Craft kits from Japan's recycle shops

I’m a big-time crafter. If I’m at home, then it’s likely that I’m making something. I have 1,000,000,001 projects all going at the same time but I’m always looking for new things to start. I especially appreciate things that don’t take too much time, can be completed quickly and don’t require a lot of supplies.

Crafting kits are probably the best. Usually you can get away without having to purchase any kind of tools. I’ve made most of the craft kits that you can get at the dollar store. So I decided this time around to try my hand at craft supplies found at Japan's resale shops. The secondhand stores in my area in central Japan almost always have a tiny little section with craft supplies or craft kits. 

I was really excited to find this one (above). Over a decade ago, when I first came to Japan, I saw this exact same kit at 100-yen store Daiso. I didn’t have a use for it back then but I definitely have a use for it now. My son has to take tissues to school every single day so this is a really nice way to store the tissues. It’s also totally adorable and so easy that even my son who is five years old can do it.

Sitting down and teaching him how to sew was probably the best thing - I spend most of my time sewing so if I can get my son into the craft as well, it’ll be something we can do throughout our lives. 

There was another craft kit that I found but I haven’t started working on it yet. 

If it’s anything like the one that I did a few years ago, then this sand painting will probably take far longer than it seems and kill a lot of time. Pretty sure my son is going to make an absolute mess and the result will be not quite picturesque, but I’m sure he’ll have a blast making it. 

The last kit that I found made me very excited. 

It’s for a puffed up fabric patchwork painting of two fish. It screams "old lady" to me and I absolutely love it. What surprised me was that it actually came with the photo frame as well as all of the supplies. The date that it was released is written on there - 1995. So it is a very very old kit and I’m glad that I could finally complete it. 

It was much more difficult than I had expected it to be to make it look nice and neat, which I wasn’t able to.  However, from a distance you can’t tell how messy the edges are and it looks perfectly like  fish made by this old lady.

There was one other kit just like this one except with a different style of fish. I regret not buying it but I have intentions to go back to the secondhand store whenever I get a chance and purchase it. Considering how old it is, it's very unlikely that somebody else would have bought it. Craft supplies don’t often sell out in the secondhand stores in my area.

I highly suggest taking a trip to any resale shop to look for a craft section if you can. You can find things that you can no longer buy in the craft stores nowadays and it’s tons of fun, eating out tons of your free time.