Four Fun Arts and Crafts Hobbies That Are Easy to Start

It's important to get exposure to arts and crafts in your life. Creative tasks exercise your brain in new and different ways, and crafting something with your own hands can have a wealth of benefits for your coordination and make you feel good about accomplishing something meaningful. 

If you work long hours, take care of your kids or do a lot around the house, however, it can be hard to find the time to practice an arts and crafts hobby. Activities like woodworking can require a lot of hours to learn before you feel comfortable doing them consistently, and lots of hobbies require expensive equipment to get started.

Luckily, there are some hobbies that are easy and fun to get started on right away! You can go from thinking about these four hobbies to doing them in just a matter of hours, or even minutes.

Painting

While many master painters use expensive paints, fancy brushes and large canvasses, you don't need all that setup to begin your painting hobby. With as little as a piece of printer paper and a basic set of watercolors, you can begin practicing creating beautiful pictures with your brushstrokes.

For even more fun, look up clips of Bob Ross teaching painting on YouTube. You'll not only learn plenty in an easy and fun way, but you'll feel joy when you see yourself creating beautiful works of arts in as little as a few weeks.

Knitting

Like painting, knitting requires relatively inexpensive materials to get started, just some yarn and a pair of needles. You can learn from friends, visit a knitting club or even look up online video tutorials on how to knit. Knitting is also a relatively stress-free hobby once you learn how to do it; you can knit while watching television or even chatting with friends.

While your initial knitting projects might be small, you can eventually work your way up to knitting a long scarf or patterned socks. These projects are fun and can make great personalized presents for birthdays, Christmas and other holidays.

Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is a great hobby for those looking to create interesting crafts out of recycled materials. In addition, scrapbooks are a great way to chronicle important moments and preserve your family history. You might buy some colorful construction paper or other fun materials, but otherwise, all you need is old photos and keepsakes from things you want to remember.

Scrapbooks are a perfect place to display things like ticket stubs, short notes and even interesting shells or stones side-by-side with pictures of important times. Scrapbooking is an enjoyable way to keep yourself busy and creative while also making something that can be enjoyed for years to come.

Collecting

Want to combine the fun of a scavenger hunt with the fulfillment of a creative hobby? Find something to collect! Gather rare coins or interesting shells. Collect patches, pins, buttons, t-shirts, shot glasses and more from your travels. You can even collect ticket stubs from movies and plays you've been to see.

After you have a collection started, you can think of creative and artistic ways to display your collection. Maybe you'll frame some of your pieces and hang them on your wall. Maybe you'll sew your patches onto a vest or blanket. You can make t-shirts into a quilt or display shot glasses in a cabinet. Your collection can become a conversation piece in your home that will entertain and fascinate guests.

Arts and crafts exposure is an important part of life. These kinds of activities can keep your mind active and your coordination strong, as well as giving you a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment when you create something. Not every hobby has to be expensive and difficult; many hobbies are easy to get into and are even more rewarding because you know you can pick them up at any time and create something wonderful with relatively little time and effort.