Being stuck home alone can be boring or an opportunity to get creative and daring with no interruptions. Take advantage of the freedom with these fun activities and make the most of your alone time.
Fun In the Kitchen
Whether you're someone who already knows how to cook or not, getting creative with food is tasty. Plan ahead and get ingredients you know you'll need, or experiment on the fly with whatever you find in your kitchen.
Make a Dessert Mash-Up
Have you ever heard of the Cronut, a cross between the doughnut and croissant, or a brookie, the offspring of a brownie and cookie? These delicious creations smoosh two awesome desserts together to create something tasty and new. Can you create the next great dessert craze?
What You'll Need
- Ingredients for two different desserts
What to Do
- To start, think of two desserts you love. How could you pair these things together in a way that still showcased both?
- Make the batter or mixture for each dessert, then experiment with ways to combine them. Give your cheesecake an oatmeal cookie crust or fill cupcakes with a surprise peanut brittle crunch.
- Keep in mind, anything that contains raw eggs needs to be cooked properly. For example, don't add raw cookie dough to a refrigerated cheesecake recipe, leaving the cookie dough raw in the end.
- Give your new creation a catchy name and start taste testing. Don't forget to post on social media to start the new dessert craze.
Create Your Signature Drink
Bars, restaurants, companies and even individuals love to impress party guests with a signature drink. These cocktails often feature a unique mixture of ingredients. Nonalcoholic signature drinks include the Shirley Temple, made from ginger ale and grenadine syrup, or an Arnold Palmer, made from half lemonade and half iced tea.
What You'll Need
- A pitcher
- A glass
- Large spoon
- Beverages and drink mixes
What to Do
- Think of your favorite drinks and flavors. What should your drink say about you? Does color matter more than flavor?
- Once you've decided on flavors and color, it's time to start experimenting. Start by mixing two ingredients.
- Try out different combinations, add in more ingredients, and alter the amount of each drink in the mixture.
- Taste test during each step until you create your signature drink.
Make It Work
Take a food item you don't like and challenge yourself to find a way to make it tasty. Hate Brussels sprouts? What if they were dipped in chocolate or wrapped in bacon, would they taste any better?
What You'll Need
- A food you dislike
- Tasty ingredients
- Cookware and utensils
- Internet connection and capable device
What to Do
- Choose a food you don't like. Pick something you've tried a few times before and just never loved.
- Get online and look up recipes using your chosen ingredient. Are there creative cooking methods and ingredient pairings you've never tried that sound good?
- Pick a recipe or choose ingredients and get cooking.
- Make a few different versions of the dish to taste test.
- Do you still dislike the ingredient or did you find a way to mask its gross flavor?
Get Crafty
Arts and crafts projects can take up a lot of time and leave you with something cool in the end. Choose a project with instructions or wing it and create something unique.
Crop an Old Top
Crop tops are a major trend in the fashion world and can be skin-baring or modest when worn over a tank top. Give new life to an old shirt by turning it into a unique crop top no one else could have. This technique gives you an asymmetrical top that's longer in the back and features rounded bottom edges.
What You'll Need
- An old shirt - can be a tank top, T-shirt, long-sleeve, or sweatshirt
- Large piece of paper (it must be large enough to cover the front of your shirt)
- Sewing Scissors
- A pencil
- A large, rounded object to trace like a platter or pizza pan
- Straight pins
- Sewing kit or machine (optional)
What to Do
- Lay the paper on a flat surface and lay the rounded object on top. Using a pen or pencil, mark the rounded object and cut it out. This will serve as the pattern for where to cut your shirt.
- Lay the shirt, front-side up, on a flat surface.
- Place the pattern over the top part of your shirt. Insert straight pins to hold the paper in place, making sure to only pin the front panel of the shirt.
- Cut along the edge.
- Lay the shirt, front-side up, on a flat surface, making sure to unpin the pattern.
- Place the pattern on the inside of the back shirt panel about 4 to 6 inches below where your front panel now hits it.
- Center the pattern and trace the top edge onto the inside of the back panel.
- You may want to pin the pattern here as well. Cut along the pattern.
- You should have a cropped version of your original shirt that is longer in the back than the front.
The bottom edges of the crop top can be finished any way you like. Sew a hem along the entire shirt bottom to help stop fraying. Cut fringe into the bottom edges by making vertical cuts equally spaced apart. Take the design a step further and embellish the new shirt by sewing a graphic from a different shirt on the front or back of your new top. Crop tops can be made from tank tops, T-shirts, long sleeve shirts and even sweatshirts.
Many Faces of Me Art Project
Create a selfie collage incorporating all aspects of your personality in this fun art project. Everyone has a dynamic personality, maybe you're a bit of a nerd who loves science but you also love playing basketball. A piece of artwork like this highlights everything you are.
What You'll Need
- Makeup
- Variety of clothing and accessories
- Camera
- Photo Paper
- Poster board
- Scissors
- Glue
What to Do
- Brainstorm the different parts of your personality. Are you athletic, silly, smart, fashionable, emotional, dark or sparkly? Make a list of at least four completely different aspects.
