Perhaps you once enjoyed creating art and craft work. While the memory has almost faded, chances are that in a dusty corner of your memory the boost creative work gave you still lingers. One part of you thinks, who has the time? Or why bother, I am no good at it. A voice inside you might whisper, I’ve long since outgrown such nonsense. Tamp down your inner critic and proceed. Would setting a few simple rules free you to give making a piece of art another try? Rule number one is: take a leap and tackle something fun and new. Number two is: there is no judgment, anything goes.
Browse online or go to a craft store or the department of a big box store, even a drug store where art and craft supplies are sold. Just meander through the vast and appealing choices until something strikes your fancy. Start small and keep it simple and I guarantee that whatever you find will be very reasonably priced. Coloring books for adults are bountiful with interesting, even educational themes. They can be filled with other than the wax crayons we used as kids. Today’s supplies range from rich, brilliant colors, even metallic and glitter in stick or pen form for precise application. Coloring those pages can become akin to meditation and the results worthy of framing. Or bring out your inner Picasso by making up your own designs using pens, pencils, pastels, markers, or watercolors on paper intended for each.
If you are a tactile personality, or wish to work in 3-dimnensions, look at the array of colorful, self-hardening, polymer clays (with suggestions for small projects) that are available today. If you enjoy fibers, there are kits for you to turn yarn-strung between nail heads into pictures. There are kits providing a variety of unusual materials to paste into collages. You will also find various types of small looms to do weaving with yarn, string, or beads. Try your hand at painting to transform rocks into animals and other recognizable creatures or to send a saying or greeting out into the world once you leave it outside to make another’s day
Mosaic kits come in a variety of materials. It takes no talent to arrange glass, cardboard, fake gems, wooden pieces, or natural or manmade stones into pretty designs. Woodburning kits are available to reinvent a childhood hobby along with linoleum block-printmaking supplies. Mandala kits and outlines are with instructions for you to design, color, and use as decoration or for utilitarian items such as coasters or hot pads.
Stencils with almost any design you can imagine can be used in a variety of ways to tell family and friends they are important to you. Blank wooden boxes, plaques, bird houses or ordinary shapes from nature cry for an application of paint. Greeting card kits range from holidays, birthdays to all-purpose days and include all kinds of fancy papers, stickers, ornamentation with instructions on how to make masterpieces from them.
The important thing is to put aside reservations and get involved. Do it for yourself. Something akin to magic happens when you work with your hands and the lift to your spirits and wash of joyful mood is indescribable. Bobbin-olive has a boatload of great books by a certified art teacher to spark your imagination to get you started by reviving that creative streak that lies within all of us.
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