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?

I loved the Dryad craft kits!

@JanuaryChill

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

Oh god yes transfers and sticker books. Transfers were quite difficult.

I did so many of these, I'd forgotten. My parents weren't particularly crafty but they encouraged me, I was also influenced by a very crafty aunty and what my friends did.

What was the name of the thing for scaling up and down pictures, several long pieces of wood or plastic jointed together, you put a pencil in a hole and a pointer in another hole, guided the pointer around the lines of a picture and the pencil copied it larger or smaller onto another piece of paper.

@HearMeSnore I still have a few pages of Altair designs that I found at my parents

Not a craft kit but my dad used to make us cars that were powered by an elastic band. You needed an empty cotton reel, matchstick and elastic band. It only worked for a few goes but they were great. Waiting for a finished cotton reel took ages.

I too had the plaster of Paris models I loved them and a kit to make flowers from tissue paper and the badge maker.

My sister made a picture from sticking pins through sequins on to a black velvet background.

My Dad had a diy shoes kit.

You got preshaped and punched leather bits, thread, soles and glue.

They looked a bit like those Clark’s cornish pasty shoes of the 70s/80s.

I don’t think they were a great success as I can’t remember him wearing them.

Love this thread. I made loads of the stuff on here. I made my dad a wallet type thing, the sides were sewn with plastic type thread. Just like on the photo up thread.

He used it for decades!

My DH was using epoxy resin for something only a few weeks ago and made me a little clear box with a shell and message in it. Modern day plasticraft

Does anyone remember the mousses that had pictures in the container that you could use as plastercraft moulds after eating to make plaster pictures?
And the cork bases where you sewed beads round the edge to make coasters?

I remember making ‘chemical gardens’ . A glass jar with, I think water and water glass? You dropped chemical crystals in and they grew.

@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?

String art is very popular at the monent

Most of the crafts in this thread are still about

Ah my childhood!!!

I had child's typewriter and a printing set. Using the typewriter really hurt your fingers!

I used to love those painting books where all you needed was a brush and water. The colours magically appeared. Also every Christmas I would get a present of a large tube and in it an enormous picture to colour in complete with pencils or crayons.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-1970s-FOLDER-OF-GOLDEN-HANDS-KNITTING-DRESSMAKING-FAB-RETRO-STYLES/233322465886?hash=item36531a4a5e:g:q40AAOSwlqZdYpTc
A PP mentioned Golden Hands. These were the ones my DM had. It's like she's back in the room!

Saw binca mentioned upthread. You can definitely still get it- I use it for sewing with my year 1 class every year.

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.

Li'l Missy Dolls!! I had 4 or 5 of them. Unopened kits come up on eBay and Etsy now and again. I've been tempted but some of the prices are staggering.

I loved magic colouring books, where the paint was ingrained into the paper, and you just needed water and a paintbrush to make an unholy mess make the pictures spring to life.

I had a Japanese garden set, that you just sprinkled with water. The whole thing sprouted some weird powdery substance to create a lovely cherry blossom tree, grass, flowers, etc.

Sadly the joy was short-lived as my mother accidentally sucked all the powdery stuff up the hoover.

I imagine it was for the best, it was probably asbestos or something.

Anyone remember magic puzzle books where you had a special pen to reveal the answer?

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

Anyone remember magic puzzle books where you had a special pen to reveal the answer?

Yes!

I’ve just had a flashback to the smell of the ‘reveal’ pen!

@PlayDohDots

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.

I would swear I saw the bubble blow one for sale in Hobbycraft last year.

I used to LOVE art straws and my mini typewriter. This was in the 80s, although I’m pretty sure my grandparents found the typewriter in a charity shop or jumble sale, so it may well have been from the 70s.

Many of these kits are still around in some form now, including shrinky dinks and tubes of plastic that you inflate with a straw.

Who had a proper old-school chemistry set? My grandparents bought me one (again, from a jumble sale or similar so probably fairly old at the time) and it was AMAZING. You can imagine how disappointed I was with the first couple of H&S conscious ones I bought for my own children.

We had Artstraws, and the plastic wire dipped flower thing.
Also had another paper one, spirals of tightly wound paper which you pushed out into bowl shapes, and cut-out pictures to stick on. Had some very bright coloured paint, I do remember a yellow painted bowl surviving and being used for several years! No idea what is was called.

Great thread op. Scooby doos were big down my way. They were basically plastic corn dollies. If my nan had any leftover woll she always made a swimming costume to cover a naked dollies modesty.

I also remember shrinky dinks!

@PlayerOneNotReady

We had Artstraws, and the plastic wire dipped flower thing. Also had another paper one, spirals of tightly wound paper which you pushed out into bowl shapes, and cut-out pictures to stick on. Had some very bright coloured paint, I do remember a yellow painted bowl surviving and being used for several years! No idea what is was called.

Oh I remember the paper bowl thing. It's such a vague memory that I can't actually picture it, but can remember the feel of it if that makes sense?

Also had that strange contraption mentioned above where you stuck a pencil in an articulated arm thing and it copied a picture.

I've got a great book from the late 60s/early 70s called 'things to make and do'. It's in storage at the moment, but if this thread hasn't disappeared when I get it back, will post some pictures. There's a lot of instructions for macaroni pictures (any other sort of pasta possibly hadnt reached our shores at that point) and things made out of pipe cleaners and match boxes.

Here's a really rogue one which I don't imagine anyone else did, it was so bizarre. It was an idea from Magpie where you cut a cardboard box diagonally and folded it back on itself to make a child's chair that you could actually sit in. Not a kit, but oh god, so much fun.