Give yourself a pat on the back, Spring Break is finally here! As a parting gift, we wanted to give you a list of 5 new hobbies to try out over the break and everything you need to get started if you’re looking to explore new things or spice things up in this period of redundancy.
#1 DIY your own stamps
You may have done this in your elementary art class, however, I’ve never gotten to experience this until recently and let me tell you I am obsessed with it. You can make your own rubber stamps using linocut printing techniques! In linocut printing, essentially, you carve a design into a linoleum block and what's left of the block is inked and printed.
Feeling impulsive? Here’s everything you need to get started:
Any sort of ink pad or ink or even paint!
Paper, surface, or journal to transfer your masterpiece to
Tip: Make sure you are always cutting away from yourself and be aware of your hand placements at all times to keep them away from the path of your blade!
#2 Learn how to play the ukulele
The ukulele is such a friendly instrument for beginners in music! You don’t even need any prior music knowledge to pick this up. With only 3-4 chords or combinations of notes, you can play hundreds of songs.
The Ukulele Teacher is a great resource! In this video he teaches you how to play Riptide by Vance Joy with only 4 chords!
Here’s an Amazon link to a recommended beginner ukulele if you’re feeling impulsive.
#3 Try out some Origami
When you were younger, you may have folded paper into a little boat or a fortune teller. That is essentially what Origami is all about! All you have to do is fold paper into interesting shapes and figures and let me tell you that there is so much you can do with a small piece of paper. The best part of pursuing this hobby is that it is free! It takes no financial investment whatsoever and you could start today!
Impress your friends and family with your ability to transform pieces of paper into practically anything you want. You could make animals, stars, toys, and more. Here are some pictures of cool things you can make!
Here are some websites that have easy to follow instructions on how to make things Origami style:
Heads-up: if you can buy square paper, you can save time on having to turn letter sized paper into a square (it streamlines the process by a lot)
#4 Do some funky card tricks
Wow your friends and family by learning some cool card tricks! Or if you’re just really bored, try this out to challenge yourself.
Here’s how to do the Jimmy Woo card trick from Wandavision and Marvel’s Ant-Man. (This one’s a bit trickier!)
#5 Calligraphy
Learn how to hand-letter! You don’t need any fancy calligraphy pens to start. Crayola Supertips are also very popular for hand lettering. This is perfect for journaling, writing letters, or spicing up your organic chemistry notes when we get back from break.
Here are some videos to get you started:
We hope this was helpful and motivating! Let us know if you try out any of these ideas over the break by tagging us (@utswe) on Instagram!