French and Germans snap up kit to support their teams, but Brits are lukewarm

England may have invented the sport, but could they be losing interest in the Three Lions? Twenga reveals that visits to football kits on www.twenga.co.uk have grown just 10% in the run up to the World Cup. In France, visits grew 40%. In Germany, visits leapt 236%.

Where is World Cup fever? For individual kit items the picture is grim for England. For football shirts, German visits are up 580% while in England, visits muster a growth of just 35%. Football caps are up 548% in Germany, while in the UK they’re up just 113%. In France visits to football t-shirts are up 237%, while England lags behind, rising just 6%.

Thanks to Twenga, Internet users can get a 10% off voucher for World Cup merchandise from the official FIFA online store.

Visits as at 26 May 2010, compared with a month before.

DIY projects are a great way to keep kids busy, productive and entertained during the summer vacation – Here are 5 fun crafts that are easy to create based on easily available and inexpensive craft products.

•    Paper drink umbrellas
What you’ll need: Decorative scrap paper, glue, pencil, toothpick (or wooden kebab skewers), pinking shears or scallop scissors
How to: Use a pencil to draw circles on the paper by using a Heinz baked beans can. Cut the circle shape and then cut a tiny slice into the paper circle. Wrap around into a cone shape and add glue to edges. Add white glue to head of the cone and stick in skewers, then allow to dry.
Price range of scrapbook paper £0.10 – £2.00
Price range of pinking shears £5.90 – £22.00

•    Decorated Flip flops
What you’ll need: plastic flip flops, ribbons, flower beads (bead box), glue
How to: Wrap the Y section of the flip flops with your desired ribbon using the glue to secure both ends. Add your beads or embellishments and decorate as you wish. Then allow to dry for a couple minutes.
Price range of flip flops £0.75 to £15

•    Tie dye t-shirts
What you’ll need: t-shirt, rubber bands/strings, dye, rubber gloves, large pot/bucket, BBQ tongs (to hold shirts and stir dye), newspaper and plastic bags (to protect your work area)., rags/paper towels (to clean up)  – OR you could buy a tie dye kit which allows you to do up to 5 shirts!
How to: Follow kit directions, but bear in mind that using a plain white t-shirt is best for achieving the desired results.
Price range of kits £6.75 to £12.50

•    Finger Printed Shopper
What you’ll need: plain, light coloured canvas shopping bag and finger paint
How to: Most finger paints are non-toxic and washable such as the Crayola Beginnings 3 Washable Finger Paints. You can get as creative and artistic as you like as there are no set rules to paint your bag.
Price range of shoppers – £0.75 to £10.00

•    Paper party bracelets
What you’ll need: scissors, old paper towel tube, scrapbooking paper, glue, buttons, and other embellishments (beads, photos etc)
How to: Use scissors to cut tube along length, to desired size of bracelet, glue scrapbooking paper and embellishments to decorate.
Price range of scrapbook paper £0.10 – £2.00

Diva dog collar
Pink dog collar
Leather dog collar

Find these and more at http://www.twenga.co.uk/dir-Pets.

A dog is a man’s best (dressed) friend!
While working on the new universe we found that clothes for dogs are amongst our most popular products as well. That is no surprises since of the 27 million pets in the UK over a third are dogs; figures show that British people own more than 7.3 million dogs.

This winter, coats for dogs were highly sought-after.  As summer approaches we see that fashion councious pet owners are searching for dog T-Shirts and sunglasses. Now it’s all about getting your dog ready for the heat!

More than 4000 coats for dogs

20 pairs of dog sunglasses

348 dog dresses

Cat lovers will have to wait – Twenga does not currently have a section for cat clothing as there is not sufficient demand for it as yet.

A strong international market
Two of the strongest pet markets are in Brazil and the United States spending more than $30 billion dollars a year with a predicted $50 million spend in 2010. Here at Twenga we see a lot of evidence suggesting that pet owners have no problems overindulging their treasured pets much in the same way we’ve traditionally spoiled kids. This is evident on the Web as specialized pet sites are developing fast: dog dating sites, dog blogs, dog massage parlours…

As we continue to develop the Pet universe, you can be sure that we will add more brands, retailers and more products to satisfy you and your pets.

And as a final note, don’t forget the most traditonal dog products searched on Twenga: dog food, dog guard, dog kennel, and dog collar.