Crafting is an extremely popular hobby around the world, and millions of people indulge in various types and styles of crafting for pleasure, as a side hustle, or even as a full-time business to enrich their lives and build an income based on what they love to do.
The term “crafting” encompasses a myriad of different activities. This diversity can be both exciting and overwhelming, as it offers a wealth of options to explore.
If you’re ready to embark on a journey filled with joy and creativity, this guide is for you. It’s designed for those who are eager to explore the world of crafting for the first time, discover their creative side, and find a new passion.
Assess Your Interests and Skills
As mentioned, crafting is a term that covers many different activities and creative outlets. It can be scrapbooking, crocheting, making cards, pottery, woodworking, needle art, working with textiles, or anything that involves getting creative and creating something interesting or beautiful using materials and your imagination.
So, a good place to start is to look at all the things you can already do or enjoy doing. This will help you understand what type of crafting you might want to do moving forward and what you might be good at, giving you a sense of confidence and self-awareness.
Keep It Simple
For most people, chances are that in the early stages, you won’t be super skilled at what you’d like to do so starting with the basics is the best tact to take. Crafting, while something you should be enjoying, is also a great way to develop skills and expand your knowledge, so doing some research is where you should start. Pinterest and YouTube are great resources for ideas and instruction. Starting with smaller projects that you can finish fairly quickly is also a great idea.
Bulk Buy Supplies
Buying supplies in bulk is cheaper and will ensure you always have the supplies on hand to finish the project you’re working on. You don’t want to run out of materials half way through a project and having extra always leaves room for some waste for inevitable little mistakes that are bound to happen. You also are likely to change directions at times and will want to have different styles of materials on hand to accommodate your creative ideas. Places like an online scrapbook store or other online retailers often offer better prices than chain stores.
Just be careful when first starting out to be sure you’re going to want to stick with the craft or hobby before you spend too much money on supplies. If after a few tries at the new craft you decide it’s not for you; you don’t want to have spent a small fortune on things you won’t use.
Choose One Craft
Don’t try to learn too many different crafts at once. Trying to learn lots of different things, especially when you’re just getting started, doesn’t work well and can actually make your crafting attempts more stressful and dilute the quality of the work you produce.
Instead of spreading yourself too thin, focus on one general craft that genuinely speaks to you, whether it’s papercraft, painting, or sculpting. By concentrating on one craft, you can build your skills and confidence and produce work of the highest quality.
Find Inspiration
Depending on the type of craft you want to do, you can find inspiration in many different places to help you explore your limits and design new and unique items that you can be proud of or even sell. The more inspiration you find, the more you can enjoy what you do and get the most from your crafting.
You can use nature to inspire you if drawing and painting is your craft of choice. Textiles or the season can inspire you, if needlework or scrapbooking is your go-to craft. Popular trends and hot topics can help you design things like buttons, badges, pet supplies, etc. or you can simply head back over to Pinterest and browse through other people’s crafts to draw inspiration and get a boost to support your own creativity.
Learn
As a beginner, you need to be open to learning and developing what you do. Never think you know it all or are the best you can be. There will always be something you can learn. Lots of local antique and craft malls hold classes and other events you can attend to learn a skill and have a great time doing it.
Whatever your reasons for getting into crafting, it’s always a good idea to find a reason to create something beautiful. It’s good for your mind and attitude.