Arts and Crafts...I miss you

Recently many of my students have been wearing cartoon character necklaces made of Perler beads (those beads you put on stencil pattern thing, cover with wax paper, and iron). When I saw them I was in complete shock and asked them where they got them. They said a friend makes and sells them. I hadn't seen Perler beads in years and apparently they are making a comeback with the urban youth of NYC. Who knew?

Seeing these reminded me of all the arts and crafts I used to enjoy doing when I was a kid. (I think I still have some of remnants of these in my closet at my parent's house.) I did tons of them and they would keep me busy and entertained for hours. My mom would take me to Michael's every now and then and I would be in absolute heaven. If it was up to me I would have bought every craft set in there. But she always set a limit which was probably for the better. After all, although she loved me and told me everything I made was great, she didn't want all that crap around the house.

Around my birthday and Hannukah, I would really clean up with the crafts which was always exciting. But now that I am old, I don't get stuff like that anymore. Maybe when I have kids and become a mom (or a lonely spinster), I will start to do more crafts on a more regular basis. (Even though I do want to take up knitting, which can be considered crafty.) But until that, I would like to take a moment and reminisce on my favorite crafts of my youth.

1. Perler Beads. I loved these. But couldn't use them all by myself because of the iron. My parents didn't want me to burn myself so I would make tons of designs and then my mom would help me iron them. My wonderful works of art would then get magnets put on them and go on the fridge. Or would use them as coasters for a few days before we got bored with our new creations.

Triple Box. Yes, I can do that too.

2. Lanyard. I first learned how to use lanyard at camp. And I was hooked. I don't mean to brag, but I know how to start and lanyard and finish it. Not everyone knew how to start them. They had to get the counselors to it for them but I knew how to do it. I was that awesome. (Some things don't change!) And when I was a camp counselor for many years, it was a wonderful skill I could continue to show off. My campers were constantly impressed by my lanyard skill. Not to mention my amazing double box AND double circle stitch. And the zipper and the butterfly. I was multi-talented indeed. My favorite stitch is still the butterfly stitch. I find doing lanyard to be very therapeutic and can do them over and over again until my hands get a little raw.

3. Sand art. This was a little messy and I was only allowed to do this at the kitchen table. I was meticulously neat and never wanted to waste any of my colored sand so I was very careful with my art. With this type of craft, there was a pattern and it was sectioned by stickers. You peeled the sticker, added the colored sand, tapped off the leftovers on a plate, and kept going. (Then at the end, I would put all the mixed colored sand in a baby food jar. This could also be used as decoration or considered art.) When I was all done, my mom would hang up the creations once they dried. I would admire my art on the fridge.

It's magic. It's awesome

4. Shrinky dinks. These were the shit. They were seriously so awesome. Not only could you design something, bake it, but you got to watch these in action. With shrinky dinks, there was this special paper/plastic material that you colored on with special pens. Then you put them in the toaster and they shrunk. Ah-maze-ing. I still remember I made a pair of shrinky dink ice skates that I turned into earrings. Man, I was so hip. They were purple and I wore them loud and proud. Shrinky dinks were a seriously cool invention.

5. Weaving loom. I used to make all the potholders for my parents and grandparents on my sweet weaving loom. We would buy all different color yarns and I would weave. These did take a little more concentration than the others, and even though I would sometimes get frustrated, I would always be happy with the end result.

I would totally have tons of fun using any one of these crafts today. If someone put them in front of me, I could probably keep busy for hours. And even though I am 30 years old, whenever I go to Michaels there is so much I want to buy. Puff paints. Scrap book stuff. Markers. Glitter glue. Oooh, oooh, a Bedazzler. OMG I still want one. And all the at-home craft boxes. Sometimes when I am at home in Chicago visiting my parents and I start to get bored, I will go over to Michaels and buy myself a craft to work on. No joke. I have a picture in my current apartment that I made one visit home and got framed. It looks like real art. And I made it. Go me. But seriously, these crafts were and are seriously awesome and I miss doing them. It might be time to find myself one of the "40% any one item coupons" from Michaels and head uptown to treat myself.