IKEA Is Turning Children’s Drawings Into Plush Toys - And The Results Are Incredible

Who didn’t dream about creating fantastical toys and inventions when they were younger? That’s part of the brilliance of being a child. One can conjure seemingly impossible innovations – or animals – and have them be realized on paper with a few strokes of crayon.

Fortunately, for at least ten kids, their imaginative ideas were made into more than drawings – they were actually transformed into real-life plush toys. Such was the result of IKEA’s Soft Toys drawing competition which received approximately 50,000 submissions from creative minds. In the end, ten children’s designs were chosen to be re-created. The winners’ ages ranged from five to nine years old.

For about a month beginning November 20th, all ten designs will be sold as plush toys in the store. The toys belong to the collection SAGOSKATT which is part of IKEA’s “Let’s Play for Change” campaign. All proceeds from sales of the children’s toys will help run projects devoted to children’s rights to play and develop in countries across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

The campaign launched on UN Universal Children’s day for a simple reason: for every item of the 270-product strong play range that is sold between November 20th and December 24th of 2016, IKEA Foundation will donate an additional €1 to six non-profit partners, relays Bored Panda. These organizations include Handicap International, Room to Read, Save the Children, Special Olympics, UNICEF and War Child.

The goal of this year’s campaign is to raise €770,000 in the UK & Ireland. To date, the IKEA Foundation has donated a worldwide total of €88 million to support educational projects. Save the Children and UNICEF are most often supported by the Swedish company.

If you live near an IKEA, consider visiting the store and purchasing one of the toys to support initiatives which promote child play and development in less privileged nations. Following are some photos of the unique and creative designs: