Best Natural Materials for Crafty Projects

Sometimes newcomers to the Arts and Crafts world get sidetracked by all the expensive purchases they think they have to make, or get lost in the multitude of materials they have to order online or pick out in a big, loud hardware store.

This jumping into a great big unknown is pretty discouraging, so my goal is to ease you into the world of low-budget crafting with readily available materials. Read on to find out more about them.

Regular Origami Paper

If you’ve ever made a paper airplane in your life, you’re on a good way of becoming an Origami Master. Your regular copy paper can provide hours of fun, and you can try making those paper cranes and frogs, alongside many other fun creatures. Speaking of paper planes, did you know there are world championships for paper plane makers? It’s a big competition where the best, longest and farthest flying planes are picked out of a very competitive bunch. Test your skill and luck with this very low-entry price craft.

If you feel like a regular, run-of-the-mill paper is holding you back, you’re correct! There are specialized extra thin or extra thick papers that you can buy, with varying densities and other parameters. Maybe you can make a pretty good origami crane with a regular piece of paper, but for the Origami masterworks, you’ll have to buy the specialized one.

Anything You Find In Nature

Anything you find while taking a walk outside, for example a very nice round pebble or an acorn, a tree branch or a flower, can be made into a nifty little craft project! A small white pebble can be made into a charming necklace, or it can be glued into a mini-Stonehenge you might want to have in your living room. A small tree branch can be whittled down into a tiny chopstick that you can use while you cook, and you can press flowers and plants and make a herbarium you can proudly display above your fireplace. Personally, I carry a pressed 4-leaf clover in my wallet for good luck.

Wood

We have mentioned tree branches before, but you can also take pieces of old wood or buy a 2×4 workpiece and make something out of it. It only takes basic woodworking tools like a saw, a chisel, a very sharp whittling knife, some sandpaper and a wood file (it’s a bit different than a metal file). This might seem like a hefty shopping list, but a hardware store employee can get you everything for under $30.

If you’re on an extremely tight budget, a good knife and a few blocks of wood are all you need. Now that we have all the necessary tools, we can make basic crafts like wood dice or very simple rolling pins and wooden spoons for cooking. These aren’t hard to make, and nothing beats making lunch with the cutlery you made yourself.

Note: Remember to be cautious while using any edged tool and watch your fingers!