Michaels Debuts New American Girl Crafts Line

    IRVING, TX, October 28, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Just in time for the holidays, Michaels Stores, Inc., North America's largest arts and crafts specialty retailer, announces the introduction of the American Girl Crafts (TM) line, exclusively available at all U.S. Michaels stores starting Sunday, November 1, 2009.

American Girl Crafts are designed to inspire and foster girls' creativity with themes such as school, parties, pets, doll fun, and room decor. The new line features more than 130 products, including an array of tools such as ink stamps, stickers, and paper punches, as well as step-by-step kits to make jewelry, sewing crafts, cards, scrapbooks, fashion art, and much more. In developing the new line, American Girl (R) partnered with EK Success Brands, one of the country's leading scrapbooking and creative consumer products companies.

"Michaels is proud to be the exclusive retailer of American Girl Crafts and we think the line will be enormously popular with our younger customers," said Philo Pappas, Michaels Executive Vice President of Category Management. "This line is perfect for girls who love crafts and are growing up with American Girl books and dolls."

Every American Girl Crafts package includes a "Get Creative!" mini-challenge meant to spark creative thinking such as "Doodle with your eyes closed," or "If your pet could talk, what would he or she say right this second?" Instruction booklets also include helpful advice adapted from American Girl books and American Girl magazine on a variety of relevant topics, such as being a fantastic friend, Internet safety, pet ownership and photography tips.

"American Girl has a long, successful track record in developing fun and original craft projects for girls through our award-winning American Girl magazine and Do-It-Yourself activity books," said Ellen L. Brothers, American Girl President. "American Girl Crafts allows us to build on that success and speak directly to the legions of girls who are eager to let their creativity shine. And, as a trusted partner of moms for more than 23 years, this age-appropriate line will help build their daughters' creative confidence through simple yet sophisticated crafts that they will be proud to display and share."

The new American Girl Crafts line joins popular American Girl craft books such as 3-D Studio and Funky Felt Crafts also available at Michaels to create the largest selection of American Girl crafting products in any store.

About Michaels
Michaels Stores, Inc. is North America's largest specialty retailer of arts, crafts, framing, floral, wall decor, and seasonal merchandise for the hobbyist and do-it-yourself home decorator. The company currently owns and operates over 1000 Michaels stores in 49 states and Canada and over 150 Aaron Brothers stores.

About American Girl
American Girl, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel, Inc. (NYSE: MAT, www.mattel.com), the world's leading toy company. Since American Girl's inception in 1986, the company has devoted its entire business to celebrating girls ages 3 to 12. American Girl encourages girls to dream, to grow, to aspire, to create, and to imagine through a wide range of engaging and insightful books, age-appropriate and educational products, and unforgettable experiences. In meeting its mission with a vigilant eye toward quality and service, American Girl has earned the loyal following of millions of girls and the praise and trust of parents and educators. To learn more about American Girl, visit www.americangirl.com.

About EK Success
Established in 1978, EK Success Brands' diversified portfolio of over 10,000 inspirational and creative products cover scrapbooking, painting, needle crafting, stamping, paper crafting, jewelry making, kids crafts and more. Popular brands include Martha Stewart Crafts(TM), K&Company, Inkadinkado(R), Dimensions(R) Crafts, Jolee's(R), Sticko(R), Jolee's Jewel's(TM), and Perler(R) Fun-Fusion(TM) Beads. EK Success Brands(TM), a division of Wilton Brands Inc., is owned by TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, and products are distributed through craft stores and online. For more details check out www.eksuccessbrands.com. Dream. Make. Celebrate(TM).

Media Contact: Kristen Kauffman or Alexandra Elliott
(817) 329-3257
[email protected]
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