Creative hobbies offer a gateway to happiness.
They give us space to be our authentic selves, reduce stress, and help us find our flow – a state of complete mindfulness and engagement.
Are you ready to reap all the benefits? It starts with choosing an outlet, and we can help with our epic list of creative hobbies to explore.
What Do We Mean by Creative Hobbies?
Creative hobbies help you reach into your subconscious and pull out all your imaginative and innovative ideas. They help your brain focus on creation rather than analytical problem-solving, and give you the freedom to express yourself.
This infographic showcases some quick examples:
If you came looking for creative hobbies in the sense that nobody else is doing them, don’t despair. Head to our list of unique hobby ideas, where you’ll find a range of fun activities that most people haven’t discovered yet.
If you want something to jumpstart your creative side, jump on in!
The Best Creative Hobbies
The best creative hobbies are the tried and true. These pastimes survived centuries for a crucial reason: they work. They offer a creative outlet while sharing humanity’s story.
Try your hand at one of humanity’s greatest forms of expression:
Painting
Painting is a classic form of expression. The hobby goes back centuries, with old masters creating masterpieces from the beginning of human civilization.
Don’t let that deter you. You don’t need to be a master to reap the benefits of painting. There are multiple ways to explore this ancient hobby.
Consider studying painting techniques and learning the science behind the construction with color theory, or study how the human body works to paint forms and figures. Alternatively, consider painting as a form of complete and total expression by throwing paint on canvas and creating an epic work of abstract expression.
Some people love showcasing their creativity by transferring what they see to a canvas so others can experience the world the way they do, while others want complete self-expression.
There is no right or wrong way to paint, so grab a canvas (or paper if you want to explore painting in watercolors), some brushes, and some paints, and get to creating!
Photography
Everyone has a phone nowadays, and with apps like Instagram, it seems like photos are a dime a dozen. While that’s true, photography as an art form is still rare.
Most folks just snap and shoot; they don’t take the time to frame the perfect image or spend hours scoping a scene to determine the ideal angle for a shot.
Authentic photography takes creativity.
Rohan Gillet is a photographer specializing in pictures of Tokyo. His images showcase different aspects of the city, from ancient shrines to vast city landscapes. In his opinion, all anyone needs to get started is what they already have – a phone with a built-in camera.
Zim from New York Photo Safari loves photography so much that he specializes in photography tours of the iconic New York City. He advises those who want to get started to start small. Look at everyday items, and try to shoot them from different angles, a strategy which can help you find the beauty in the mundane.
Zim advocates for the “Photo a Day” photography challenge, which forces you to take at least one artistic photo daily, which will help you get into the habit of seeing things from a photographer’s eye and cultivate your hobby.
These hobby photographers are both right. Anyone can do it with the tools they already have available, and looking for the beauty in the mundane is a great way to spark your creative genius.
Digital Art
Digital art is a modern form of expressing yourself through painting. Rather than oil and canvas as your medium, digital art allows you to create masterpieces with the power of technology.
Multiple programs exist to help digital artists with their craft. Some are free, while others cost a small fortune. Photoshop and Adobe Creative Cloud remain the most popular, but some ingenious artists make incredible designs with simple programs such as Microsoft Paint.
If you’re going to try your hand at digital art, you need a drawing tablet. The best drawing tablets have dedicated screens akin to a small computer, but cheaper models without screens are great for beginners.
Drawing
Drawing is one of the most accessible creative hobbies available. To get started, all you need is a pencil and paper, though if you get into it, you might want to splurge on a sketchbook.
Learn to draw by sketching people, places, and things you see. Keep your art journal with you to ensure you never pass up an opportunity for the perfect sketch.
You don’t have to limit yourself to sketching what you see. Draw from your imagination. Create new monsters, fashion designs, or just lose yourself in doodles. Drawing when you are bored is a great way to relieve some stress and feel productive. Don’t worry about whether your drawing is “good” – I mean, look at ours!
All that matters is that you enjoy doing it. Your skills will improve with practice, but if you’re looking to enhance your skills as an artist, consider some outside-the-box drawing ideas that force you to find a different perspective.
