5 Fun Crafts to Try Even If You Don’t Think You’re Crafty

Winter isn’t most people’s favorite time to be out and about, which makes it the perfect time to embrace your inner homebody and inner child and do some crafts. Even if you’re not a crafty person, there’s a lot of compelling reasons to start (aside from the fun). 

Studies suggest crafts are therapeutic, and can assist in coping with stress, anxiety, and depression. It’s worth crafting into your later life as well, because the risk of cognitive impairments tend to be reduced for people who draw, paint, color, journal, and craft. So if you’re looking for new ways to get creative no matter your skill level, here are five fun and easy projects worth giving a shot.

Do you find painting intimidating? Consider squeegee painting. It’s become super popular, and for good reason, because it’s such an easy and fun way to make abstract art. All you need is a squeegee, a canvas or paper, and some acrylic paint. Just drop the paint onto your canvas and use the squeegee to spread the paint. It’s considered “process art” which just means it’s all about the creation and experimentation — there’s no wrong way to do it. 

What’s great about this project is how simple the process is considering how impressive the payoff looks. Essentially, all you have to do is tie some embroidery hoops together and hot glue the fringe to the hoops. There are some small steps in between to ensure it looks uniform, so it’s worth consulting the video, but this project really shows you the power of some fringe and a hot glue gun. Plus, what’s not to love about making something you can use?

String painting is another fun and easy way to make abstract paintings. This method might be a bit messier so you’ll want to give yourself room to work. Some people press their paint-covered string between pages of a sketchbook, and then pull out the string while the book is closed to see what patterns it creates. Others will lay a bunch of paint-soaked string along a canvas and drag the strings across in one direction — but like the squeegee painting, there’s no real wrong way to make these.

Who doesn’t love a good upcycling project? It’s extra satisfying knowing that not only did you make something cool, but you made it from stuff lying around the house. You only need a few things for this project: shirts, scissors, and a hula hoop or piece of cardboard. The tutorial explains how to make your T-shirts into R-shirt yarn and your hula hoop or cardboard into a loom. Bonus: If you’re feeling ambitious you can also make pompoms from T-shirt yarn for your rugs.

We all love fresh flowers, but always keeping them around can be a bit high maintenance. These adorable coffee filter peonies are as fun to make as they are pretty. You’ll need coffee filters, food coloring, a glue gun, floral wire, and floral tape. Display them in vases, use them as ornaments, or as party decorations — there’s no end to what you could do with these floral creations.