There are so many things up in the air right now, causing us all a bit of anxiety — I’m right there with you. With all the school cancellations, businesses working from home and the uncertainty on how this virus is going to progress — I find myself reaching for a craft. I know it sounds crazy, but crafting and DIYing truly calms me down.
Yes, I could take this extra time, not out at meetings or traveling, to clean my house — really clean it — organize all my clothes — get to the basement projects I’ve been planning a while but who wants to do all that. Yes, I’m working — and I’m one of the lucky folks who already work out of their home — so my schedule has not changed — but my level of tension has. So to help us all calm down (and avoid cleaning our bathrooms), I’ve put together a few DIY’s I’ve done in the past that can be done with stuff you probably already have lying around the house. Some of these are time consuming but mindless — which I find is even better when I’m looking for a mediation type craft. I truly hope they help you like they help me.
Stay safe, wash hands, be well. Joanne
NEED: GLUE GUN, GLUE STICKS, A STICK/BRANCH, and LEFT OVER YARN, EMBROIDERY THREAD, TWINE, ROPE, SHOE LACES…
DIRECTIONS; Wrap and Hot Glue each start and finish and a little bit in between. It is as easy as that — Time consuming, calming… but easy!
NEED: SMALL ROCKS, SCRAPS OF FABRIC OR SHEETS, RIBBONS OR TWINE, CURTAIN CLIP OR SAFETY PIN.
DIRECTIONS: Soon we will be back to normal and we will want to head out for a picnic. You can make these easy Picnic table cloth holders with rocks, ribbons, scraps of sheets or fabric and either curtain clips or safety pins. So fun to make and easy. No sewing or gluing required. Tear strips of sheets and wrap around a small rock, hold in place with twine or ribbon — before you hold in place with ribbon, use one piece to loop through the metal ring of the curtain clip or pin through and then finish wrapping.
All you need is a paper bag and a marker or two. Create your very own recycled gift wrapping paper for any occasion. Going for a walk in the woods — don’t tear birch bark off the trees but if you see small pieces on the ground — pick them up — clean them — dry them and then paint the back with chalk paint or black paint and make gift tags. So easy and fun.
Find a black and white outline of something you love online and then start to create a fun black and white piece of art. This is very calming. All you need is paper and a black marker, pen or pencil. I’ve made of ton of these — some of them small ones — and then glued them onto black cards and gave them in a pack of 5 as gifts.
Old paintbrushes, toothbrushes, nails, driftwood pieces, rulers, pencils, paper straws… you name it — you can make a unique vase or two from it. Wrap your paintbrushes around a recycled glass jar (this is a salsa jar) and then hold together with twine, string or something similar. I did glue the paintbrushes to hold them in place then wrapped the twine — glue doesn’t really hold well on glass — but it was enough to allow me to work with the twine.
Using leftover sheet music and some fun Bigfoot prints from my computer, I made some funny gift cards. Using left over paper bags, wallpaper, card stock, stickers, old cards, create your own fun blank cards you can use to write someone you love. I used a regular old glue stick to put them on.
Using left over Valentine’s Day boxes, old shoe boxes and similar cardboard boxes, find all the little pieces and do-dads you have lying around the house to create a keepsake box. This is a fun project to do with kids. You will need a hot glue gun, or some glue, and some little pieces of this and that. You can use old game pieces, costume jewelry, an old scarf, keys… etc.
Have some old t-shirts you want to make cooler than they are. Well, if you haven’t gone through all your bleach :) Then put a little bit in an old spray bottle. Using kitchen drawer paper to cut out shapes, or letters and place them on the front of your cotton t-shirt. MAKE SURE, you have something in between the front and back of the shirt — I slipped inside a postage box and if I want the bleach to stay concentrated around the figure — I place rags around the space I want it to stay inside of. Sometimes the bleach works and sometimes it doesn’t (depends on the material of the t-shirt). Make sure you are not getting bleach everywhere — it will stain. Let dry completely. Peel off your figure or letters and wash alone. Hope it works for you.
“Stay calm and craft on.”