Care Bears craft products at Create and Craft

 

Many of you may remember the serious confusion in the summer of 2016, when Create and Craft first started selling Disney dies and stamps – and told viewers they they could sell the results… only to later backtrack and say that this was not allowed.

Read my article on this situation here – Create and Craft Disney Range – Serious Confusion Over Usage.

You would rather think they would learn from that, but apparently not.

Care Bears Products on Create and Craft

Create and Craft are now selling some crafting products that feature the very popular Care Bears characters.  These characters are, of course, registered trademarks and owned by a company called Cloudco.

Here, for example, is the Create and Craft website’s advert for a Care Bears USB key – a USB stick with printable characters, papers and accessories. The products are made by a company called SplashCrafts.

Care Bears USB Key for sale on Create and Craft's website
Care Bears USB Key for sale on Create and Craft’s website

Marketing Care Bears on Create and Craft TV

Here is a video, from the 9th of May 2019, of popular Create and Craft presenter, Dean Wilson, selling the Care Bears range on Create and Craft’s television show.

Bailey Batten, his fellow presenter, is from SplashCrafts and does not correct what Dean is saying.

This video was uploaded to YouTube by Tracy Basten who has been investigating the issues that you are about to see. Thanks to Tracy for letting me include it here.

In this video, Dean repeatedly tells viewers that they can sell the things they make with the Care Bears products, that there are NO restrictions and even things such as “you can change the colours”.

There is never a mention of any restrictions at all on what or how you can sell.

At 1:58 he says “There are no rules here now….. no rules, you can do what you want”.

At 2:28 “The Angel Policy is fully open everybody” – this is just after saying one could scan the images and turn them into stitched products. A few minutes later he says you can make vinyl stickers with them.

At 3:11 he says “Fabric as well as paper crafting” and Bailey agrees with him, “True”. He goes on to say more about “create your own fabric”.

And so on throughout the show.

So Can You Really Do Anything You Like with These Products?

Many viewers were very surprised at this.  Most trademarked characters, such as Care Bears, will have strict usage policies, to protect the integrity of the brand.  As this is a children’s brand it is even more likely that there would be usage restrictions in place.

At the time, on SplashCraft’s own website, it also said that you could sell the items made with the Care Bears products, and no restrictions were mentioned.

Tracy Basten and other viewers contacted Care Bears UK to ask if what Dean had told the viewers was actually correct.

The response that came back via Twitter said “Unfortunately, no. We are trying to resolve the misinformation that was shared“.

And in SplashCraft’s Adverts…

And in issue 71 (page 52) of the magazine Creative Stamping, there is a full page advertisment for the SplashCrafts products in question.  In this close up of the top of the advert you can clearly say that it says “Yes, you can sell ALL your makes!”  Notice the prominent word “all” there, btw…

Close up of Care Bears advert from Creative Stamping
Close up of Care Bears advert from Creative Stamping

Click here to see the full sized advert in issue 71 of Creative Stamping magazine.

I am told that the packaging for the Care Bears craft products in question also say that you can sell “all your makes”.

New Care Bears Angel Policy – With Restrictions

On the 16th May, Create and Craft updated the usage conditions on the Care Bear products on their website. Remember, Cloudco are the owners of the Care Bears characters and trademarks.

Link to Care Bears Angel Policy on Create and Craft

This (very hard to spot) link goes to a page that includes the following restrictions on the usage of Care Bears craft products:

  • Items must be handcrafted
  • No large scale selling – a maximum of 100 finished products per year
  • Sales only in person, not online or via mail order
  • Only papercraft products, no clothing, accessories etc
  • No finished products that could be “considered harmful, or malign, abuse or bring CSP, Cloudco or any characters belonging to Cloudco into disrepute”

This is clearly NOT the same as “You can sell ALL your makes”, or what Dean was saying.

Anyone who bought these products from the TV show, thinking that they could go open an Etsy shop selling, for example, tshirts with the Care Bears on, would actually be breaking these terms.  But, of course, they wouldn’t know that if they believed what Dean was (so loudly) telling them.

Trademarked Characters Will Usually Have Usage Restrictions

If you are considering buying any crafting products that feature any recognizable characters, please be aware that the chances are that there will be significant restrictions on what you can do with the finished products you make.  For many characters you will  NOT be able to sell thm at all (such as with Disney). Others (Wallace and Gromit, Gorjuss Girls for example) are ok to sell, but you must follow the Angel Policy which may include restrictions on how many, where and how you can sell.

What About Viewers Who Bought from the Show?

I am shocked that Create and Craft (and, apparenly, SplashCrafts) did not do more research before making these dangerous, incorrect statements.  Dean Wilson is a vetran of tv craft product selling and must surely know by now how these types of products work.  I am stunned that he never thought to question this information before passing it on to innocent viewers.

If you bought the Care Bears craft products from Create and Craft, you CAN sell cards and other papercraft items made with them. BUT you can only sell a maximum of 100 in a year, can not sell them online and must respect the brand (no naughty Care Bears pictures!).

If you bought the products from Create and Craft, with the intention of selling non-papercraft products, or of selling online, I recommend you contact Create and Craft and complain to them.  They misinformed their customers.  It does appear that they were misinformed by SplashCrafts, however, it is Create and Craft who were telling their viewers this misinformation.

Update 24 May 2019 – I contacted Create and Craft and asked them for a statement for this article.  Pep Merola, the “Social Media Co-ordinator & Customer Resolutions Officer” of Ideal Shopping Direct (who owns Create and Craft) has now replied with a link to the current Angel Policy on their website and says that they will not be making any further statements on this.

 

Create and Craft Care Bears Products by SplashCrafts – Can You Sell What You Make With Them?
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One thought on “Create and Craft Care Bears Products by SplashCrafts – Can You Sell What You Make With Them?

  • 23 May, 2019 at 5:40 pm
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    Very well written and an accurate account of the situation. Who knows weather or not the AP will change again.

    Reply

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