Try these arts and crafts at home
Taking up creative hobbies has been known to have multiple benefits. Several studies have shown that doing arts and crafts is not just fun and relaxing (you get a healthy rush of feel-good chemical, dopamine, in your brain), it can actually help you cope with stress and anxiety. For many successful entrepreneurs, pursuing a creative hobby can also make you more successful in business as you can flex that creativity in terms of seeing problems and solutions in a different light.
Whatever your reason might be for exploring your creative side, if you’re curious to try your hand at arts and crafts, here are some ideas and how to get started.
CROCHETING
Remember learning how to crochet back in school? Stitch together some throwback feels when you pick up a crochet hook and yarn. After you relearn the basic crochet stitches–basic chain stitch, single crochet, and double crochet–you can try your hand at making crochet scrunchies courtesy of Nyuki. It’s a good video tutorial for beginners and you can get your materials here.
MAKE FELT PLUSHIES
If sewing was more your thing back in the day, you can pick it up again to make some cute plushies. Have a needle, thread, felt fabric (or fabric from old clothes), and cotton or polyfill fiber (or scraps of cloth for filling) to make your own upcycled doll. Popjunklove shows you how to make a simple baby cactus plushie, here. You also get to reap the relaxing benefits of working with your hands.
MAKE PAPER FLOWERS
You can keep your crafty attempt simple with some paper flowers. You just need to cut and put the paper petals together. You can get crepe paper in Common Room’s online store but to make it even easier, you can use Paperblooms’ Paper Flower Kit (which Roma and her husband used in this DIY challenge video). They are available in Common Room stores, so it’s a good excuse to drop by.
FABRIC WAXING
If you already have some arts and crafts skills to show off–say you’ve already made a plushie or even sewn a bag–and you’re looking for ways to level it up, try your hand at waxing canvas bags. You can get any of your old canvas bags and give it a rugged makeover when you wax it. Here’s a Fabric Waxing Kit to have all the materials you’ll need and this video tutorial from Gouache. You’ll learn the step-by-step process and even how to care for your own hand waxed bags.
POTTERY
Get your hands dirty and make your own ceramic mug. You actually don’t need to have a potter’s wheel to do it. Ceramic artist Iori Espiritu shows us in this Common Room how-to video that you can do it by just kneading your clay, flattening it, forming it with a template, blending and drying before you send it off to a firing studio for firing and glazing. Begin your pottery hobby at home with this DIY Pottery
JOURNALING
Talk about mental health became even more important after the pandemic hit when stress and anxiety for many people surged. Studies have shown that journaling provides us with many mental health benefits. However which way you want to express yourself–writing, drawing, putting pictures and stickers together–when it comes to journaling, as artist Marie Lama says in a journaling video for Common Room, there are no rules. New mom Roma is journaling to document her baby’s milestones. If you want to get started, find a lot of journaling materials at Common Room and this Sticker Slam Book.
WATERCOLOR PAINTING
Conquer your fear of the blank canvas. Another great thing about trying out a new hobby is you get to discover if it’s something you’ll enjoy. Artist Marie Lama offers an encouraging watercolor painting how-to video, wherein she dispenses practical painting tips as well as advice on not being too hard on yourself when you do decide to pick up a paintbrush (or any hobby for that matter). Try this watercolor set and other watercolor materials for your first masterpiece.
–written by Mabel David-Pilar