Arts & Crafts Ideas
Are you looking for some fun, DIY craft projects to enliven a boring weekend? Maybe something to occupy the kids while they are at home. Regardless of whether you are an adult or a child, we’ve compiled some exceptional crafting ideas to get you up and running.
First, it makes sense to purchase some basic arts and craft products. This is stuff that you always need to have on hand for any crafting project.
Arts & Crafts Essentials
- Paint markers: Bright and durable, these are fun essentials for kids and adults.
- Super strong glue: where would DIY be without some high-quality glue for paper crafts?
- Plaster of Paris: another fun, if messy, crafting essential.
- Yarn (our favorites are Caron Cakes Yarn and Bernat Blanket Yarns: yarn is an essential ingredient of many at home arts and crafts.
- Decorative Wooden Letters and Numbers: great for small and large-scale DIY projects.
- Crafting Desk: an organized space for all your crafting and DIY projects.
- Washi Tape: You can’t go wrong with this gorgeous, Japanese tape- it’s an easy buy to enhance any craft project.
- Scissor Sharpeners: If you’re doing a lot of crafting, you know that you are scissors can become dull over time. Don’t let that happen – invest in some scissor sharpeners so that all your paper cutting is as crisp and clean as possible.
- Paper Cutter Trimmer: If you’re dealing with a lot of cutting and paperwork, a paper cutter trimmer and help you be more industrious and efficient especially for heavier materials like cork.
- Self-healing Cutting Mat: A cutting mat is a great tool to place on your crafting desk to perform cuts on without damaging any surfaces.
- Soldering Station: This is an essential element if you’re doing any metal or wirework- definitely up the alley of more experienced DIY hobbyists.
- Fume Extractor: If you’re doing soldering at home, you’re going to want to invest in a fume extractor to remove the noxious byproducts from the air.
- Glow In The Dark Paint: Create some spooky and fun art with glow-in-the-dark paint. Nothing is more fun than turning off the lights and seeing new artistic Creations suddenly come to life.
Try A Diamond Painting Kit
This trendy diamond painting craft uses small “diamond”-like facets to make vibrant designs and patterns for finished designs that sparkle.
Create A DIY Diorama With A Shadowbox
A shadowbox lets you create a miniature diorama. Nothing is more fun than crafting a lifelike scene out of paper, glue and a little bit of wood.
Laser Engraving
A laser engraving machine enables you to engrave on a variety of hard surfaces. You’ll need to download some software and invest in a quality machine, but this can be a rewarding hobby if you’re willing to put in the time and effort you master the skill.
Make Masks
We fondly remember being back in 7th-grade art class and making a mask from Plaster of Paris. There are a lot of online guides for making a craft mask. Perhaps take inspiration from some of these Oni Masks.
Make Your Own Shirt
Heat transfer vinyl can help you to create your own range of products and merchandise, or allow you to outfit t-shirts or other wearables with your unique, customized designs.
Buy A Bottle Cutter
Learn how to cycle that expensive champagne bottle with a DIY bottle cutter.
3-D Pen Art Projects
A 3D printing pen works like a glue gun, using colored plastic filament. With a little bit of practice, you can begin crafting intricate wireframe shapes and 3D drawings in space.
Make Stickers
Everybody, no matter whether you are an adult or a child, love stickers. We remember bedazzling our school book notebooks with stickers back in the 80s. Now you can buy sticker maker machines and make your own custom DIY stickers. What could be more fun than that?
Make Clothing
This is another fun project. We already touched on making shirts, but if you want to get really advanced and make more elaborate costumes, you can buy a sewing machine and then things like a mannequin head and adjustable dress forms to help you with the design process.
A heat press machine is another way to add your custom designs to clothing. Maybe you start a small home business selling your personalized t-shirts on a platform like Etsy
Photography
Nowadays, everyone wants to be an Instagram influencer or a YouTube celebrity. However, this is impossible unless you have some high-quality equipment.
While everybody likely has a smartphone with incredible camera technology, you’ll want to have a photo backdrop stand to give your imagery a professional sheen.
Get Into Woodwork
There are lots of DIY woodworking projects you can embark on. Whether you are building a birdhouse or erecting a gazebo, you’re going to need some woodworking equipment to get off the ground.
A spindle sander is a great tool for finishing off your creations, shaping, and smoothening the surfaces.
If you enjoy getting your hands dirty and reverting back to earlier technology, check out hand planes for smoothening and straightening wood projects.
Likewise, if you want to develop a pensive and old-time hobby, check out some whittling knives. You can carve up a variety of DIY projects.
Likewise, if you get into whittling, you’re going to need some wood carving tools for more particular and exacting woodcuts.
A draw knife is another good DIY woodworking tool- great for shaving down larger, bulkier pieces of wood.
Another fun wood project you can embark on is wood burning. Invest in a wood-burning tool kit to etch words directly onto wooden surfaces.
You can purchase a wooden crate and add on to it the names of your children to create some fun, DIY toy boxes that are personalized to them.
Try Knitting
Knitting is a fun and rewarding craft hobby. If you’re just getting started, check out some of our favorite online hitting classes. You should help you get up to speed whether you are just starting out or you are more advanced and need some expert guidance.
Take Up Drawing
Drawing is one of the oldest and most inexpensive hobbies you can embark on. All you need is some paper and a pencil to get started. However, it does make sense to invest in an online drawing class to get a leg up. Even though you can get started right away with materials in your home, a quality drawing class is going to give you some guidance help you improve more quickly, which will make the whole exercise more rewarding.
Tattoos
This isn’t a hobby project we would recommend for children, but if you are into tattoos, it can be an endlessly rewarding activity. We recommend getting some training before you start, but once you are up to speed you’ll need a tattoo gun and a durable tattoo power supply.
Tie-Dye Stuff
This is probably one of the most popular things you can do at home with your kids. We’ve already covered how to make t-shirts and clothing, but you can finish them off with some tie-dye kits. Everybody loves the colorful and psychedelic clothing a tie-dye session can create.