just a couple that I can remember
Fantastic Plastic !! you melted it someway and made earrings out of it it was pretty neat I still have a pair somewhere.
Also made a lot of thingsout of Renuzit containers. I think there is still a web page somewhere for this art.

I was lucky to have a really good family friend named Helen that was sort of a grandparent when I was little. She was retired and had a lot of time to craft. Helen is the reason I enjoy crafting and is sometimes the inspiration when I'm trying to do something thrifty, but cute. My mother was never into crafting so i wouldn't have learned it otherwise. I remember Helen used to make the sock monkeys. Now they've come back in again. I think she made flowers out of the pastel colored egg cartons. She also used those osage oranges or hedgeapples or whatever you call them to make flowers. I'm not sure how she cut them. Her dh may have done it with a saw. She dried them in her oven and then painted them. She also had some framed pictures in her house that were made out of fabric. The fabric had a printed scene on it. She would sew another piece of fabric on the back side of the scene and then stitch around some of the objects in the scene such as a deer. She would take a toothpick and small pieces of cotton balls and tightly stuff the cotton between the two pieces of fabric such that the deer would stand out.

Helen had a husband named Smitty. Smitty used to make his own fish baits. He would buy just the hooks and then melt down lead into some molds that he had made and make some weighted jigs out of his hooks. We lived near a great fishing spot so my brothers and I would find lead weights that fishermen would would leave on the ground. We'd take the lead weights to Smitty so he could recycle it. Smitty was also big on dressing his jigs up with hair from haircuts or fur from the tails of roadkill. Us kids weren't allowed to touch roadkill, but we loved to get our hair cut so we could make baits. I cut off all of my bangs and my doll bangs when I was around 5 years old because I really wanted to make some baits so I could go fishing.

I started with clay marbles, dad showed me the place on side of cut out hill to get the best clay. I didn't color them but all the other kids wanted to use my marbles as they were"the best" Dad put together bikes & sleds from parts at dump so I saw how he made things & mom won state sewing contests so often they made her quit, so I felt for long time that they had all the talent. Finally I started teaching kids classes at church & came up with few ideas. VBS 1 year I had DH make up wooden plaques, I stained them & varnished them & kids glued on dried materials to make a gift to take home "God gave us gift of his Son" was the theme that year so each kid had a nice usable gift for home, I even added nice hanger on back. I made tissue flowers, crepe paper flowers & then 1 day neighbor wanted me to go with her as her church was trying to get craft class going(kind of mom's night out) so our 1st project was cutting fabric with pinking shears to make flowers. It was fun& I made several bouquets, then came crocheting, cake decorating, driftwood arrangements & most of other things. I ran our boutiques for several years. Jan

I remember the first project I made after watching it on the old Aleene's show with shrink it. I was a pair of earrings made to loook like a pinwheel. I LOVED it and the creative seed was planted! This all happened when I was 35 years old. My mother pretty much squashed any creativity I had as a child and young woman and it was after she died that I allowed myself to make something and there been no stopping me! My DD never had the inclination to craft but my grandch8ildren and I craft all the time.

I used to make macrame when I was in my twenties and had little ones at home. After my divorce, I filled my time making beads into earrings. I got re-married 25 years later and got into growing tropical plants, where my interest still lies. After my husband died 4 years ago, I got into painting birds, landscapes and seashells - now, I am still into growing tropicals, but nothing 'artistic', probably due to ?????

I used to macrame. I still have necklaces I made. I crocheted doilies and did crewel embroidery. I bent wire in the shape of petals and glued fabric on..made some pretty bouquets. Used to make dresses and jumpers for my daughter. I once made a set of wooden shelves (because my husband said I couldn't). So many memories.. - Marylee

I made pictures out of colored popcorn kernels and all kinds of dried beans. The ones I remember most was a big rooster and hen. I framed them and got an order for a set I sold for $35.00 which was big money back then. I did decopage on old pieces of wood. Did faster plaster and made Christmas bells from little flower pots.

