For many people, a common passion is loving flowers, landscapes, and animals. However, it can be challenging to be as close to nature as we desire. Fortunately, there are ways to get closer to these elements through creative hobbies. If you’re a nature lover, here are some of the best creative hobbies for you to explore.
Paint by Numbers, the perfect hobby
Are you a flower lover looking for a fun and practical way to keep yourself occupied? Consider creating a painting by numbers! Invented in the 1950s by Dan Robbins, painting by numbers is a simple and enjoyable creative hobby. It involves filling a canvas with numbered boxes using colors that correspond to the colors on the canvas.
Painting can be a creative and meticulous activity that isn’t always accessible to everyone. However, painting by numbers allows you to create your own beautiful paintings with ease, regardless of your skill level. Not only is it an artistic pursuit, but it can also help to fight stress and anxiety in adults and promote awareness in children.
Creating a painting by numbers of flowers is a satisfying activity that you can proudly display on your walls once completed. To get started, I recommend using painting kits that come with everything you need for this activity. The kit should include a numbered canvas, brushes of different sizes, screws and hooks for wall mounting, a miniature photo of the artwork to reproduce, and numbered paint pots. For a clear and durable quality of the final artwork, opt for acrylic paints and a linen canvas.
Bring Animals to Life with Diamond Painting
Diamond painting, also known as mosaic embroidery, diamond art or diamond mosaic, is a creative art that involves making 3D paintings. It is a unique art form that combines the techniques of mosaic and traditional embroidery. Instead of traditional embroidery stitches, 3D diamond rhinestones are used to create attractive relief effects in the motifs.
One of the popular forms of diamond embroidery is animal diamond embroidery. It involves assembling rhinestones or small diamonds in colors on a pre-glued and numbered canvas to create an animal portrait. The stones are stuck on the canvas following the numbering order. You can get complete kits for animal diamond painting, which include an adhesive stylus, a canvas, a container of diamonds (round or square), a pair of pliers, a pot of glue, numbered diamond bags, and a wax pad. The canvas is waterproof and adhesive, ensuring good fixation of the diamonds.
Animal diamond embroidery is available in a range of designs, including dogs, cats, horses, elephants, lions, foxes, and many others. You can even create a diamond embroidery on a canvas featuring several animals at once. Once you complete your animal diamond embroidery, you can hang it as a decorative object at home, in any room, or in your office.
To achieve high-quality embroidery, it is recommended to use a canvas of at least 40 x 40 cm or 40 x 50 cm. The diamonds behave like pixels of an image, and the larger they are, the more precise the details of the embroidery will be.
Create a Scenic Landscape with Cross-Stitch
Cross-stitch embroidery is a trendy and enjoyable embroidery technique that involves forming X-shaped stitches to create a pattern on a canvas. If you are a nature lover, specifically landscapes, this creative hobby is perfect to keep you occupied. There is a wide range of cross-stitch landscape embroidery designs available to satisfy all preferences, from mountains and waterways to forests, seas, plains, and villages.
Cross-stitch embroidery kits typically include sets of colored and numbered threads, a pre-printed canvas with symbols, and a color reference guide. They also come with needles of various sizes and functions and an instruction guide. The best part is that cross-stitch embroidery is accessible to everyone, from beginners to professionals, and allows you to relax while enjoying the rewarding result that comes as you progress.
Once you have finished connecting the points according to the guide, all you need to do is soak the embroidery in warm water for a few hours. This removes any ink marks that may be present on the canvas and gives you a professional and impeccable result that you can hang anywhere as a decorative canvas.
Capture the Beauty of Flowers with Cyanotype Prints
Cyanotype is a photographic technique that originated in the 19th century and was developed by John Herschel, an English scientist and astronomer. This technique allows you to produce a one-of-a-kind print with a beautiful shade of blue.
If you’re interested in creating a cyanotype of flowers, you can purchase a kit that typically includes bottles of cyanotype emulsion in powder form, sheets of paper with various textures, a glass printing frame, a measuring cup, and a foam brush, as well as a detailed instruction manual.
To start the process, you’ll need to prepare a mixture using the chemical solutions provided in the kit. Once the mixture is ready, coat your support with it and let it dry away from light. After that, you can let your creativity flow by arranging pieces of paper and dried flowers on the support following the drawn template.
Next, cover your creation with the glass frame and let it sit in the sun to take on the beautiful blue hue. Once the composition is dry, you can hang it up wherever you like.
In summary, if you have an appreciation for nature, engaging in painting, embroidery, or creating cyanotypes can provide a fulfilling and enjoyable way to occupy your time.
