NOW CLOSED: Fairy is 50! We want to know what you used to make from old Fairy bottles. Space rocket? Snowman? Tell us and you could win a year's supply of Fairy!

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Fairy turns 50 this year and to mark the occasion it's bringing back the iconic white bottle as a limited edition - look out for it on supermarket shelves from next week.

In the meantime, they're asking for your stories about the original Fairy bottles - did you (or your siblings) make a rocket, plane or crayon holder?

Do you remember John ("here's one I made earlier") Noakes on Blue Peter using one to make the Blue Peter rocket?

Did you want to make something but, just like the ad, your mum never seemed to have an empty bottle? What did you yearn to make?

We'd like you to take a sudsy trip down memory lane. The best stories will win a year's supply of 'mi-ild green, Fair-ry Liquid'!

And if you have (or could take) a photo of a Fairy bottle craft-y-creation still knocking around from the past few decades, please email it to [email protected].

Your stories will be used in the Mumsnet Fairy microsite, which is coming soon (featuring new crafty Fairy creations!).

If you're selected to win one of the prizes, we'll look up your email address and get in touch by 12 February 2010.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

We used to wait until we had lots saved up, decorate them, paint numbers on them and used them as skittles, obviously when we were bored with that they then became space rockets

OMG I'm so excited about seeing the 'proper' bottles again!

I remember spending almost the whole of one SAturday making a pencil pot from them. But it wasnt an ordinary one-bottle affair, it was multiple bottles, all cut to different heights, mimicking those plastic pots that were all the rage in the 80's. I even cut a bottle in half the other way, making a low trough for paperclips etc along the front . And then - and this was the master stroke - I covered each part in a page from Smash Hits before supergluing/stapling all the parts together. Genuis I cant believe I didnt take a photo.

I also used to save the tops, to string up and make necklaces >

We used to get an old "fairy" bottle and put coloured tape around it and half fill it with dried beans and then tie it on to the end of a broom stick . It was then a marvellous majorette type chucky in the air thing . Not a baton they were too small , the big one that the person at the front of the scots bands would carry .

Anybody have any idea what I am waffling about ?

It was fab fun anyway .

Our vicar definitely used them for dog collars.

I used to make pen pots.
I'm sure mine weren't this elaborate

The only other things I can remember making are shakers - fill with rice or dried beans.

Apart from that we used to use them as squirters but they didn't need any thing doing to them for that.

I made a Heath Robinson hydroponic watering system with old Fairy bottles and cotton pyjama cords (as wicks).

The cucumbers were massive.

Pen holders cut them in half smother in pritt stick add glitter and various bits of wool and glitter.
Give to various relatives my Godmother still has the one I made for her years ago she has taken it all the way to NZ with her where she now lives .

As an aside my Grandma used to have a bath with fairy washing up liquid every Friday night .

I made a beautiful hairspray can holder for my Mum's dressing table.

Basically cut the pointy top off the Fairy bottle and decorated the pot bit with assorted crap wallpaper, decorative trim, ribbon etc to match the decor of her bedroom and ...voila... she no longer had to look at the ugly can of Elnett.

It might even have been a Blue Peter idea for Mothers Day

Message withdrawn

We used to fill them with pebbles, dried beans, rice etc to make shakers. That is until the day that I managed to open the bottle, stick a stone up my nose and we then had to spend three hours in A&E waiting to have said stone extracted! We were no longer allowed to make them after that!

We graduated from making Fairy Bottle Snowmen to an entire Nativity scene for Christmas decs.

I'm glad they are coming back for a bit, my Canadian friends always took loads back as fans of classic graphic design. The new version has no class.

We used to fight over who got the bottles. When one was finished we always made a rocket and would stick wings to the side and orange and yellow tissue to the bottom (normally coloured in toliet roll, not proper tissue paper) and then try and paint, stick or draw on it. We were then meant to wait for next bottle for next child to race our rockets but we couldnt, so never seemed to get more than one at time to play with.

Cyb, I wonder if that's for real! might give that a go

MaryBS, Bishops must use bleach bottles for theirs as they must be whiter than white!

The tops can be used on bamboo canes to prevent taking your eye out.

Oh, I am SOOO looking forward to seeing those white bottles again!

