One of big memories of childhood is play dough ... not the stuff in the tub, although we had that sometimes ... but big, big stretchy wads of stuff in all different colours that mum made up for us from flour, water and a bit of oil. The stuff in tubs just wasn't the same.
I've always wimped out of whipping up any myself but having made myself see how easy it is, we had a go. And it was easy - 250g plain flour, 1 pint of water, 2 tbsp of olive oil & some salt stirred up over low heat for about 4-5 minutes with food colouring of choice - and it was everything I remembered! So much fun!
This got me thinking about all the other activities that mum would create for us from stuff around the house. She would buy paint & some sticky paper but that was the limit and there were certainly no fancy craft kits. Yet, she still managed to keep us entertained through the rainy days with endless junk modelling from every cardboard box or plastic container she had in the house, painting with potatoes and cotton reels and just about every different bit of our body and sticking, sticking, sticking with with foil, cotton wool, string, bits of old fabric and anything else she could find in the house. I have another great memory of making an enormous winter frieze out of some old wall paper and huge quantities of cotton wool and another one still of a Womble picture from a shoe box lid and some bits of fabric. I was so proud of them at the time!
So inspired by mum and her seventies thriftiness ... heh, times were tough :) ... I've created myself a list of all the craft things we've done and could do from all the odds and sods of stuff we have around the house without spending a penny and without going out in the blessed rain! Click here for the list.
*********************** CRAFT IDEAS LINKY **********************************
And if you've got a great post on simple craft ideas do add to the linky below ...
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