Creative Writing
If you lack the artistic skills for drawing, don’t despair; try writing instead. Creative writing lets you dive deep into your subconscious to imagine stories, ideas, characters, and prose the world has never seen.
It’s also the most accessible hobby available. You don’t need any fancy equipment or specialized training (unless you want to parlay it into a side hustle one day – and if you don’t, it’s easy to monetize!).
Writing for yourself can allow you to experiment with words in fun and creative ways. Make words up, invent your own portmanteaus, add suffixes to make random words rhyme, and play with different character archetypes.
Let your imagination take the reins.
Those who struggle with writer’s block can use creative writing prompts, tools that give you a little creative boost to get started. With prompts, you get story ideas and warm-up exercises, giving you a little head start.
Get Your Creative Writing Prompts Bundle at our Store!
Journaling
Though we think of journaling as a self-care or productivity practice, it could also be a creative outlet.
Combine a few of your favorite creative hobbies together in your diary. Use the center space for writing your thoughts and feelings, but leave room in the margins for doodles and sketches. Make your journal your own with colored pens, highlighters, and stickers.
Document all your thoughts – from your most innovative inventions to your silly story ideas.
Like with creative writing, people who want to journal often get stuck not knowing what to write about. If that describes you, try using a journal prompt, which will give you that little push you need to start your writing habit.
Journaling is a fantastic creative outlet because it offers so many possibilities. Those who love organization can design beautiful spreads in a bullet journal, while artists can experiment with different mediums in an art journal.
Acting
Acting provides a creative outlet for extroverts and those bursting with energy. Although some say it’s not creative because you’re just reciting lines, I disagree.
I’ve been in plays. I know it takes a special type of ingenuity to transform into someone else. You have to feel the emotion in the written lines and find ways to express them to the audience – it’s a lot harder than it seems.
Most of us will never break into the field of acting, but there’s a world of possibility for those who wish to explore it as a hobby. Most towns have small community theaters and are always on the lookout for new talent, so check with your local community center.
If you don’t want to perform live, get a camera and record yourself. Dress up as famous characters and recite world-renowned monologues and soliloquies. Don your favorite Renaissance Fair costume to perform “To Be, or Not to Be,” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and throw it on YouTube to show off your skills.
Get your friends to join in and act out scenes from plays and television shows. If you’re just doing it for fun, you don’t have to worry about copyright laws, but if you ever want to monetize your hobby, make sure you can legally use the content before posting it online.
Improv
Improv could be considered a subset of acting, but it’s a unique skill that deserves its own space on the list.
With improv, you’re still acting as a different character, but there’s no script. You have to make up the lines on the spot! Most of the time, you have to make up the character, too!
It’s a fun way to transform yourself into someone else and try to think like that character would, rather than as yourself.
Film Making
Modern technology makes filmmaking accessible to nearly everyone. In the not-too-distant past, only studios could afford the equipment needed to make movies. Now, anyone with a smartphone can shoot video, and you can download editing software like Blender for free. You can even use an app that allows you to add green-screen-like backgrounds without a green screen.
Cinematography blends writing, directing, and photography. Although some filmmakers hire someone else to write a script, many write their own (or film something that doesn’t require a script, like the iconic floating bag scene in the 2002 movie “The Good Girl.”)
Making a movie takes a lot of work, but it’s well worth the effort for those wishing to express themselves via film. You don’t have to make a full-length motion picture to engage in cinematography – your short film doesn’t need to be more than a few minutes.
All you need to get started is an idea and a recording device. You can upload your short films to apps like TikTok, which allows you to add green screen effects and filters with the click of a button.
You can upload longer videos to YouTube, but that platform doesn’t have the same editing capabilities. You will need to download and learn a video editing program to add cinematic effects, but the editing process is a big part of the fun!
Music
Expressing yourself through music is a creative hobby as old as humanity itself – it’s a gateway to our creative souls.
The best thing about pursuing music as a creative hobby is the world of possibility. You can sing, write songs, play any of the hundreds of instruments, or cover existing songs in new ways.
