Lovely senior life

[For Seniors] Enjoy the Hot Summer to the Fullest! A Collection of Easy Craft Ideas

Social worker / Care workermoko
My name is Moko, a mother of three who admired my mother and worked in the care industry as a care worker and as a medical social worker (MSW) in a hospital. I will be drawing on my previous experience to write mainly about caregiving. Thank you in advance.
Care Worker Initial Training Certification ObtainedNakajima Junko
Leveraging my experience working as a care worker at a day service, I am currently active as a writer in the caregiving and welfare fields. Beyond writing, I hope to expand my work into web design and illustration. I am a mother of three who has begun studying to become a certified social worker.

Summer is the season when we start to sweat more and more.

Even indoors, you may sometimes feel the heat.

However, some older adults seem to have a harder time sensing heat.

This time, we’ll introduce some simple, recommended crafts you can do indoors during the hot season, when outdoor activities tend to decrease.

By creating summer-themed pieces, you can help people feel the season, even if it’s become harder to sense it.

After making them, you can take them home or display them at a facility, which can also give a sense of accomplishment!

Crafting involves fine motor movements of the fingertips and thinking through the steps in your head, stimulating the brain and serving as brain training.

Please enjoy making them at your own pace.

For Seniors: Make the Most of the Hot Summer! Easy Craft Ideas (41–50)

Morning-glory summer greeting

[Explanation] Summer Picture Letter: Morning Glory Summer Greeting Card – Beginner-Friendly Flower Drawing Method

Morning-glory summer greeting

There are probably some older people who, upon seeing morning glories, think, “Summer has arrived.” Morning glories are a flower that represents summer.

Try adding them to your summer greeting cards.

Draw morning glories with a brush pen and then color them with watercolors.

If you add light and dark shading to the petals, the expression of the painting will deepen considerably.

Morning glories are vivid in color yet also have a delicate, softly nuanced feel.

A summer greeting card featuring morning glories that captures those qualities is sure to delight the recipient.

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Summer greeting cards made with eraser stamps

Let's make an eraser stamp and create an original summer greeting card.

Summer greeting cards made with eraser stamps

Let’s try making summer greeting cards using stamps carved from erasers.

The erasers you find in the stationery section are soft and perfect for older adults to make stamps with.

Of course, they’re easy to carve with a utility knife or carving tools, but you can also use safer substitutes.

It seems you can make eraser stamps using a clay spatula and toothpicks as well.

Try creating eraser stamps with summery motifs like watermelon, shaved ice, or sunflowers.

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Simple and stylish summer greeting

[Summer and Late-Summer Greetings] Two easy and stylish ways to draw summer greeting postcards | Hand-drawn with Mildliners | summer greeting card ideas easy and cute

Simple and stylish summer greeting

Let me introduce some stylish and easy-to-make summer greeting cards using highlighters.

There are tips for things like how to apply color with highlighters and how to draw clean circles.

That said, there aren’t many complicated steps, so if you enjoy coloring, you’ll likely have fun making them.

Highlighters are also available at 100-yen shops, so they should be easy to prepare.

What’s more, highlighter projects are easy for older adults too—just remove the cap and you can start drawing right away.

The mood of your summer greeting card changes depending on how you arrange the illustrations and which pen colors you choose.

Please use this as a reference for creating unique, stylish, and lovely works by older adults.

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Simple summer greeting with watermelon

Simple: Summer Greetings

Simple summer greeting with watermelon

We’d like to share an idea for a “Simple Watermelon Summer Greeting” that lets you feel the season by making the most of traditional Japanese materials.

Paste a thin sheet of washi onto a postcard, then use red and green paints on top to express the colors of a watermelon.

The natural bleeding and unevenness become part of the charm, creating a refreshingly handmade look.

Add a short note of concern for the recipient’s well-being on a separate small piece of washi, and layer it over the painting to finish.

This piece gently updates the custom of midsummer greetings, which has continued since the Edo period, into a form suited to modern times.

Along with the quintessential taste of summer—watermelon—a heartfelt card delivers both seasonal greetings and warmth.

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Summer greeting with fireworks

Easy-to-draw summer greeting (fireworks)

Summer greeting with fireworks

When we hear “fireworks,” we tend to imagine the kind that shoot up into the sky with a boom, but what’s being introduced here is how to draw sparklers (senko hanabi).

First, draw the sparkler itself, then add red and yellow sparks around it.

As a creative touch, try using the rim of a wax crayon—not just paint—to depict the sparks.

Because the wax is white, it’s hard to see while you’re drawing, but at the end, when you lightly wash the whole piece with blue paint, it creates a resist effect, making the white areas stand out beautifully.

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Goldfish summer greeting card

Easy-to-draw summer greeting (1): Goldfish version

Goldfish summer greeting card

At summer festivals and fireworks displays, you often see stalls for scooping goldfish.

Goldfish scooping is a hallmark of summer and popular with children.

Many older adults may also remember enjoying it with their families.

Goldfish bowls and aquariums have a cooling feel as well.

So why not send a summer greeting card featuring goldfish? Pairing a message of concern about the heat with an image of goldfish can help convey a sense of coolness.

Try drawing the goldfish with a brush or creating them with torn-paper collage.

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Goldfish made with craft bands

A slow, step-by-step guide to making a goldfish (angelfish). An easy craft that even elementary school kids can make—perfect for first-time eco-craft/craft band projects, and doable with PP bands too.

Goldfish made with craft bands

Here’s an idea for making a goldfish out of craft bands.

Prepare two craft bands that are 35 cm long and 6 strips wide.

The length and width will vary depending on the size of the goldfish.

First, fold each craft band in half, layer them, and weave using the box (four-strap) weave.

Flip it over, fold the craft band, and pass it through the next gap.

Repeat folding and threading; once the head and body of the goldfish are formed, leave the fin sections and cut the craft bands.

Tuck in the cut ends to create the tail fin, and you’re done.

Add eyes to finish it off cutely.

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