TikTok Made Me Do It - DIY Edition

I'm sure I'm not the only one here that has been spending too much time on TikTok lately, and the algorithm has been providing me a ton of crafting and small business content. Unfortunately, I'm someone who seems to be unable to just not learn how to do every new DIY project I find on the internet. And even more unfortunately for my wallet, starting a new type of craft is often a several hundred dollar investment. (Don't mind the $250 of candle making supplies in my Amazon cart.) So without further ado, here are my top DIYs that TikTok has made me want to try.

Tie-dye

Look, I haven't had the urge to make tie-dye clothes in at least 15 years until now. Watch these results and tell me you don't want to buy some white shirts and rubber bands! And, it seems there's a whole lot more to the condiment bottles full of liquid dye and twisting the shirt nowadays--I saw people using ice (and even snow--sure wish I could find that TikTok again) with powder dye to do it.

I now desperately want to buy an oversized white sweater and tie-dye it cotton candy colors.

Paper Making

It never even occurred to me that you could make paper at home. I mean, obviously once upon a time paper of course had to be made by hand, but I'd never really considered the process. Watching this TikTok creator make paper has made me consider ruining a blender in the name of making my own paper.

On the upside, it seems like this is one of the cheaper DIY hobbies to pick up--you'll mostly need a big tub, a blender, water, scrap paper, cloth, and that tool they use to scoop the paper can apparently be made out of picture frames and screen. I don't know how easy that is because I haven't tried it yet, but she sure makes it seem simple.

Oh, and what would I use it for? I'd probably make my gamer friends custom books for their D&D notes.

Sticker Making

I'm not even going to lie; I'm firmly on StickerShopTok. I follow a ton of sticker shops, which is particularly ridiculous for me because I hardly use stickers. The permanence of them makes me anxious so all of my fun stickers are in a little envelope in a drawer. I just don't want to only be able to choose the placement once!

Sticker making is actually one I've tried--the 'Thank You" stickers I use are actually made by me, but there's a bit of a learning curve on getting the Cricut cut settings correct depending on your paper and laminate. I'm probably never turning into a sticker shop though, realistically, because my drawing skills are not at all great.

Dice Making

If you're a tabletop RPGer too, I'm sure you understand the addictive nature of dice. D&D can turn just about anyone into a dice hoarder, I think. So watching dice get made by hand makes me want more. I do not need more.

As far as I can tell these are made with casting resin and glitters, clay slices, or whatever else fits in the mould, really. I've worked with resin some and even tried a set of dice, but I find it very challenging to get high quality, bubble-free dice. I think the solution to that is a pressure pot based on all the TikTok dice creators I've watched, but that's just not really a realistic addition to my somehow ever shrinking craft space at this point. Also, the sanding process seems like a lot of work, so kudos to these crafters.

Candle Making

This is the one I'm probably about to spend a lot of money getting started in because I had an idea for a candle for one of my guy-friends. This market seems maybe a bit saturated but the process just looks really enjoyable, so if I end up picking up candle making it will probably just be for gifts for friends.

There's a lot of really fun candle designs that I don't know would have a good melt pool (look at me using candle-maker terms!) but they're probably too pretty to actually burn anyway.

Stained Glass Art

Stained glass is gorgeous and before watching TikTok creators make it, I thought it was way more complicated a process than it is. To be fair, I haven't actually tried it yet so I bet it's harder than it looks, but it actually seems do-able to me.

I'm not into ASMR but the scoring and separating of the glass is satisfying.

So to conclude--

Let me present you with a TikTok that explains my current craft problem better than I can.

Disclaimer: I don't actually have ADHD, but I really identify with this problem.

What's the craft TikTok made you do?