Thrifty Acres: Why Should Kids Have All The Fun?

Hello! Our college-age daughter is far too old for craft kits and books targeted for younger kids, but that doesn't stop me from perusing these kits at thrift stores. As I've often said to our daughter, why should kids have all the fun? Besides, there's plenty of ideas for crafters of all ages in these publications. 

Condition can vary for thrift store craft kits, ranging from complete to missing supplies. If I have replacement supplies at home, I'll buy the kit. Can't go wrong when I'm paying between 50c to a couple of bucks for my purchase. 

I'm a sucker for stencil sets that allow me to play fashion designer. I can't draw as well as I'd like, so I let the stencils do the drawing for me:

Paper Fashions and Paper Fashions Fancy, both from Klutz. Both kits were missing the patterned papers and embellishments that had been included. I have plenty of interesting papers I can use instead, so I've made "fashions" like this:

"For upscale shopping" I wrote for a caption for the above ensemble. 

Would make a pretty nice outfit if I say so myself! 

The stencils in these kits are a fun way to use up art paper scraps. I've also put them to good use by creating holiday "fashions" to adorn a Christmas card or in lieu of a Valentine's Day card. 

Another version of clothing stencils:

Yeah, kind of silly, I admit, but Hello Kitty stuff is cute. 

Above, Ms. Kitty is wearing a pink and gray dress. 

I'm not all about fashion designs, since I also brought this home from a thrift store:

Fingerprint Fabulous from Klutz. I haven't used this one yet, but it appears to be complete. This is one of those books in which you stamp your fingertips to make various shapes, and then embellish those shapes with marker to add details. Simple to do.

A bit more challenging:

From AmericanGirl Library, a book for learning how to draw simple shapes. I find that with a book like this, an average drawer like me can create recognizable shapes. I did a practice page of dogs in the included "doodle diary" sketchbook, and those depictions turned out better than if I'd drawn them on my own.

More drawing practice of a sort:

Letter Art, also from AmericanGirl Library. This is very much like lettering books I've seen marketed to adult scrapbookers. 

Some examples of the alphabets one can learn to draw:

Super Stacks

Tall Trees; letter a greeting to your favorite arborist!

For the sports fan in your life. 

 For a Christmas card. 

There's a total of 13 alphabets in this book, which I bought to learn lettering designs for my greeting cards. 

One more thrift store kids' craft book:

Petal Perfect from American Girl. There are simple flower-themed crafts in this volume, many of which are nice enough on their own. Others could easily be adapted to look a bit more sophisticated. 

Raffia flowers. 

Felt flower pillow embellishment. The flower could be made with fabric instead, of course. 

The above is a painted cork coaster glued to a coordinating felt flower base. I think these would be cute in the spring and summer months. 

I actually have a few more thrifted kids' craft books and kits, which I purchased to use with our daughter when she was younger. But the ones I've showed off here, I bought for me. 

It may seem that I'm just a kid at heart, but like I said - why should kids have all the fun?