5 DIY Crafts for Quarantine Living
There are a limited number of options for the activities and types of things we can be doing right now as we all try to navigate the new world we are currently living in while being quarantined. Often our days are filled with homesickness, yearning to spend time with our friends and family, wishing for a normal trip to the store that does not require gloves or a mask, or just simply not knowing what to do with our time inside. As the school year comes to an end and we are all left with the simple question of “What do I do know?” what feels like an endless amount of time and energy doing nothing can be used to do a plethora of activities that have not even been considered. Read on to learn how to make some DIY crafts you can do with your family at home, ways to make your time useful and enjoy having nothing to do for once in your life.
Create a Collage of pictures with you and your friends and family
We are all missing our friends and family right about now and no one knows when the time will come that we can see them again. What better way to feel close to our friends and family than to look over old pictures and relive sacred memories? A fun way to do this and make a cute decoration for your bedroom or dorm room is to create a collage/mood board on a bulletin board or canvas. To create a collage with pictures of your friends and family, print out the pictures of your favorite memories with those people and tack them on to a bulletin board with cute thumbnails. You can decorate the border with stickers, rhinestones or buttons. You can also paste your pictures on a canvas with mod podge by applying it to the back of the pictures and then glossing over them on top. To create a mood board, cut out pictures from old magazines or print some from the internet that inspire you. Repeat the same methods on either a bulletin board or canvas and decorate with 3D stickers, glitter or other small objects you find inspirational.
Make your own laptop case for the upcoming school year
This project is perfect for getting in the spirit of school if this is what you are missing at the moment. You can also create a few for the whole school year and switch them out. This project is easy and simple and only requires a few supplies. You will need a collection of your favorite magazine cutouts or internet printouts, some mod podge and a plastic or rubber laptop case. Simply cut out your pictures and apply mod podge to each back side and place them on a solid colored case. Once all the pictures have been placed, apply glossy finish mod podge over the whole surface of the case and let it dry overnight.
Decorate your makeup brush holders
Another way to spice up your everyday household items is to decorate your pre-existing makeup brush holders or to create your own using mason jars. For this project you will need a few medium sized mason jars, depending on how many makeup brushes you have, acrylic paint, some small buttons, lace, ribbon, rhinestones, or whatever you wish to put on your brush holder. Start by painting your designs on the jars and letting them dry completely. Afterwards, glue gun the lace or ribbon at the mouth of the jar and then the rhinestones, buttons or whatever your heart desires.
Design a face mask that works for your skin
There are hundreds of recipes on the internet for creating masks for all parts of your body. Do your research and combine the best ingredients to hydrate and replenish your skin. For oily skin, try out ingredients such as honey, lemon and tea tree oil. For dry skin try out ingredients such as coconut oil, orange and avocado. For just an overall hydration mask try products with oatmeal, Vitamin B and olive oil.
Construct a bracelet and necklace holder
This is a simple and easy way to create a unique and bold decoration for your room and organize all your bracelets and necklaces, saving yourself a lot of untangling. The first part is to simply glue gun the edges of the open circular part of a few used toilet paper rolls together and then duct tape them with whatever pattern you like. Make at least two lines of rolls and glue them perpendicular to one another. The second part is to find a square piece of cardboard to serve as the base to the jewelry holder and decorate this however you see fit. You can paint or duct tape this as well. Glue gun your “T” shaped jewelry holders to your base and voila! You can then decorate your jewelry holder with fake flowers, glitter rhinestones, etc. Let it dry and hang your necklaces/bracelets!
Things to Remember
This can be a challenging time to keep ourselves busy. Day after day it seems we are left with less and less to do. The upside to being quarantined with our family is that we can do things with them that we would otherwise not be able to do when our time was filled with work and school. Grab your mom or sister and test out one of these craft ideas. Sort through old family photographs and collage them with vintage magazine cutouts. Make your best friend a breakfast or bracelet holder for her birthday and mail it to her. Prepare your avocado honey face mask two nights before a stressful day, leave it in the fridge overnight and then enjoy your evening the next night wearing your face mask and listening to some soft music. It has even been proven that being creative and using one’s hands is linked to reducing stress and promoting relaxation.
There are an infinite number of ways to be creative and useful with your time; you just have to find out what works best for you.
