March Round-up: Creative at-home Activities
Most of us (at least in the US) are going on week 2 of lockdown, and probably feeling a little bored, anxious, and a variety of other emotions. As scary as times can feel right now, I’ve seen lots of creatives putting out free tutorials, classes, and connecting online through creative projects. Below is a list of creative tutorials, classes, and ideas to entertain yourself.
1. Paint with Artist, Raven Roxanne
One of my favorite artists, Raven Roxanne is known for her “Nest” painting series. She’s been hosting Instagram live sessions where she walks you through how to create your own nest. I encourage you to follow her to find out when her next class is. And also because her work is all-around beautiful!
2. Draw What You Eat (or drink)
Keep a visual diary by sketching, drawing, or painting what you’ve been eating and drinking. If I were to start a visual diary right now, it would consist of a lot..A LOT of wine glasses and wine bottles. Whatever supplies you have lying around will work. Don’t feel like you need a bunch of nice art supplies and a pretty journal to do this.
Let this Chef who kept a hand-drawn food diary for 30+ years inspire you.
And, if you want some help with drawing food, check out this Pinterest board that has step-by-step instructions on drawing simple foods like watermelon, a jar of jam, lemons and lots more.
3. Color
There are sooooooo many coloring books out there. Just do a quick Google search and you’re bound to find one you like. Such as this cute coloring book filled with patterns. Or the perfect coloring book for springtime that has beautiful flowers to color. If you don’t want to wait for a coloring book to ship and you’re lucky enough to own a printer, check Pinterest for FREE downloadable pages. Etsy also has plenty of great downloadable options you can pay for.
4. Explore Famous Artwork
Plenty of museums are offer virtual tours of some of their exhibits and tours of the museum. Like the Natural Museum of Natural History, as well as these museums around the world. But my favorite thing I’ve come across is Google’s art camera where you can zoom in super, super close on famous paintings, allowing you to really see a piece of artwork up close and personal.
5. Learn Hand Lettering
This is probably one of the easiest projects you could do, as it requires minimal supplies. I found this free class on Skillshare, along with about 20 other free classes! And if you upgrade to premium you can find even more! Skillshare is my go-to whenever I want to learn a new skill (especially a creative skill), highly recommend during quarantine and all other times of the year.
6. Create a Rube Goldberg machine
I’m pretty sure when I was a kid, I played a computer game where you could build a Rube Goldberg machine online, and it was one of my favorite games ever. If someone knows what game I’m talking about, please let me know, because I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me. But how fun would it be to gather junk around your house and create a complicated, creative way to get a simple task done?!
7. Put Your Social Media to Better Use
Instagram is a great place to find creative challenges that will improve your creative skills (or even just get you started from ground zero) such as photography, sketching, baking, floral arrangement and sooo much more! I love participating in challenges like this because you can easily see what other people are doing, it can improve the skill you’re working on, and it’s good when you’re blank and just can’t think of what to do. This blog has a great roundup of Instagram challenges that are out there.
8. Make Your Own Board Game
My husband and I started to play Scrabble the other night for what felt like the millionth time. We quit in the middle of the game because we were so bored of playing it. We need a new game!! Then I remembered an episode of Parks and Rec where Ben made his own board game after he had been puttering around the house for weeks because he wasn’t working. Isn’t that kind of all of us right now? So if you’re bored with your games like I am. Make your own! Like Ben and Cones of Dunshire.
9. Paint by Numbers
Do you remember doing this as a kid? It’s kind of a mindless creative activity, but at the end of it you have something beautiful, even if you have no artistic experience. This Etsy seller even creates custom paint by numbers from photos of your pets!
10. Knoll
Knolling is a photography term, it’s basically an interesting way to arrange similar items. Knolling is the perfect project when it comes to only using things around your house (or from the garden!). You could even pair this activity with a scavenger hunt around the house. For example - “find all the yellow objects you can.” It’s easier to see what knolling is than type what it means. See below to get an idea.