Had enough screen-time, or want a break from studying? Get involved with crafting at home that can help you form a new hobby and make cool things for your family and friends to enjoy. If you become talented at one of these, you can even turn it into a side-hustle!
Here are some tips on how to get started with crafting at home that aren’t too expensive or take up a lot of space:
Painting
Fancy taking inspiration from Van Gough when crafting at home? Grab a bunch of flowers at home and start painting. It doesn’t have to be that costly. You can pick-up basic brushes from Amazon, and start with either a cheap set of basic watercolours or poster paints. Next step is to choose your canvas – thick paper is cheaper and better to start to practice on. Once you feel less amateur, maybe attempt a small canvas, if you feel it’s good enough it could even make a great gift for a family member or friend.
Embroidery
If you’ve had a long day and are looking for something relaxing to do while listening to music or watching your favourite show, embroidery is a great choice. Learning to embroider is not as hard as you might think and with a bit of practice, and the perfect crafting at home outlet, you’ll be embroidering cute designs on your favourite clothes in no time! The Instructables is a great starting step and demonstrates the core running stitch, back stitch and split stitch amongst others.
Knitting
Knitting can be a great crafting at home hobby to pick up during your down time, with studies even finding that the craft can lower blood pressure and slow dementia. You may not want to invest into a knitting course at first, to gage whether it’s something you enjoy first. Worry not- there are plenty of free online resources, KnittingHelp.com is easy-to-follow and great for beginners! If you can’t get to a physical store, you can order your materials from an online store like WEBS which stocks a huge range of yarn, needles and notions to get you started.
Paper cutting
There’s lots of different styles of paper cutting, from simple patterns you can use to start off with, to more complicated ones as your confidence grows. It’s easy to get started with not a huge amount of materials needed. The basics are paper, a crafting knife and templates which you can find online. Happy Barnet has a great guide to paper cutting with recommendations for the type of paper to use, templates and loads of other paper cutting coolness.
Crochet
Even if you’ve never held a hook before or don’t know a slip knot from a single crochet, there are tons of resources out there to help you start. All you need is a mid-weight yarn, crochet hook and some scissors! The chain stitch is the first core technique when first crocheting and will allow you to create your first crochet project, such a ‘granny square’ or this useful reusable washcloth set.
How ‘KN-IT’ is that? We hope you’ve learnt loads about how to get crafting at home and you can learn a new skill.
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