Allen, from Really Simple Guitar, finds playing a song on his guitar and singing along intrinsically fulfilling. He also loves seeing the joy in his friends’ and family’s faces when he plays for them. He recommends starting with a cheap acoustic guitar or ukulele and practicing the basic chords first. From there, start learning simple pop songs that everyone loves. Soon, you will be the biggest hit at get-togethers!
Peter, from All Guitar Stuff, is another guitarist who praises the virtue of using music as a creative outlet. He’s convinced that learning an instrument will fill you with joy for the rest of your life. He recommends starting with easy online courses.
Guitars have a cool factor, but you can dabble in any instrument you want, or express yourself via singing or DJing instead.
Crafty Creative Hobbies
Crafty hobbies are all about making something. Although many are just as ancient as painting and music, they’re more functional than the pastimes considered traditional creative hobbies.
Humanity often engaged in these activities because they had to, rather than for fun in their free time. But today’s world is very different. We can easily buy what we need, but there’s something special in crafting it yourself.
If you want to explore your creativity while making something useful, consider these craft pastimes.
Needle Work
Needlework is a broad hobby covering a wide range of activities. There’s so much you can do with needle and thread!
Knitting and sewing are two of the most common forms of needlework. Marissa from Stich Clinic recommends starting small. Learn how to finger knit or braid first, then move on to small sewing projects, like a little pillow. These small projects will help you learn the basics and get you into the habit of sewing regularly.
Kaitlin, from Originally Lovely, loves knitting and crocheting, and says it doesn’t take much to start. All you need is yarn and either a hook needle (to crochet) or knitting needles (to knit).
Start with simple tutorials and research the types of threads, as different fabrics can create vastly different results. Once you get the hang of it, let your imagination run wild and adjust patterns to make anything you want!
Needlework hobbies aren’t limited to knitting, sewing, and crocheting. You can explore embroidery, where you sew fun logos or designs into fabrics, or needlepoint arts, where you create an image inside a screen with thread.
If you really want to get into it, try going old-school and learning to weave with a loom like they did before the Industrial Revolution. After trying it once, you’ll have a much deeper appreciation of the vast and detailed tapestries that women of the Middle Ages created.
Upcycling
Upcycling is the art of creating something new out of broken or discarded items. Kris, the founder of Bycurated, loves upcycling. She says that anything can be upcycled, from furniture to home décor.
To get started, she recommends collecting some everyday crafting items, like fabrics, glass, beads, cables, and anything else that might spark your creativity.
Once you have some supplies, you can start upcycling old items. Add jewels to an old mirror to jazz it up and give it new life. Refinish old furniture. Use book pages to create origami. The possibilities with upcycling are limited only by your imagination.
Thrift stores are great places to find old items for your upcycling activities. Wander through the aisles and imagine all the cool things you can create from someone else’s discarded things.
Woodworking
Woodworking is a creative and challenging hobby, but so worth it for the end results. Some woodworkers carve unique sculptures out of tree trunks with chainsaws, while others make impressive small wooden figures by whittling a stick with a tiny knife.
Others use wood as their medium to craft valuable objects, like birdhouses, memory boxes, and even furniture. Learning to use carpentry tools and how to construct small items out of wood is a great way to spark your creativity and design something unique.
Model Building
Building things can be a fun and creative hobby; However, if you don’t want to start from scratch, you can use models. Model railroads were all the rage about 30 years ago, but now there are tons of different types of models you can build. You can purchase model planes, boats, and many other models that you can build and construct at your leisure. I even consider Legos a form of building models!
Many people prefer to paint the models rather than build them, and that’s okay, too. Numerous fantasy games offer blank figurines for you to design on your own. You can purchase blank memory boxes, garden gnomes, and other decorative items at craft stores like Michaels. There are thousands of options when it comes to models!
Basket Weaving
Basket weaving had a bad reputation, as everyone scoffs at those college students who get degrees in “underwater basket weaving.”
Despite the stigma, basketweaving is a fantastic hobby with a long history. Throughout most of human history, we relied on basket weavers as baskets were crucial to carrying and storing food.
We no longer need them as much, but the hobby allows us to consider our ancient roots, learn a cool skill, and lean into our creativity while crafting the perfect vessel.