Do you remember the fake fur flowers? They were a big fad at one time. I also helped my cub scout son make a big picture of a soaring eagle, out of matches that we lit and let just the tips burn. We also made an indian chief and a mallard duck with this method. They turned out rather nice.
I know how to crochet and embroider. Remember when dishtowels were embroidered with all kinds of things, like a figure of some kind for each day of the week. I remember taking the old plastic 78 records and putting them in the oven until they were soft enough to shape into vases and other things for floral arrangements. Gosh does that date me or not??????

I used to make those stocking head dolls and I put them in fake plants. I forgot what we called them. Plant pals or something. So many things back in the day. I used to love to paint tee shirts too.

Did anyone put a 98 speed phono record in the oven and let it curl to make a skirt for a doll that we placed in the center? We also did something else with records but can't remember. Lots of flower making, one favorite was using nylon stockings, bleaching them and then dying them different colors and forming flower petals over a fine copper wire? Another was making the raised pictures on sheets of copper and them framing them. And the list goes one! Don't forget the crocheted doilies with rows of ruffles that had to be starched and formed with sugar starch. Those rows of stand up ruffles framed a favorite lamp on the end table. We also used a board which had various sized circles imprinted on it and on which we stretched our very heavily starched doilies, pinning them to a correct size to dry. They were as time consuming as using curtain stretchers for your lacey starched curtains. Wow! Those chores took lots of a housewifes time.

Does anyone remember the brown paper bags that you would glue together with Alene's glue and then put over a flame when it was still wet? Then you would wipe off the soot and paint them - never did it,k but they were beautiful

I don't know what it was called but it involved a wood thread spool and I put 6-8 small nails on one end. I wound thin yarn around the nails and used a teeny crochet hook and looped the yard around the nails, one at a time, over and over. Eventually I had a long colorful tube. I would eventually take the long tube and sew the edges together to make a round placemat. I wish I could describe this better. Do you know what I'm talking about? I remember a girlfriend getting a large plastic one for Christmas and I was so jealous. This was probably in the 60's.

I remember that !!! It made a long strand of chain stitches . I did the same thing --- made doilies , coasters and placemats out of them. Remember those square, red metal looms that used loopies to weave hot pads ? I made tons of them ------ and they still SELL them !! Did you ever see those felt calendars printed with pretty pictures -- and you sewed sequins on ??? I did bunches of those . What about plain round Christmas ornaments wrapped with silk and you pinned in sequins all over ??? I keep thinking of more stuff !

Natesgram - It was called a knitting knobby! I remember doing that! I actually stil have mine!

Do you remember making crochet purses out of round plastic margarine tubs?.

I had one of those knitting knobs. The knitting looms today use the same method.

I made those potholders with the stretchy loops.

I would like to know how to make flowers like they did with nylon stocking stretched over wire. I had white, 4-petal earrings with sparkle sprays that I loved. They were a gift from Mother, but I never heard her say who made them.

What a fun thread! I made the loop potholders as a little girl. I liked to polish sticks up and desparately wanted a rock tumbler but my parents said it was a gimmick and wouldn't buy me one. (A couple years ago i visited CalamityJ and she gave me one, finally!) I was so excited when I learned to sew in 8th grade at school. I taught myself to embroider around the same time, my mom embroidered but didn't sew. My Memere (Mom's mom) did everthing, and very well. I also one of those plastic children's looms as a little girl but I wasn't very good at it. I remember the knitting knobby but didn't do well with it. I just saw some things - necklaces- at the farmers market made out of those "ropes" from the knobby today! Somewhere along the way I learned to knit and crochet, but I prefer crochet. I used to make and sell terrariums in Almeden wine bottles. And I macrame'd in my late teens and early 20s.
I had one of those piggy banks made from a bleach bottle made by my Memere. My other grandmother was a cook and a gardener, but she got one of her friends to crochet clothes for a little doll that I still have and love.
One Christmas my mom and Memere knitted me a whole shoe box of beautiful Barbi clothes. Memere made my Chatty Cathy an incredible wardrobe as well. I think many of these things are still at my Mom's house.
My mom gave the old doll carriage that had been hers and then mine to my niece, her grandaughter, and I haven't dared to ask her what happened to it now that she is grown up. My Memere made a little quilt for it to go with when it was passed on to me, and I wish I had that little quilt. I have some of my Mememre's quilts, and I have an unfinished one that I started for me.
In more recent years I decoupaged a lot, especially some lamps. I scrapbooked a lot for several years, now I'm wondering if I should get rid of the supplies. And I have so much glass for the plate flowers and totems, and molds for concrete objects. Now I am mosaicking.
I wonder if I'll ever settle on one or 2 things?
Kathy

