Now, our job is to exceed your expectations and deliver a final product that inspires kid inventors around the world – starting with the creative kids in your life – to build ideas as big as their imaginations.

As YOXO Founders, we’ll keep you in the loop as we finish the design details, fire up the laser cutter and start production. Please keep in touch with us as well with your ideas and, soon, pictures of what the kids in your world create using YOXO.

Again, thank you!

Meanwhile, the YOXO project rockets forward. Our design team is growing with new packaging designers, an animator, exhibit fabricators (more about that soon) and a cadre of folks in several states working to finalize the materials used to build the YOXO pieces themselves.

We ran a series of tests using laser cutters to manufacture the YOXO pieces. Click here to see a video of tests etching and cutting several different chipboard composites using a variety of laser systems. The CO2 laser beams are invisible, so the flashing you see is when the beam interacts with (and obliterates) the chipboard. The finished pieces are gorgeous!

The challenge is sparking that creativity. You need the right materials and a creative challenge that fully engages the imagination. One simple way is to put together two random words – an adjective and a noun – to use as a creative challenge. This is the foundation for our game, Go Creative.

Just in case you don’t have a Go Creative deck on hand, here are 700 free projects ideas – pick one and build it with the kids this weekend!

Build an Adorable Volcano, Juicy Mouse, Heavy Mountain, Loud Airplane, Funky Porcupine, Powerful Drum, Crooked Chair, Epic Fort, Mammoth House, Ancient U.F.O., Magic Tower, Big Guitar, Cuddly Dragon, Luminous Cake, Smart Bicycle, Awesome Cave, Extreme Cape, Prickly Plant, Tiny Hat, Glamorous Rocket, Fancy Bed, Large Fire Truck, Shiny Tree, Miniature Kite, Huge Monster, Bionic Planet, Long Crane, Silly Dog, Beautiful Igloo, Creepy Caterpillar, Wacky Scarecrow, Tall Car, Angry Snake, Massive Sandwich, Fierce Squirrel, Glorious Cat, Fuzzy Fish, Super Alien, Pretty Crown, Immense Horse, Elegant Table, Little Bridge, Gigantic Hammer, Colorful Volcano, Adorable Mouse, Juicy Mountain, Heavy Airplane, Loud Porcupine, Funky Drum, Powerful Chair, Crooked Fort, Epic House, Mammoth U.F.O., Ancient Tower, Magic Guitar, Big Dragon, Cuddly Cake, Luminous Bicycle, Smart Cave, Awesome Cape, Extreme Plant, Prickly Hat, Tiny Rocket, Glamorous Bed, Fancy Fire Truck, Large Tree, Shiny Kite, Miniature Monster, Huge Planet, Bionic Crane, Long Dog, Silly Igloo, Beautiful Caterpillar, Creepy Scarecrow, Wacky Car, Tall Snake, Angry Sandwich, Massive Squirrel, Fierce Cat, Glorious Fish, Fuzzy Alien, Super Crown, Pretty Horse, Immense Table, Elegant Bridge, Little Hammer, Gigantic Volcano, Colorful Mouse, Adorable Mountain, Juicy Airplane, Heavy Porcupine, Loud Drum, Funky Chair, Powerful Fort, Crooked House, Epic U.F.O., Mammoth Tower, Ancient Guitar, Magic Dragon, Big Cake, Cuddly Bicycle, and  Luminous Cave.

Two months ago I was grappling with this challenge and stumbled across an idea. What if we created a construction toy that allowed kids to build big ideas without tools? What if this toy could create toys as awesome as anything else in the toy store while sticking to our dual mission of wide-open play and sustainability? What if this toy was great by itself but even better when kids add stuff around the house?

YOXO was born that day. It is the biggest idea to come out of Play from Scratch yet. YOXO inspires kids to invent their own toys using durable chipboard links that come in Y, O and X shapes and connect to materials already around the house including paper towel roll and toilet paper tubes.

Click here to watch our YOXO pitch video on Kickstarter

YOXO is a huge leap forward for Play from Scratch. Please make a pledge to help us get YOXO out of the workshop and into the hands of kids everywhere.

- JFN

Next we will start running colors and testing water-based coatings to eliminate all those kid-generated fingerprints so your YOXO pieces will stand up to years of creative play!

Now the challenge is to keep the pace up on Kickstarter. Please drop an email to a few friends or post a link to our project on social media so we can keep this good thing going!

YOXO (yock-so) is a revolutionary toy idea. It’s a creative construction kit that inspires kids to invent their own toys using durable, recycled chipboard connectors that come in Y, O and X shapes. YOXO also encourages kids to create with materials they find around the house, especially cardboard tubes. There are more than 19 billion cardboard tubes discarded every year. Each one could be turned into a toy using YOXO.

Click here to watch a video and learn more about YOXO.

YOXO won’t be available online or in stores until this summer. You can help make YOXO happen and get your hands on the first kits ever produced by supporting us on Kickstarter and spreading the word!

