the ornaments and they watch Miracle on 34th Street until their parents return from a night out to reclaim their little ones. Once the kids leave and the silvers, golds, reds, and greens are all in place, she admits to experiencing a twinge of sadness that there’s no more decorating to do until next year.

We know the feeling and it’s exactly what inspired our holiday wall decal kits. Well, that and these five reasons to decorate a December (and maybe a bit of January and February, too) with peel and stick holiday wall decals:

1. It rarely snows on schedule. If only the Snow Miser could save his frosty antics for those long weekends when leaving the house wasn’t on the agenda anyway. And what school break isn’t made sweeter by a few inches of snow in the yard? For days when your hankering for some snow fun is hampered by a clear forecast, a couple of design-your-own-snowman and design-your-own-snow-woman kits can come in handy. Make a batch of hot chocolate, gather the kids, and spend an afternoon designing the kind of snowpeople that never melt and always have sunglasses to match their outfits.

2. Restyling trees and wreaths can get complicated quickly. Most adults don’t mind static, unchanging holiday decorations. They look lovely and require about as much upkeep as a cactus, so even the Queen of Christmas Trim can enjoy her season without adding a whole new list of to-dos to the next 30 days. Kids, however, crave any occasion to change things up, which is why every room they enter looks so different once they’ve left it. Add removable, repositionable build-your-own-snowperson wall stickers to your kitchen or playroom and, voila, you’ve got an interactive holiday decoration that doesn’t ever have to look the same and won’t require a drop of maintenance.

3. You could easily set up that holiday party well before next December rolls around. To create a festive background before the cookies are finished baking, simply add peel and stick holiday wall decals to any room and transform it into a celebration haven. Once the party’s over, remove and reuse them to decorate another room or re-stick them to their original backing and store until your next soiree.

4. Real do-it-yourself gingerbread house kits require throwaway bed sheets and more willpower than most of us can muster. Instead of fighting your inner icing demons and chopping crudités to counter your kids’ inevitable sugar intake, work together to design your own gingerbread house with nearly 150 sugar-free, interchangeable decorations. No mess, no fuss, and no extra calorie intakes required.

5. There is no way you’re spending your winter months repainting. Decorating is all fun and games until you pull those holiday cards down from the doorframe and find chipped paint beneath each piece of tape. Removable, reusable wall decal kits won’t damage surfaces, so you can deck your walls with cheer and never worry about chips or smudges.

What’s your favorite way to decorate for the holidays? Leave a comment or send us an e-mail at hello@wallcandyarts.com.

WallCandy's removable wall decals are beloved by the Huffington Post's gift gurus.

So did you take our holiday shopping advice for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend?

DID YOU?

Well, whether you relaxed on T-Day or not, Black Friday and Small Business Saturday are now distant memories. However, there’s still time to take advantage of WallCandy’s amazing 4-Day Sale — Buy One and Get One for 50% Off (click here for details)!

According to the Los Angeles Times, Cyber Monday was only the 12th most popular online shopping day of the year back in 2006. Not surprisingly, today it is Number One by far.

We’re celebrating our Cyber Monday with a bit of pride for twice cracking the Huffington Post’s “Best 100 Gifts Under $100” list.

HuffPo enthusiastically recommends our peel-and-stick Chalkboard Circles, also a fave of Everyday with Rachael Ray. These fun round decals (chalk included) give a 360-degree twist to the traditional rectangle chalkboards we’re all so accustomed to using. Check out some candid feedback from our recent customers:

Unfiltered, uncensored product feedback from WallCandy Moms!

Oh and Monika’s Mom, we concur that the best chalkboard experiences will result from non-oily hands.  Grease-covered chalk can also slip and cause poor penmanship!

The Huffington Post is also a fan of our Blossoms collection, a splendid blend of bluebirds, butterflies and floral magic.

Here’s a quick glimpse of what the nature-loving crowd thinks of our removable wall sticker tribute:

Luckily, there are no reports of French Fry oil on any of the bluebirds or butterflies. From what I understand, this can cause some significant flight problems.

Happy Cyber Monday, Everyone!