Strange craft kits from the 70s

[Throughhistory]

Anyone else remember them?

Plasticraft - I mean who doesn't want to make a penny embedded in a plastic blob?

Enamelcraft - at least that resulted in a few hardly wearable items of jewellery

A board covered in black velvet. You banged small nails in, then wound gold thread from one nail to another to create the illusion of curves in a picture, often a boat. Yes really.

Did I miss out on any gems?

@Dilbertian

ShakerMakers! Plaster of Paris and rubber moulds of Disney characters . You painted them afterwards.

I loved these. I had a Thumper the rabbit and a few others

Shrinkey dinks? Or was that only in America?
They were plastic pictures that you cut out, coloured in and baked so that they shrunk into plastic models.
Also remember those plastic bubbles that you blew and sealed off. We used to chew the deflated bubbles like chewing gum!
Lots of toxic toys in them days

I remember loads of these. Also DoodleArt poster that came with felt tip pens. I had psychedelic disco one.

I wonder whether mine was a Shaker Maker knock-off. Wikipedia lists the characters but doesn't mention Snow White - and I'm sure ai had Doc. Also I remember pouring the stuff into a one-piece mould and it did not shrink.

I had a potter's wheel as advertised on TV.

Complete disaster, obviously.

Shrinkey dinks? Or was that only in America?

We used to make our own shrinkies out of crisp bags and sweet wrappers.

We had Shrinky Dink's here too.
Anyone remember Garbage Pail Kids stickers, and Wanted stickers?

There was some other sort of thing with black coating that you scraped off to show different sorts of silver patterns underneath, can't remember exactly how it worked though. But it was much more sophisticated to a 7-year old than the ones that were just black crayon over other colours of crayon, though that worked too. There was something different about the silver foil one, and you used a special tool to do different sections somehow. I had a peregrine falcon picture (which is the first time I learned the word peregrine! I still remember that).

I also liked beaded dolls, which were polystyrene figures (very busty, with a big skirt shape), and you then stuck a doll's head on, and decorated the body with various beads and bits of fabric etc that came in the kit, with instructions of how to make all the layers and accessories, by pinning all the bits of lace and fabric to the polystyrene shape. I always wanted more and different ones for my birthdays, but only got about 2 ever, unsurprisingly.

@Dilbertian

Shrinkey dinks? Or was that only in America?

We used to make our own shrinkies out of crisp bags and sweet wrappers.

We did that too.

@Thimbleberries - I used to love those. Also paint by numbers kits with those tiny little pots of paint.

Was there a plastic square loom thing that you looped wool round to make flowers? Or did I imagine it?

I think I know what you mean, but what it made me remember fondly (!) was different - Gold-foiled cardboard bases in various shapes inc a flower, holes punched round edge. You stuck little coloured sticks in them, then an outline foiled shower on the top: weave strips of papers through the sticks and 💥 - a very flimsy basket... what the heck was that called??

Yes! French knitting. Has there ever been a reason to do that? Anyone French care to explain?

Did any one have a paper making kit? As I recall, you took perfectly acceptable paper (because the suggested newspaper made too sludgy a colour) mushed it up, added various homemade colours that came out unattractively pale and dull whatever your idea had been, and spread it out to a consistency impossible to write on, a fact exaggerated by the addition of dried flowers...

Which reminds me of the other one - a flower press. Take lovely flowers and make them quite unattractive several weeks later...

oh and Altair design books. They were some of my favourites. I loved the geometric designs, how you could make all sorts of patterns and shapes come out of the same basic pattern, depending how you coloured it.

I liked the coloured thread patterns too, still used in maths teaching today, though mostly drawn on paper.

My family were really into arts/crafts so as a child I was given all of these things as Christmas presents over the years. There was also a "make your own perfume" kit that came with tiny glass vials of vibrantly coloured (purple....magenta) "perfume essence" that you would combine to make a scent.

I was reminded of it this Christmas when someone gave me a hand wash that smelled of exactly that same cucumber + strong artificial scent. Took me right back to childhood.

There was also a box containing three hollow glass swans, and you made differently coloured water by soaking dyed tissue paper in water and then filling the swans up with the coloured water. (who needs an X-Box, eh?)

Also remember those plastic bubbles that you blew and sealed off. We used to chew the deflated bubbles like chewing gum! shock

Those bubbles were banned in most countries because they contained benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals as solvents! The plastic was non-toxic PVA, however the solvent that allowed it to dry quickly was toxic. I went looking for that toy recently since I loved those as a child but realised I haven't seen them around for ages. They can still be found in the odd discount shop, most likely imported with loads of other cheap toys so it slipped past safety controls.

Thimbleberries yes I remember those kits where you scraped off the black covering.

Did anyone else make a rug? Was it Readicut or something like that?

Oh and the kits from Platignum pens - with cardboard figures to colour in and stand up by the little tabs at the bottom. I LOVED those, had loads. British birds, historical queens, explorers' ships... I have tried finding them on the internet since, but can't. Such strong memories. I wouldn't mind doing them now

Did I say I LOVED them?

This thread has made me very happy.

@FoxyTheFox

And fabrics pens that dispensed a coloured goo onto your t-shirt then you heated it with a hairdryer to make the goo 'puff up'. Stylish!

My much older sister made me a t-shirt for the school comic relief disco with those! Puffy Pens.

@JanuaryChill

This thread has made me very happy.

And me!

@JanuaryChill

This thread has made me very happy.

Same here @JanuaryChill

@Dilbertian you can still buy the bubble stuff , hobbycraft sells it on those stands near the tills that have video screens on them telling you how amazing their products are .

The art kits where you scraped off the black covering to reveal the shiny layer underneath were called Scraperfoil. I had a fox one. It also came in an orangey colour which was called Copperfoil. I never got one of those.

I loved the Altair design books. When we were good in school we'd sometimes get a torn-out page to colour in at the end of a Friday afternoon. I wish they were still available - I think I'd still enjoy that now.

Did anyone else have a "Touch Tapestry" kit? No actual sewing involved. It was just a sheet of polystyrene with a printed design on it, and a special tool to press coloured yarn into it to make "stitches". I had two - a horse and a dog. Never finished either - they were extremely tedious.

I remember so many of these.
I really loved the cardboard press out figures, that you could dress in a selection of paper fashions.
I actually purchased some of those chemical balloon blowing things about 3 years ago for stocking fillers.
I adored fuzzy felts, shaker makers and I also had a cake making set.
A few sachets of some mix, popped it in a mini cake tin then put in a plastic mini oven. A few minutes later a ping, and the cake was ready. No idea what chemicals were in the mix to make the cake rise. The Mini oven didn't even heat up.
Happy days

Some of these names I recognise but don't know what they are (eg Touch tapestry): must have just seen the adverts on ITV every half hour, the few times we turned round from BBC1!

(You know how you "turned it round" in those days, because TVs had knobs to change station?)