Jewelry Making
Most craft stores have an impressive jewelry section filled with beads, charms, pendants, gems, and everything else you need to create your own bracelets and necklaces.
Pick the items that speak to you, and chain them together for a personalized piece as unique as you are. If you get really into it, you can explore using real precious stones like amethyst or sapphire in your pieces.
You don’t have to stick to what you find in stores. I used to make seashell jewelry. I’d visit the beach, pick up the prettiest shells, and combine them with beads and charms to make unique beach jewelry. There’s no limit to what you can create when you use your imagination.
Stained Glass
Every church features stunning stained glass portraits of biblical scenes, but did you know that you can stain glass on your own at home?
Painting one clear pane is the easiest way to explore the hobby, but if you get into it, you might want to learn how to cut colorful glasses and glue them together with beautiful copper or silver strips.
Unique Creative Hobby Ideas
I get it – you probably could have come up with most of the traditional hobbies on your own.
These next few hobby ideas offer creative ways to get creative. They’re unique hobbies that also boost creativity – the ideas you haven’t considered yet.
Explore them and try something new today!
Decorative Arts
The decorative arts include pottery and ceramics, glass blowing, and metalworking. These classic art forms allow you to create beautiful items from source materials.
The problem with decorative arts is that there is a high barrier to entry. The intense heat needed to work with these art forms can be hard to find and expensive to access. There is also an inherent danger with working with these heat forms – blacksmithing to create metal works is a fire hazard if not handled correctly.
Find a local art center near you if you want to dabble in any of these creative hobbies. Most of them have kilns available for their members, and they may even offer classes on getting started with these art forms.
Kintsugi
Kintsugi is a Japanese art form that celebrates the blemishes and flaws of older, used items. Rather than throwing broken plates and dishes away, try repairing them with gold and silver to highlight the fractured spots.
Technically, Kintsugi requires a damaged item, but you can get around that by buying cheap china and breaking it on purpose.
The art form is also a metaphor for how we should live our lives. We should accept and embrace our flaws rather than try to hide them. Kintsugi is an excellent creative hobby because
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is the art of fancy lettering. Learn to trace the immaculate curves of fancy cursive scripts, or dive into a different culture and learn the art of making Chinese or Japanese characters.
With calligraphy, style and structure are essential. It’s an art form more than a study of language. The great thing is that it’s easy to get started. You can purchase a calligraphy kit at most bookstores. These kits generally include different inks and practice booklets to help you get started.
Blogging
Blogging is a perfect hobby for people who want to write and learn a little about technology. Although blogging is mostly about writing, it also helps you learn search engine optimization, web design, and marketing. I’m astounded at all the new things I’ve learned from starting my blog that aren’t even related to writing!
Although many blogs are informational, a lot of creativity is involved. You can explore creative writing in how you present information, or get innovative with topic ideas, and discover how things might relate in non-obvious ways.
Partners in Fire is a perfect example because I created a new niche to relate art, gaming, and travel together with a bit of a financial spin.
Kit-Bashing
Kit-bashing combines model building with painting and inventing. With kit-bashing, you don’t follow the instructions from the model kit. Instead, you combine pieces from various kits with other items (like toys, beads, Legos, or random things you have around the house) to create new characters or monsters.
You can try kit-bashing for less than $20. Head to your local dollar store and grab some random packages of toys, beads, and hot glue. Use your imagination to create a character that’s part robot, part horse. Make new monsters from beads and Legos.
Once the glue is dry, repaint your creations to give them a cohesive look.
Kite Making
Flying a kite is a relaxing way to spend a spring afternoon at the park. But although you can buy that cool kite, you could also embrace your creative side and make one!
Kite stores sell a variety of kite designs, giving you step-by-step instructions on putting one together. You could also ditch the premade designs and make your own! You’ll have to learn a little bit about aerodynamics and the physics of flying to get your creation off the ground, which is a great way to combine science with creativity.
Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking is a creative way to document your life. You can use photos, stickers, sketches, and interesting scraps from all the fun things you do to build your scrapbook.
