You may or may not have heard of the Japanese pop culture phenomenon Purinto Kurabu (purikura) which means “print club”. The idea is similar to common photo booths known worldwide for creating quick and often hilarious photos of friends. However, Purinto Kurabu has more of a cartoonish/anime twist.

Never tried or even seen a Purinto Kurabu booth? Now all the fun and potential hilarity is available on your iPhone via STIKi PICi.

STICKi PICi is essentially a photo editing app that will grab photos from your Camera or Photo library and let you decorate them with cute stamps and borders.

When you launch the app you will be given the choice of taking a picture or selecting from the camera roll on your iPhone. Once a picture is selected you can Frame it with nearly 50 available designs. Then move on to Stamping your pic with colorful designs in eight categories: Butterflies, Good vs Evil, Hearts, Misc, Misc 2, Phrases, Sparkle, and Under the Sea. Each stamp can be resized, relocated, and rotated with the touch of a finger or two. STICKi PICi also allows freestyle drawing and lets you choose pen size and color. Top off your pic with a nice little speech bubble (20 styles available). Once you’re satisfied with your illustrative additions click Finish. Before saving to your photo roll, you can select a quick last-minute color effect -- B&W, Sepia, Color, or Soften. Then you can save. A surprising omission was the ability to email your art to friends. Although the instructions mention this feature along with upload capability, we couldn’t find them.

SKICKi PICi does a nice job of emulating the purikura experience on the small screen. The colors are vibrant and the designs are crisp. The interface is well suited for even the youngest user (who may be the most impressed with the app). However, if you’re looking for an app with photoshop-like color balance rotation, and filter features, we recommend Photogene.

If you’re just looking for an easy laugh with friends and wonder what the Purinto Kurabu craze is all about, STICKi PICi might be the app for you!

STICKi PICi gets our AppSmile 3-Dimple rating: