The r/craftit subreddit describes itself as a hub for ‘Open Source Crafting.’ At the time of writing, the community stood at 27k members.

At first glance, this might not sound like many people. After all, many of us are used to seeing influencers and social media projects with hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers. However, 27k actual artists and creatives is actually a very impressive number. Case in point, the r/craftit sub ranks among the top 4% of Reddit communities in size. And many members are proud to share their newest creations with the other redditors.

Most of us feel drawn to create something, beyond our jobs and studies. This calling can take a different form for different people.

Some folks feel drawn to architecture, woodworking, home design, gardening, construction, or cooking. Others embrace dance, music, or filmmaking. Still, others find the most purpose when drawing, writing, painting, embroidering, or… doing anything else.

There’s no single ‘right’ way to be creative because there’s creativity to be found in most activities. (Well, possibly not drearily boring paperwork, though even that can be fun if someone looks for meaning in between the dullness.) What activities you choose to embrace is entirely up to you.

None of us should feel pressured by our social circles to pick one popular thing over something else that we enjoy more.

If you do not feel passion for a particular style of art, crafting, or DIY, you won’t be able to fake it for long. At the end of the day, we have to enjoy the creative process itself, not just the end result. Sure, a lot of people dream about being novelists of world renown, celebrated architects, and artists who start a new movement. However, all of those paths require huge amounts of emotional investment, time, effort, and dedication.

If you fundamentally do not like writing, designing, or painting, you won’t be able to keep up these activities for long enough to get good at them. The upside is that there’s a very wide range of creative hobbies and pursuits to choose from. Creating music, taking up embroidery, dancing your heart out, or becoming the world’s best chef might be up your alley instead.

Or it might be something extremely niche or even unheard of. It’s up to us to figure out what we enjoy, what we’re good at, and what we don’t mind suffering for, and then showcase those talents.

If you’re completely new to an artistic hobby, you’re in for a fun, albeit challenging time. There’s going to be a lot of frustration, self-questioning, and mistakes down the line. So before you even start, you need to be in the right mindset. Accept that you will make errors (and lots of them!).

However, that’s part of the learning process. We cannot get better if we don’t mess up over and over again, and then learn from those same mistakes.

The type of habit you want to form is going to heavily affect how long it’ll take for the behavior to be automatic. Going on a new diet, brushing your teeth more often, starting a new exercise regimen, or drinking just one extra glass of water each day is going to take very different amounts of time.

Not to mention that the effort required is going to vary from habit to habit, and getting in the groove of learning one new skill daily to another. Apply that same thinking to different artistic pursuits.

Healthline states that it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for someone to form a new habit. The average amount of time for a behavior to become automatic is around 66 days. You might be naturally gifted in some areas. Meanwhile, you might struggle with other activities far more than the average person. It’s hard to say how easy or hard you’ll find learning a new skill before you actually get your feet wet.

There are tons of resources all over the internet that can help you learn those new skills. You can also apply for online or in-person courses, or ask professionals whom you respect in the field for advice. Most creatives are very friendly and happy to pass on at least some of their wisdom (so long as you ask politely). It’s also a great feeling when you can mentor someone who’s new to the field.

Theory, however, is far easier than practice. It’s best to start painting, crocheting, and doing stuff with resin ASAP! We learn best by doing things, not just hyping ourselves up with online tutorials and motivational articles.

We would love to hear which of the projects featured in this list you liked the most, dear Pandas! Which ones stood out to you the most and why? Were there any that you’d be proud to have at home? What arts and crafts projects are you working on at the moment?

Scroll down to the comment section to tell us all about it!