FUNNY !!! My aunt knitted me a whole shoe box full of Barbie Doll Clothes,too !!! I treasured it for years ! Remember Yarn octopusses ? You'd cover a tennis ball with yarn and divide it up and braid 8 legs. I made a bunch of different things with nylon scrubbies. I got alot of ides out of the magazine PACK O FUN .

Today I was eyeing a small bleach bottle dh emptied that is the piggy bank shape thinking how cute it would be mosaicked with cut up colored plastic from bottles and lids.
The one I had as a kid was really too big but this little bottle would be perfect.
Kathy

Yep, I remember doing the potholders from loops when I was a kid, and embroidering pillow cases. I used to make stuffed animals for my nieces. Once I made a pattern from scratch. Also reduced patterns to make minature stuffed animals - a little smaller than beanie babies. Went through the painting on fabric phrase.

I used to follow the patterns in Family Circle magazine, usually the Christmas issue. Made a "throne" out of a yardstick for the "ruler" of the house, stuffed elves, that sort of thing.

Got rid of all that, but still have yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks, decorative paints, stencils and quilting supplies. The way things are going, by the time I retire, I won't have the energy to do my hobbies.

I remember as a child seeing my grandmother put cloves in oranges, make rugs out of old clothes and stocking, use little pieces of folded cloth and shape pillows out of them. I just wish all these old project instructions weren't lost with growing up. My mother mostly crocheted and drew pictures. Now I try all kinds of crafts. I paint, crochet, cross-stitch, quilt, plastic canvas, etc. Anything that I think I'd like to try. One of my daughters crochets and paints, The others just exist. I'm hoping my grandkids get into crafting. I wish we could all put what we remember in a book before no one remembers how to do it.

I remember sewing a zillion of those little gathered circles to make a clown doll. Really ugly!

And something like stuffing old stockings and sewing them into tiny people and putting them inside a glass jar?

I love the idea of us putting things in a book before they are forgotten. There are old books like that out there and I buy them (usually 2nd hand) when i see them.
I remember the stocking people.

And sgj, what you say about your non crafting daughters just existing reminds me of something my Memere (maternal grandmother) said "People who don't knit or play cards, I don't know what they do!"

I learned to knit as a child and knit a sweater in my 20s, but haven't done a lot since. But I'm kniting a little short turtle neck shawl for myself right now.

Kathy

I used to love Bible School crafts - a bunch of grapes made of craked marbles, A rooster made of different kinds of beans glued on a board , we even made little dolls out of moth balls and tulle. Yuk! As a teen I used to embroider flowers on my Dad's old white shirts and wear them with jeans.
A lady in Brazil taught me how to make purses by weaving large beads together.
The year we moved to Brazil there was some problem with a paycheck and we had NO money for Christmas. I had great fun making a "tree" out of a branch in a pot of rocks and decorating it with little things made from the colored foil on candies someone had given us. When I was newlywed I decorated our first tree with eggs that I had blown out and decoupaged with little pictures cut from wrapping paper. These were really pretty, -still have a few today. Made a few big macrame plant hangers . I always wanted to make those cute little girl socks with beads around the cuff, but never knew anyone who could make them. Remember paint by number? Those were awful - but fun.

I enjoyed embroidery- cross stitch, tole, stamped, candlewick. I got tired of it and actually threw away all my floss, hoops and needles several years ago. My best embroidery project was a sheet and pillowcase set I made for my youngest sister when she got married in 1983.It had lots of French knots.