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?

Throughhistory I had a flower making loom thing that you wound wool round to make flowers. I was going to make a long waistcoat with them, and made loads of flowers before I realised I had no effective way of joining them together.

I found my Spirograph recently at my dad's. It was much more complicated than the modern version.

And this wasn't a craft kit, but I remember someone had given my friend a bag of offcuts of suede, and we spent weeks cutting them into links with ordinary scissors to make slightly wonky belts. It must have been one of those style tips from Jackie magazine.

And I had the John Bull prining set. Now that was more trouble than it was worth.

Printing

I remember having some Disney transfers that came with a plastic knife type thing to rub over the top but I kept them for years and years because I didn’t want to use them as I liked just looking at them. I did that a lot with things I liked!

I also remember getting some sand in a bottle and you poured it into a tray of water to make a picture - can’t remember what it was called.

Transfers!! Have tried explaining these to my kids, they didn't get it.....

I had that weaving loom and the "Things to Make" kit. I remember being most upset that DF didn't use the comb holder on a regular basis.
I have a DD and over the years have got her things like French knitting sets or a flower press, she's done it for about 10 minutes and then asked what the point is... at which point I pause, think, realise there is none and let her go back to playing Minecraft or some such. I think all of these things existed in the 70s & 80s as kids no longer needed to go down to mine/help around the house or look after younger siblings (depending on what era you're looking back to) so you had to do something to fill your time and, apparently, reading endlessly was bad for my eyes and we lived in the middle of no where so, whilst DS & I could go out & play in the fields, it was pretty dull and therefore a bit of weaving etc was quite a novelty. I can never mention any of this to my parents who think I had an idyllic and fulfilling childhood.
The DC have certainly done those plaster of Paris sets when they were younger and love a scraper foil kit.

THe colour and cut out historical ladies you could buy for pennies in every national trust gift shop. An A3 sheet with a lady in historical underwear and several dresses you could hang off her with little tabs. Never see them now but I so loved them and had loads.

Oh, I did genuinely enjoy shrinkies.
And found making friendship bracelets with all of the little knots quite satisfying. That, though, was also considered to be bad for my eyes!

What was that rug making kit? Did it begin with R..., you basically hooked the thread through and at the end you got a rug!!

My daughter has a whole book of scraper pictures! Very pretty fairy pictures!

@Moonstone1234

What was that rug making kit? Did it begin with R..., you basically hooked the thread through and at the end you got a rug!!

I think mine was a Readicut. Is that the ones you thinking of?

Wallowing in nostalgia.

Did anyone have a Pollocks Victorian Toy Theatre? It had to be painstakingly assembled from cardboard. Then we’d jiggle the actors around whilst trying to read the script from under a cloth covered table, trying not to giggle.

Bobbin - I tried to find Binca years ago when DD had a (fleeting) interest in needle craft. I failed. In retrospect, I am totally useless at sewing and might not have searched too hard... Maybe it could be my lockdown craft. It’s about as creative as I could get!

About 3 years ago dd got a little book of scraper pictures in her stocking for Christmas, along with a load of other, better, stuff. The scraper picture book was the biggest hit!! She had finished it by boxing Day and made me order more on Amazon. She literally spent all her Christmas money on scraper picture books. I've never seen her get so obsessed with anything before or after.

I Also remember making endless “dressing up dolls” after my mum showed me how to do them, so you would make your doll out of cardboard and then design clothes for her on paper by outlining her body on paper and drawing an outfit (not forgetting to cut little tabs to fold over her shoulders - the anguish when you finished your outfit and then realised you’d forgot to cut the tabs out!)
I do think it’s sad that my dd’s aren’t the least bit interested in things like this though - hours of fun!

Yes - whoate. I agree with your analysis. The 70s/80s will probably remain the peak of the crafty childhood for all the reasons you state, and specifically re reading: even if you were a huge bookworm and would have chosen reading above anything, there was only so many times you could read the same 25 books in the tiny village library and it was hard to find a proper bookshop - which only sold the same 25 books you'd already borrowed from the library.

I think the rug making kit was Readicut. I found a half -finished one among my late mother's things, and eBayed it because I knew I would never finish it!

Sand art - anyone remember the kits with sachets of different coloured sands, and templates where you peeled back precut sections of paper revealing the sticky base, and sprinkled sand over it. Doing this with different sand colours built up the picture. Probably more 90s than 70s though - my daughters had them. I used to make my own designs using A4 sticky labels and a craft knife!

Londonmummy66

Ah, I see you mentioned dressing up dolls - you were obviously much wealthier than me - I had to make my own

@ShaunaTheSheep

Wallowing in nostalgia.

Did anyone have a Pollocks Victorian Toy Theatre? It had to be painstakingly assembled from cardboard. Then we’d jiggle the actors around whilst trying to read the script from under a cloth covered table, trying not to giggle.

Yup. Very complicated language in the scripts iirc. something similar keeps popping up in my Fb atm.

Oh my word. Plasticraft... loved that... heated up something terrible if you were doing a paperweight! And you had to spend hours sanding the backs down... assuming you could whack them out of the moulds - I remember they sometimes took ages!

Thankyou for reminding me of the shakermakers, I'd totally forgotten them.
Still have my Spirograph. Gave it to DS a year or two back.

And I had the dipping wire flowers thing too - I think I spent all of it making hydrangeas... none of those survived though. The number of relatives who must have been presented with a bunch

Memories...

I'm going to out myself here, but my parents made our entire living room carpet from that readicut latch hook rug making stuff. It was a delightful orange and brown circular design that they made in metre square sections. It really was a labour of love, as it took approximately 2 years of their free time to make the whole carpet. No idea if it ended up being cheaper than a normal carpet

I can't believe no-one's mentioned the seed, bean and pasta pictures. We had one in our house which my mum made, so did both grannies... she must have made them for gifts. And we had one of the string pictures too.

And macrame plant holders to hang from the window, containing spider plants of course.

There was a 70s craft publication called "Golden Hands" where I think she got all of her ideas.

I had a knitting nancy, no idea what you're supposed to do with long tubes. Easy, and utterly pointless. Also remember spirograph, and we used art straws at school. And YES to the Altair colouring in, I loved those.

Anyone else used to have magic crystals? Looked vaguely like car air fresheners but 3D.

There was a 70s craft publication called "Golden Hands" where I think she got all of her ideas. We had these books. All gazillion copies proudly displayed in large plastic binders. They may still be in my parents attic. (I am coming to realise that my parents may be eccentric craft hoarders)

@MsAwesomeDragon

I'm going to out myself here, but my parents made our entire living room carpet from that readicut latch hook rug making stuff. It was a delightful orange and brown circular design that they made in metre square sections. It really was a labour of love, as it took approximately 2 years of their free time to make the whole carpet. No idea if it ended up being cheaper than a normal carpet