Play from Scratch will have three rooms of hands-on fun, including a sneak peak at our brand new product line, codenamed YOXO!

Click here for all the details.

Here’s the strange thing: no kids – not even infants – are allowed inside. Of course this makes sense, Toy Fair is about toy buyers buying toys and kids would create complete chaos. But it’s strange to walk the aisles, each overflowing with amazing toys, and not be able to witness kids losing their minds in what is – for four precious days – the largest toy store in the world.

If it beeps, bounces, spins or blows up it is at Toy Fair. There are booths full of toys that cost a buck in convenience stores and booths displaying battery operated Ferraris that retail for thousands of dollars. The air buzzes with iPad-controlled helicopters and the peace is kept by a roving gang of spandex-clad Power Rangers. It is surreal and fantastic.

It is also overwhelming. Imagine your kids’ cluttered playroom; Toy Fair is that times a million. Stand in the middle of one of the giant convention halls and turn 360 degrees. Nearly everything you see, over 100,000 individual products, will eventually wind up in the dump. Certainly there are collectable toys that may be passed down a generation or two and some green and wooden toys that will biodegrade. But the majority of the $23 billion of toys sold in the U.S. each year are plastic that will exist in landfills for tens, hundreds or thousands of years.

There has to be a better way. If even a quarter of the toys at Toy Fair were truly recyclable or biodegradable it would be a huge leap forward and keep millions of tons of waste out of landfills. And eco-friendly toys don’t have to be boring. Creative, awesome AND green can exist in the same toy. Stay tuned for a few new releases from Play from Scratch that we guarantee to be eco-awesome.

Take a deep breath and step into the nearest booth and you’ll find the best part of Toy Fair: the inventors, entrepreneurs and businesspeople that are inspired and excited about the toys they sell. They may work for giants like Mattel or tiny startups like us, but they all have a great story to tell and a passion to get toys in the hands of kids, those same kids that don’t get to experience this monumental (colossal!) toy store open for only 33 hours a year.

- JFN

What’s included?

– One Giant Box (it’s a fort, an airplane… a box so big you can sleep in it!)
– The World Famous Box of Boxes (10 boxes designed for creative play)
– The Enormous Tube of Tubes (15 tubes, paper cones + tape)
– Go Creative (2,352 creative challenges for recyclable play)
– Tape 5 Pack (5 vibrant colors of non-toxic masking tape)

The Winter Survival Kit will not only keep the kids occupied for hours, days and weeks, it will also tap into their innate creativity and give them the amazing experience of inventing their own toys – from scratch!

It’s a cold Saturday morning in Minnesota and the kids and I are constructing a fantastic two-story couch cushion fort. I have every reason to focus entirely on them. But I don’t. Why? Because I really want to pick up that iPhone and get a little digital hit.

It’s the reality of our lives. We are torn between the real world and a constant drip of digital information offered by email, Facebook, Twitter and a myriad of other services. Each is lovingly designed to capture our attention, connect us with friends and marketers alike, and gather as many of our digital crumbs as possible so they can get even more of our attention in the future.

These powerful communication tools have the ability to connect us and break down the barriers of time, geography and even language like never before. They can also distract us from what is most important.

Years from now I will remember building this two-story couch cushion fort with my kids. I will relish the moment my daughter discovered she could climb up the fort and leap into my arms – and her desire to do it again and again (and again!)  I will not remember the three new emails that popped up on my phone. Three emails that lingered in my brain and replaced a bit of the joy in that moment.

The challenge is our brains are wired for this. We want to feel connected to other people and we desire the external validation offered by digital likes, shares and even the antiquated poke. Each digital hit tells us that we are noticed, that we are interesting, that we are popular. In moderation this is useful and even beneficial. Being plugged in can also verge on an addiction. I know because I’m addicted.

What can we do? What if we treated our digital consumption like we do eating? What if we paid more attention to when, where and how much time we spend online and focused on quality versus quantity? What if we developed a digital diet?

Here are three ways to start:

Go on a fast: Take the pledge to unplug at unplugandplayday.com. The benefits of fasting have been touted for a millennia. Instead of not eating, unplug for a day, PLAY all day and see what it feels like.

Eat in the dining room: We designate spaces to prepare and eat food: restaurants, dining rooms, kitchens. Why not do the same with our digital consumption? Identify three places where you do digital work and keep the rest of the house sacred and digital-free.

Stop snacking: Many of us spend all day partially plugged in. Instead of this distracting digital snacking try focusing on three productive digital meals. Perhaps you check email for an hour in the morning, again in the early afternoon and for 1/2 hour at night. Set a time to stop and stick to it. What you don’t get done can wait until tomorrow.

The big idea is to discover balance and moderation. We can give ourselves the bliss of being exactly where we are as well as taking full advantage of technology that allows us to be everywhere at the same time. I have no doubt we will figure it out. For my part, I am going to logout right now and focus on fort building.

- Jeff