Think Positive: Think Art Project

If you're stuck at home and struggling to stay positive, let your creativity help you. Set yourself a simple art project to pursue, and beautify a room or possession in the process. You'll find this sort of activity wonderfully therapeutic, and when you've completed one, just take up another, to keep yourself positively focused from one day to the next. Here are six project suggestions, some requiring minimal costs, others none at all. Check out pufs.com.

Collect natural items

If you like being outside, take a stroll in your nearest green space and collect natural items. 
You might look out for a particular sort, such as feathers, pebbles, petals or pine cones, or you might gather a mixture for a cross-section of natural objects. Perhaps repeat the exercise on a daily basis, building your collection every time. You can then have fun arranging your findings on your mantelpiece, shelf or coffee table, as an artistic installation. You might like to set your findings aglow with gold or silver spray or paint. You could then lay them on a colorful cloth or arrange them in a dish or vase. Finally, illuminate your creation with a lamp or candle to lighten up dark days and evenings.

Paint a ceramic mug or dish

If you like being outside, take a stroll in your nearest green space and collect natural items. You might look out for a particular sort, such as feathers, pebbles, petals or pine cones, or you might gather a mixture for a cross-section of natural objects. Perhaps repeat the exercise on a daily basis, building your collection every time. You can then have fun arranging your findings on your mantelpiece, shelf, or coffee table, like an artistic installation. You might like to set your findings aglow with gold or silver spray or paint. You could then lay them on a colorful cloth or arrange them in a dish or vase. Finally, illuminate your creation with a lamp or candle to lighten up dark days and evenings. Be sure to view more articles at pufs.com.

Paint a ceramic mug or dish

You'll need a small bottle or two of ceramic paint for this project, or more if you want multiple colors. Prices vary, but a low-cost version will do fine. You'll also need a fine paint brush and a jar of water for washing it between colors. Select a mug, bowl, plate or other crockery item from your kitchen, and plan a simple design to paint on it. Prepare a working space, with plenty of light and perhaps some background music, then get painting. When you've decorated one item to your satisfaction, you're sure to be inspired to paint another. In fact, why not give all your kitchen ceramics a lick of paint, while you're about it?

Take sequenced photographs of changing nature

Pick a natural element in your vicinity, such as sky, trees, a flowerbed or a single plant. Now choose a time of day and a camera angle, and take a snapshot of your chosen feature accordingly. The picture may not be particularly interesting on its own, but by repeating the procedure on a daily or weekly basis, you can build a fascinating sequence of images, showing the scene in different states or stages. For sky variations, you could take pictures every hour or more to catch its subtlest shifts, while plant growth will require occasional photos over weeks or months. Remember to share your growing picture series online, and perhaps also in print form, as a wall display.

Rearrange your lighting

Get creative with your home lighting arrangements. Indirect lighting will produce a much warmer ambience than a central, overhead light, and with a touch of ingenuity, you could produce that alluring softness. Distribute three or more lamps through your chosen room, positioning them at different heights and angles. When night falls, switch them on and see how welcoming your room has become. If you're short of lamps, you could use candles, with appropriate safety guards. Now extend your project by enhancing your daytime lighting. For this, position some mirrors diagonally to the windows, to catch and reflect the sunlight. Clearing furniture and clutter from around your windows will also let in more light. When you've worked your magic on one room, you can move on to the next.

Make clay models

Clay modelling is a calming and satisfying occupation and can be enjoyed at any time of day or night. It's also creative, with the reward of a finished artwork to aim for. You can either make your own modelling dough, using an online recipe perhaps, or buy a low-cost bag of clay or kids' play dough. Now to choose what models to make: perhaps animals, human figures, shapes or letters, for instance. Be sure to photograph your finished models to share online.

Display your fabrics

Do you possess some colorful fabrics? Think of scarves, shawls, ties and tablecloths, for instance. Select your favorites, iron out any creases, and display them all together on a door or wall. You might pin them to a cork noticeboard, hang them from a row of hooks or drape them over your living room door. Try bringing one piece over another for a curving color blend or fastening them at each end to create swinging loops. Now stand back and enjoy your gleaming array. You could extend this little project by rearranging the sequence on a regular basis or decorating another room in a similar way.