I love scrapbooking because it allows me to use my photos and memories to tell my story in my own way. I use ephemera and scraps to write little in-jokes or reminders, cut my photos into silly designs, and use stickers for extra flair. The best part is that the finished scrapbook also serves as a photo album and memory box I will cherish forever.
Card Making
My husband’s mother makes unique cards for every special occasion. I love receiving her home-made cards with leprechauns for St. Patrick’s Day, cats for my birthday, and turkeys for Thanksgiving.
She uses construction and scrapbook paper, cardstock, stickers, and foam shapes to craft the perfect card for each person. It’s far more personal than the standard cards you buy at the store, and she loves doing it.
Junk Journal
Junk journaling offers a special way to combine creativity with your daily journaling practice: you make your own journal pages!
Collect papers, scraps, and ephemera and combine them to make a journal that’s as unique as you are. Create your own cover with cardboard and construction paper. Bind it with twine or staples.
When you’re done crafting the journal, use it as a scrapbook, art journal, or diary, and continue adding creative content whenever inspiration strikes.
Dancing
Dancing is an excellent hobby because you can be creative and work out simultaneously. Some dances, like ballroom dancing, are highly formal. You can take classes to learn the exact steps and moves, and learn the difference between a waltz and a tango.
Other dances offer more freedom. Let loose by creating an interpretive dance piece based on your favorite movie, or get creative by making up your own choreography routine for your favorite song. It’s a fun way to work out both your body and your creative muscles.
Paper Mâché
Cosplayers often use paper mâché to create their swords, shields, and armor, but there’s far more you can do with the craft.
Make decorations, ornaments, toys, or ephemera for your junk journal with paper mâché. The best part about this creative hobby is that most people can start with stuff they have lying around their house. The easiest paste is made from flour, and you can use old papers, envelopes, or magazines as your strips.
Cosplay
Young millennials took a niche hobby into the mainstream. Though older folks were dressing up as their favorite characters for decades, millennials and Gen Z perfected and popularized the hobby.
With cosplay, you get to become your favorite character, and it starts with the costume. Although you can easily buy many costumes online, creatives prefer to make them, sewing the materials and crafting armor out of paper mâché, wood, foam, or whatever they have laying around.
Some of the cosplay I’ve seen is a work of art.
Collage
Grab a poster board and old magazines and make something beautiful! A collage combines scraps and pieces of random things into one stunning (and sometimes useful) work of art.
I use collage when I make vision boards. I find inspiring photos and words from magazines and put them on my board as a daily reminder to reach for my dreams.
Role Playing
My cousins love role-playing, and I’ll be honest, it’s not a hobby I totally understand, but it’s such a creative way to spend time that I couldn’t help but include it on the list.
One of my cousins is in a Discord server dedicated to role-playing for a specific anime. Every server member plays as a different character from the show, and they behave in the server as the character would behave. It’s similar to acting in that they’re becoming someone else, but they have to really embrace it, because there’s no script telling them how to behave.
My other cousin is in a broader style of role-playing community, where they get to make up their own characters that they play as. Some of them even make character designs.
Either way takes a ton of talent and imagination.
Thousands of Other Creative Hobbies
ImageFlow via Shutterstock.com.
This post can’t be all-inclusive. The truth is, there are thousands of niche hobbies out there that you can pursue. You can make candles, build box cars, paint rocks – there is absolutely no limit to finding interesting activities to occupy your time.
Some things on this list may speak to you; others may not. Everyone is different, and everyone has different interests. There should be enough here to help you get started, though!
Creative Activities for Adults
Many people think of arts and crafts as activities for children, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. All of the hobbies on this list are great activities for kids of all ages to enjoy.
Where in the rulebook does it say adults can no longer engage in creative activities? That they can’t cut out construction paper stars, make paper mâché crafts, or even play with Lego building kits.
Nowhere, that’s where!
Culture is catching up. Legos are now made for adults. Adult coloring books can be found on bookshelves across the country and online. More and more adults are finding ways to embrace their creativity, and you can too.
Get Out There And Get Creative!
What are you waiting for? Get out there and start exploring your creativity, whether with something on this list or something different. There’s no limit to the creative hobbies you can pursue!