- Choose one personality descriptor to start with. Dress yourself to fit a stereotype of what that kind of person looks like. For example, if you choose smart you might wear a button-up shirt, plaid skirt and glasses.
- Pick one pose to use for all your pictures like headshot only or full length vertical. Take a selfie in this outfit.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all the aspects of your personality on your list.
- Upload pictures to your computer. If you have photo editing software you can add effects or change the colors in each picture.
- Print each photo in 5 x 7 or 8 x 10 size on photo paper. You can use regular copy paper if you don't have photo paper.
- Glue each photo to the poster board in equal rows and columns.
- Cut off any excess poster board.
Upcycled Jewelry Holder
Add style to your decor with function when you make a unique jewelry holder from found objects.
What You'll Need
- Hot glue or Gorilla Glue
- Found objects
What to Do
- Choose a jewelry holder style. You could make a tray, wall-hanging organizer, or a free-standing holder.
- Gather the objects you need for your chosen style.
- Build the jewelry holder.
If you need some inspiration, these ideas look cool and are easy to make.
- Stack old dishes like small bowls, plates, and teacups then glue them together for a tiered jewelry tray.
- Paint a tree branch and stand it up using air-drying clay for a natural bracelet and necklace tree.
- Upgrade a picture frame by stringing wire across the open frame and hanging hooks on the wire.
- Screw small hooks around the inside of a wooden hanger for a simple and cool wall hanging.
Make Word Art
Using common household and craft materials you can make cool, modern word art for yourself, your house or your friends. This project takes a lot of time, but the end result will be worth it.
What You'll Need
- Thumbtacks - not push pins, you want the ones with a flatter head
- Foam board or cardboard
- Pencil
- Scissors
What to Do
- Choose a text abbreviation or common descriptive word like sweet, LOL, winning or bfftte. You want a single word or set of letters because they'll all need to be connected in cursive writing.
- Draw the word out in cursive bubble letters on the cardboard. Don't worry if it looks messy, you'll be covering it up.
- Cut the word out on the outside edges, then along any cutouts in the letters. To add style use a colored foam board or paint your board before you start.
- Push the tacks into the board, covering every inch of the background. Choose a neutral color like gold, or find brightly colored tacks for a bolder design.
Make your word art more unique when you use fun craft items like googly eyes, pompoms or smiley face stickers instead of tacks.
Exciting Experiments
Turn your interests and curiosity into an experiment where you are free to make mistakes and maybe create something awesome. Experiments don't necessarily involve serious science concepts, they really just give you license to try out new things to see what happens.
Make Magic Mud
Think of this as the slime craze for people with a lot more patience than little kids. Did you know using common ingredients you can make a mysterious glowing substance?
What You'll Need
- A black light
- Tonic water
- White potatoes
- Food processor or knife
- Large mixing bowls
- Strainer
- Large glass jar
- Water
Follow the instructions in this YouTube tutorial to make crazy glowing mud. You'll basically be using a byproduct of the potatoes mixed with tonic water to create a wacky substance. Now that you know about tonic water's glowing property, can you make other things glow?
Makeover Madness
Have you been wanting to try out fun makeup trends, but have no idea where to start? Check out Lookingforlewys YouTube channel full of trendy makeup tutorials like how to do feathered eyebrows or make glitter freckles.
What You'll Need
- Lots of makeup
- Makeup remover wipes
- A large mirror
What to Do
- Choose one trend to start with. You can do more after, but start with just one to make it easier.
- Find a tutorial or experiment on your own. Try out different colors to see what works best.
- Once you've succeeded in copying a trend, wipe the makeup off and practice the technique.
- After you've mastered one trend, try out more.
New Nail Polish Collection
Create a whole new palette of nail polish colors by mixing different shades from your current collection. Create one new color or a whole collection.
What You'll Need
- Several nail polish colors
- Nail polish remover
- Toothpicks
- Small container to mix polish in
- Color wheel
What to Do
- Look at a color wheel to get an idea how to make different colors.
- Choose a shade to start with and brainstorm how best to create that color.
- Mix two nail polishes and experiment with amounts to make your new shade.
- Add in a third color like white or black if needed to alter the color.
- Paint on your new shade and let it dry to see how it looks. Make alterations if desired.
- Once you've created one shade, try to create a collection of nail polishes with a theme like winter, or fairy tale villains.
Rebuilt Electronics
Have you ever wondered how a radio works or what makes a flashlight click? Learn how things work firsthand by taking them apart and attempting to rebuild them. Before you start, make sure you have permission to take apart your electronics in case you break them along the way.
What You'll Need
- A small item to rebuild like an alarm clock, radio or remote control
- Toolset including flat head screwdriver and tweezers
- A large, flat workspace
What to Do
- Take apart the electronic one piece at a time. As you take off each piece place it in order on your workstation.
- Work backward to rebuild what you just took apart.
- If you get stuck, check online for how to videos.
- Test your item to see if it's working again.
Girl Power
Being home alone can be refreshing, relaxing and fun. Tap into your individual power and make the most of the alone time. Keep yourself occupied and the time will go by faster.
