Starting a new creative hobby
January – fresh starts, exciting beginnings and a new creative hobby
What’s missing from this New Year’s resolution list? Do more exercise, save more money, eat more healthily, lose some weight? These were some of our most popular resolutions for 2024. But wait – where’s the one that helps you achieve more, frees your imagination, and makes you feel good about yourself? That’s the subject of this blog – the power of starting a new creative hobby.
Why creative hobbies are good for our wellbeing
Taking up a new creative pastime is the ultimate January detox and recharge rolled up into one.
Being creative takes us out of ourselves, and the world around us. Creativity helps us shut out the white noise of the here-and-now and be fully present in the moment.
Participating in a creative hobby, de-stresses us: creativity changes our brain patterns, and quite simply, helps us feel good. That magical feeling of being ‘in the flow’ – when your ideas just seem to have a life of their own – is a powerful tonic for our wellbeing. Journalling, poetry and storytelling can help us express and process difficult emotions and situations. Which is why creative hobbies are sometimes prescribed on the NHS in the form of art therapy!
What new creative hobby will you try in 2025?
Once you start noticing, there are literally hundreds of arts and crafts that you might want to try. The possibilities are endless!
So, we’ve whittled it down to our top 7 creative hobbies for 2025 – and a Zebra Pen recommendation to start you out on a new creative journey.
Calligraphy
That exciting artform where drawing, letter forming and the written word come together. Calligraphy can enhance everything from a seating plan to a studygram, a handmade greetings card to an illustrated gift.
Choose: Mildliner Brushes are perfect for both the beginner and experienced calligrapher. You’ve a choice of 15 colours, available as packs of five in the Deep and Warm colour range, the Cool and Refined palette and finally, in fluorescent shades (we think you can guess that colour palette!) You can also buy in 10 and 15-pack mixed palette combos.
Illustration
Sketching from nature, memory or even your own photos can be completely absorbing, and it deepens your powers of observation. When you get more confident, add a touch of colour.
Choose: Start with the Z-Grip refillable mechanical pencil. Build-up to the Sarasa Clip 0.5mm pens which are perfectly suited to fine line work and sketching – and of course, Sarasa-smooth: custom-made for illustrating, doodling or drawing.
Scrapbooking and collaging
Do you already keep tickets from concerts or journeys you’ve taken? Find your pockets full of little mementoes of daily life? Why not turn them into art and collage, or scrapbook them? You can get creative with the layout and the design, while keeping your mementos safe.
Choose: Our combo 14-pack Journalling Set includes the brighter Sarasa Clip 0.5mm colours and co-ordinating Mildliners shades for maximum versatility. Mildliners are mild and translucent in colour, minimising bleed and Sarasa Clip gel pens contain smooth, non-smearing archival quality gel ink, making them ideal for use in journals and scrapbooks.
Creative writing
Creative writing can be addictive! You can start your journey with writing fiction, poetry, journalism, or a mix of all three. You might want to write on a laptop or make a couple of rough versions of a poem or piece of work, but then write it out and illustrate it by hand – with Zebras of course!
Choose: We love the Journaling and Lettering Set with smooth-flowing Sarasa Clip pens and coordinating Mildliner Brush, marker AND chisel tips. Looking for a smooth, inky, jet-black gel pen for the basics? Try the 0.7mm Ola Gel pen.
Journalling
This could be our number one creative hobby to enhance creativity and emotional wellbeing. Keeping a journal is as fun as it’s therapeutic, and it’s lovely to look back on at the end of a year.
Choose: Either the Journaling Set or the Journaling and Lettering Set would be fantastic versatile picks.
Cooking and cake decorating
Not only are cooking and baking highly creative, but they’re doubly pleasurable because you get to eat the end results!
Choose: We don’t suggest you use Zebras on foodstuffs! But writing up your favourite recipes in your own cook’s notebook, means your best biscuits and cookies are always close to hand! The Sarasa Clip 0.7mm gel pen in vintage black is a good option here. (And the McKie dual tip permanent marker pen is ideal for labelling goodies you want to store in the freezer).
And finally, colouring
There’s a reason why so many of us turned to those mindful and absorbing adult colouring books when the world turned upside down during the pandemic. All you need is the book, a quiet evening with background music or tv, and a bumper pack of Zebras. The only thing that might tax you is deciding on one shade of blue over another!
Choose: Mildliners are our go-to pens for this.
Spoilt for choice? Take a lead from our Zebra ambassadors
Still undecided which creative hobby might be for you? Let those artistic all-rounders, our multi-talented Zebra brand ambassadors, inspire you. All of them have more than one creative string to their bows.
Apart from being an arch calligraphic artist, Andrew also loves to cook and draw; Chloe’s into expressive face-painting. Amanda’s our nature photography expert; Peach’s artistic reach extends to ballet and violin (she’s Grade 8!).
Claire has many creative hobbies from scrapbooking and card-making to sewing, and Lois too has an array of artistic activities from crocheting to resin crafts and jewellery making.
Sneak peek exclusive! In 2025, we’ll be sharing ‘How to…’ blogs and videos from our ambassadors with you all. Topics include: journalling techniques, journalling in foreign languages, and pen skills and techniques. Look out for their inside info and inspo. Coming soon: Amanda shares her top tips on ‘How to draw birds’.
And come next December, you might have a brand-new creative hobby to record in your review of the year!