Looking for some fun arts and crafts ideas for adults, or easy DIY themes for a craft night project? These ideas from Artisan Shopping Directory members will give you some ideas about craft activities that you can try by yourself or with friends.
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Table of Contents
- Cross Stitch for beginners.
- Making Christmas ornaments.
- Making glass beads.
- Junk Journaling.
- Sewing a simple project.
- Sublimation.
- Making rag rugs.
- Making edible flowers for cakes.
- Creating tablescapes at home.
- Beading.
- Quilting.
- Wood Crafts.
Cross Stitch for beginners.
Notorious Needle has a 6-article guide for beginners on how to get started with cross stitch. When you’re done with this, you’ll be able to follow a cross stitch pattern and progress on to more complicated tutorials. Beginner Cross Stitchers: Start Here
Making Christmas ornaments.
It’s fun to upcycle vintage jewelry into Christmas ornaments, like this tutorial from minusOne jewelry shows. Easy DIY Vintage Ornaments.
Making glass beads.
If you’re up for a more challenging craft activity, you could take a class on making glass beads. This does require some special equipment, but it’s really cool, too. This article by Anne Londez talks about how the beadmaking process works: How Do You Make Glass Beads?
Junk Journaling.
If you’re interested in paper crafts, scrapbooking, or collaging, you might enjoy making junk journals. This list of getting-started supplies from the Scrapologist will give you an excuse to go to the craft store and spend some money, too! A Junk Journal Supplies List
And once you have your supplies ready, you can make a junk journal that you use as a decorative family photo scrapbook. Join Cindy’s free Patreon group for junk journal tips.
Sewing a simple project.
If you want to learn to sew, there are a lot of tutorials on youtube that show how to get started. These patterns from Tracey Lipman would be a good project for a beginner since they’re not size-specific and don’t involve a lot of tricky tailoring. The zipper might be a little challenge for a beginner, but go slow and you’ll end up with a nice result.
You can also get kits to make a cute summer dress from Threadymade NYC . These are easy but will let you make a cute outfit that looks professional.
Sublimation.
Sublimation is a craft that’s catching on and growing more popular as the supplies for it start being more available. Designs by Tangsley has some sublimation kits that you can get here: Sublimation DIY kits.
She also has articles about sublimation on her blog, including this guide for beginners.
Making rag rugs.
In this article I went over how I made some rag rugs from old shirts and fabric strips. It’s fun to do, and you end up with a cute home decor item! Amish Knot Rag Rug Tips For Beginners
Making edible flowers for cakes.
You can make flowers for decorating cakes that are made from edible wafer paper, and some of them can look very realistic. Check out my guide to making flowers here: How To Make Wafer Paper Flowers For Cakes: Pro Tips.
There are also cake flowers that you can make that are made from a sugar clay called gumpaste. You can make them to use on wedding cakes or birthday cakes, and there are plenty of tutorials online. Check out my cake decorating blog for flower tutorials here: Cake Flower Tutorials
Creating tablescapes at home.
Okay, bear with me on this one, because it might not seem like a straightforward DIY arts and crafts project, but it really is. Creating tablescapes and centerpieces is something that takes a lot of artistry, and it lets you be as creative as possible with materials that you find around your home.
Since you can use things that you already have, this is a craft that doesn’t have to cost too much. This article from Holidays Lane shows how to create a pretty Easter tablescape: Make A Colorful Easter Table Centerpiece
Beading.
Making jewelry and accessories with beading techniques is a fun way to create something either from your imagination or with a pattern. Megans Beaded Designs sells a range of patterns for beaded items, and also offers a guide to beading for beginners when you sign up for the mailing list on the website.
Quilting.
Quilting is a really fun hobby (I think so anyway) and it has a lot of variations on how complicated you can make it. Quilting and Beyond on Etsy sells a lot of quilting patterns that you can start with to make a simple or more complicated quilt, depending on whether you know how to sew to start with or not.
Wood Crafts.
Painting and assembling a wood kit can be fun because the hard work of cutting the pieces out has been done for you, and all you need to do is assemble and paint it to your liking. This is the kind of activity that you can do with a group, or with kids.
Jenuine Rose Design has a bunch of precut wood kits that you can get to put a cute craft together.