Watch your step! I lost a couple of LEGO pieces which may or may not be the same color as the floor and are probably sharper than gravel. Also, let me know if you find the sewing needle I dropped two months ago. I want to try embroidery again, and I definitely won’t give up after an hour this time.
I am the kind of person who always needs to have a creative outlet in my free time. Whether it’s a tried-and-true hobby I know I’m good at or something I saw in a TikTok, I’ll try just about any craft once to get that creative energy out. My willingness to try new things comes at a price though: my hubris and ADHD conspire to create a crafting graveyard of half-finished projects of all varieties, as well as those precious few that keep my attention long enough to see to the end. From diamond paints and pens, to crafts I will never touch again — welcome to craft limbo.
Diamond Painting
Paint by numbers, sure — but you will find remnants of your attempt on the floor for weeks to come. Diamond painting canvases are adhesive with a grid overlay across the image, each square containing a symbol to indicate the color of the tiny plastic “diamond” that corresponds to it. All you have to do is pick a color, place each individual diamond, move on to the next color and repeat until your hand hurts. Depending on the size of the canvas and the tools you have available, diamond paintings can take months. The quality of the finished piece can also vary widely depending on the manufacturer, so sometimes all that effort comes out looking sub-par. Against all odds, this tedious and carpal tunnel-inducing hobby has become one of my favorites. I find repetitive tasks therapeutic, and turning my brain off while doing something creative is relaxing to me. A new diamond painting, paired with a long video essay, continues to be one of my favorite ways to de-stress.
Coloring
As someone who loves being creative with color, I was positive coloring would be a slam dunk when it came to keeping me occupied. After finding a particularly beautiful and detailed coloring book that doubled as a weekly planner, I did what any sane person would do and bought a pack of 168 colored pencils from Amazon. I was ready to fill the book with all my plans and creativity — only to lose confidence in my ability to do the art justice and shelve it after one page. I constantly promised myself I would return to it over and over until the year ended and the planner became obsolete.
Cross-Stitch
Having failed miserably with my last DIY embroidery project, I was hesitant when I found myself drawn to cross-stitching. I’ve never been adept with a needle and thread, but the siren song of the official “Stardew Valley” cross-stitch guide was too compelling.
The one good thing about my prior embroidery disaster was that it forced me to take cross-stitch very slowly, reading the tutorial every step of the way, as if my future as a cross-stitching grandma depended on it. Surprisingly, I managed to learn cross stitch over the course of a single afternoon.
Despite being so easy, cross-stitching is incredibly time consuming. I’ve only finished three small projects from the book, and each one took at least three hours. Still, the process is relaxing and speeds up once you get into the groove. I’m not sure if I’ll ever work my way up to the bigger projects that caught my eye, but at the very least I can be proud of myself for turning a blank square of fabric into a blank square of fabric with a little brown hen on it.
Doll Customization
If you ever played with dolls as a kid, odds are you probably tried to give at least one a “makeover,” only to end up with your very own Weird Barbie. Turns out the urge to give a doll a glow-up doesn’t go away, and that’s where doll customizations come in. My introduction into OOAK (one of a kind) doll customization was the YouTuber “Dollightful,” who used Monster High dolls as bases for her own creations.
As I often do, I saw how easy she made it look and assumed I could do the same. After a quick trip to Michael’s, I had everything I needed to begin the lengthy process of doll customization. I popped the doll’s head off, cut off all her hair and removed her face with acetone in preparation for my masterpiece. All I had to do was follow the internet’s instructions for making doll hair out of yarn wefts, and I would be set.
However the pastel pink yarn fell apart in my hands, and so did my dreams. I had counted my proverbial doll heads before they were painted, and taken on too much for a first attempt at customizing. Sadly, the doll’s body remains beside her bald, severed head in the depths of my craft corner to this day, startling all who gaze upon her.
