ARTS & CRAFTS

That’s the decade when happiness was a pack of warm Shrinky Dinks®. Well, climb into the way-back seat with us and get this DIY Shrinky Dinks® pin kit to make nifty pins to put on your jean jacket. You’ll get (4) 5” x 8” frosted white shrink sheets, (2) 5” x 8” crystal clear sheets, (4) traceable art sheets, a holographic glitter sticker sheet, (8) decal sheets, and (8) pin-backs. Tracing pics include a bike, butterfly, pizza, French fries, panda, boom box and a cassette tape. Includes easy instructions. To really take yourself back to those golden days of the 1970s, ask your mom for permission to use the oven.

This is an excellent starter kit for learning the rudiments of Chinese brush painting. Includes a lavishly illustrated 47-page instruction booklet, an 11-1/8" x 8-1/8" pad with (36) practice sheets and a few sheets of xuan, the vellum-like paper that brush-painting artists use, plus 5ml tubes of Chinese watercolors in white, indigo, burnt sienna, carmine and gamboge, a saffron color. Also includes (2) brushes, an ink stone and ink stick, all in a nice boxed set.

Sometimes fun is like anything else—if want it done right, you have to do it yourself. The Bouncing Balls kit has a 1-1/4” mold, plus (4) packs of magic crystals in pastel colors to make (2) bouncing balls. Takes about (45) minutes from start to bouncing.

No, not a mob problem solver, but a crafty type who doesn’t wait for someone to create the perfect pin-on button. Our Design-a-Button kit comes with (12) 2-1/2” dia buttons. You pop off the back, insert a round card with your message or photo cut to size, snap the back on, and Bob’s your uncle, unless you don’t have an uncle Bob, in which case you’re all set. It’s just an expression. Note to self: Make a “Bob’s Your Uncle” button! For ages 6+.

No need to limit the numbers you paint by. These kits all include 8” x 6” canvases, (6) acrylic paint pots, a #2 brush, color key and guide, plus tips for blending colors--a major improvement in the paint-by-numbers game. Packaging is also an easel, and becomes a self-adhesive hanger, which gives you a big leg up on the original artists. You pick: Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Sunflowers or Monet’s The Japanese Footbridge.

Sort of like kleenex, because cellophane used to be trademarked but isn’t any longer so you can now say cellophane all you like. Cellophane, cellophane, cellophane. You’ll get (48) sheets of 12” square cellophane, a dozen each in red, yellow, green and blue, for teaching kids color mixing. But feel free to use them for anything. Includes instructions for making your own color paddle.

It's the classic Spirograph®, which is a lot of intricate round mandala-like designs floating around out there. Celebrate with one of our spirographic specials. You pick: the Travel Spirograph® in a flip-lid case with a 2-3/8" ID ring in the lid and (4) assorted wheels, a cross, an oblate spheroid, red and blue pens, a design guide and a 24-sheet pad of  3" square paper or the Deluxe Spirograph® with (19) assorted wheels, (2) rings, an oval rail, oblate spheroid, triangle, red and blue and green pens, a reusable putty to hold the paper, a 14-page design book and a 20-sheet pad of 8-1/2" x 11" paper.

Extra-nifty, this 3-D sci-fi cartoon coloring set includes a 36-page pad of cartoons with (3) sets of (12) 7” x 5” sheets. Also comes with a pair of diffraction glasses, so you can see what you’re coloring, and (10) assorted markers, all in a compact book-like carrying case.

Heat-sensitive duct tape changes color and gets lighter the more heat is applied, as from sunlight or your paws. Why, you ask? Billy, our social media guru, says if you ask why, you don't deserve it. Just accept that it's cooler than all of the other duct tape, especially if you make a prom dress or tux out of it. And yes, if you had a broken chameleon you could try fixing it with this, but don't tell anyone we said so. The orange-to-yellow tape is 1-7/8" wide and 30 feet long.

Nothing says friendship more than a bracelet and nothing builds a better bracelet than leather and paracord. Each set includes a pack of (12) always stylish 7/16” x 9/16” x 1-1/8” black buckles that snap together for easy wear and removal. You select: the leather pack, which includes (10) leather cords in traditional leather light-brown, dark-brown or black colors, approximately 42” long; or the paracord pack, which includes a 100-foot spool of 3/32” dia., 275-lb test, UV-, rot- and mildew-resistant, 4-strand paracord, the color or pattern of which our warehouse manager will personally select to match your eyes. Weave, twine and knot to your heart’s content.

Yes, and they glow in the dark. At least these do. You make them yourself in this Mould & Paint Dinosaur Kit. Includes plaster, moulds (the international spelling, because dinos were everywhere) for (6) different beasts, magnets, (6) glow in the dark paints, a brush and instructions. Ages 4+, with a little help.

This classic spin-art set is just like the ones you see at art fairs except it's battery-free because you just press the little bar to spin the wheel. Includes the “Art Machine,” base tray, spin plate, spatter shield, supply holder, (4) tubes of paint, (6) mounting cards, (20) blank white sheets, (1) brush, and instructions. Just like the one Leonardo would have designed if he'd thought of it. Plus, it’s a S.T.E.A.M. kit. For ages 4+.