I had totally forgotten about them!!

Mostly, ours got used to make pencil pots as gifts (yes, yes, we were cheap!) but I did make a fairy castle one time, with loads of the half bottles (the bottom end made the castle walls and the tops made the turrets.... God I loved that toy!

Happy memories, whether or not I get a year's supply of fairy! I use a dishwasher most of the time now so would probably be a really cheap winner!! (unless Fairy dishawasher tablets are included?? [hopefully emoticon]!)

I'm slightly shocked that Fairy is only a year older than me - I thought it had been around forever.

My favourite things were:

'candles' at xmas - cover in pretty paper and glue a 'flame' on the top.

Supersoakers! can't beat a good fairy bottle in a water fight.

My sister and I made Dougals (from the Magic Roundabout), unfortunately my Mum only had enough orange wool to make one authentic Dougal, the other would have to be brown. The ensuing squabbling over who used the orange wool resulted in one of us getting copydex on our school pinafore and my poor mother blowing her top (a rare and therefore memorable event).

Ps. I don't have a dishwasher!

Is/was Fairy Liquid tested on animals?

it's part of Proctor and Gamble, so the company tests on animals.
i'm just having a bit of a search to see if Fairy itself is (because P&G is pharmaceutical, so that part of it has to be)

from
"Any products made by Proctor and Gamble - With an addon in the Firefox browser called Knowmore, visiting P&G?s web site, it states that this company has human rights issues, political Influence and Environmental concerns. P&G continues to routinely poison and kill thousands of animals each year and refuses to stop testing its products on animals despite the fact that these tests are not required by any law, despite the fact that these tests for certain ingredients were already done and despite the fact that more reliable and humane alternatives exist and are already being used by hundreds of ethical companies. (Info from Animal Friend Croatia)."

some info on www.uncaged.co.uk/pg.htm too
and www.boycottpandg.co.uk/faq.asp

Those old bottles were much better and they made fantastic water squirters. they held loads of water and could squirt such a long way.

Can't remember any particular creations but I do remember some fantastic water fights with them.

I vaguely remember making something that was meant to be one of the creatures from Button Moon one of these fellas

But it was no doubt shit and I expect it was very sensibly binned by my mother before I lost an eye or impaled myself on a wooden spoon appendage.

I'm not going to win am I

I probably made a dog from one

I was desperate for a dog and made them from everything. Fairy bottles, boxes, loo rolls, Lego, plasticine, road kill.

I mainly used to make rockets, and on one memorable occasion a skirt for my barbie. She did not look good.

However this is a good opportunity to share one of my favourite ever jokes.

A man went into a fish restaurant and ordered some squid.
The waiter took him to the tank and asked him to point out the squid he wanted.
'That little green one with whiskers' he said.
So the waiter took the squid into the kitchen for jervais, the chef, to prepare.
Jervais looked at the little green squid on his board and the squid looked back at him fearfully, it's whiskery lip wobbling.
'It's not good, I can't do it! Hans! You must help me'
Hans (who was the potwasher) came over and raised the cleaver. Again, he looked at teh squid, and the squid looked up at him sadly.
'I can't do it either!' he cried.
They called the waiter in and told him to ask the customer to choose agin.
The waiter went back to the table and said
'I'm afraid you cannot have that little squid'
'Why ever not?' asked the customer

'Well Sir, because Hans that do dishes is as soft as Jervais, with mild green hairy lip squid.'

You need to be of a certain age and know the Fairy Liquid song to get that one!

I remember getting very frustrated trying to paint the outside of the bottles. I decided to cut the top off and use the base as a vase for mother's day. in 1978, acrylic paints were an unheard of luxury, even at school. I had chalky circles of watercolour which, no matter how much water tyou added to them, were never more than a pastely-hued watery suggestion of colour - absolutely useless on the outside of plastic bottles.
So my mother got basicaly a cut up plastic squirty bottle with some very limp daffs in. The badly cut edge serated the daffodil stems, so the flowers fell off...

Sindy hairdressing chairs as far as I can remember...and other Sindy items of furniture. At least, this is what I aspired to make but my mother was slow at using up the fairy liquid, so it never happened...

Blue peter was the source of this stuff, as any fule kno.