Craft Fail- a fun new book and giveaway!
I was provided a copy of Craft Fail for this review. Links provided are affiliate links to Amazon. All opinions are my own.
As a crafter, I am known for unusual projects such as my Faux Stained Glass, and my art made from disposable aluminum pans. And since I tend to be crafting more than most folks I know, odds are that occasionally one or two of my projects do not turn out as planned. In the crafter’s arena, we call this a “Craft Fail“. Let me tell you about a fun book and give you a chance to win your own copy!
Yes, I have Craft Fails now and then. Sometimes I tell you about it, and then sometimes I would just rather forget about it. Seems that sometimes experimentation can lead to fails, but then again if I didn’t experiment, there would never be successes, right?
There was that time I tried to make Skeleton Leaves and ended up with Leaf Butts. I still don’t know what I did wrong on this project. I just know that the smell of leaf butts is not something that I ever want to breathe again. Just saying. Even the dogs were offended…
The time I tried to make banana bread…
Quit laughing.
Oh, and let’s not forget the time I tried to make “Puzzle Nails“. That project was supposed to be so simple even a moron could do it.
Meet the moron that couldn’t…
Craft Fails happen to the best of us. Pinterest shows us photo after photo of beautiful, amazing crafts and foods, encouraging us to try our hand at it. Sometimes, we come up with something just as amazing. And then there are times that “amazing” just may not be the word we are looking for.
If you like to read about the trials and triumphs of crafting, then Heather Mann, the founder of CraftFail.com and DollarStoreCrafts.com, has written a book that you will love!
Heather takes us to a world where beautiful festive turkey cookies end in a sad, hot mess of icing, “easy-to-make” glitter pumpkins become a puddle of sparkling goop.
CraftFail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong
is a fun compilation of the best craft catastrophes out there. From oversized head gear to microwave soap sludge, to glitter shoes that have glitter on everything but the shoe. This fun book puts them all together with comments from the craft designers and fun commentary from the author.
But amidst all the terrible failure is a celebration of those among us who are brave enough to pick up the scissors and get crafty!
Because even if you can’t make a handsome paper mâché stag to hang on your wall, why shouldn’t you try? As Heather says, you learn more from trying and failing than not trying at all. And when it does go wrong—as it inevitably will—you can always find solace in sitting back and laughing at the ridiculous results.
CraftFail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong is now available on Amazon! Be sure to check it out!
Want a chance to win a free copy?
Leave a comment below telling me about one of your craft fails. On Monday, November 17, 2014, I will draw a random number and send the winner a free copy!
The time I tried to makes some silver glitter balls using polystyrene balls, mod podge and glitter. The gluing and glittering process all went well but then me with my novice craft wisdom plus a lack of basic chemistry, thought it would be a great idea to seal the glitter not with more mod podge but with clear varnish. Imagine my surprise when the chemicals in the varnish reacted with the polystyrene. My lovely glittered balls became shrunken, mishappen oddities which I had to sadly discard.
One of my second year quilts, I still hadn’t learned, and I used the wrong thread. Before I could quilt it, it fell apart. The stitching dissolved from a too hot iron, is the concensus. It happened to a couple of other quilters in my guild. I am now remaking the queen sized quilt, slightly smaller. Turns out my blocks weren’t full sized either when I measured them after taking the quilt apart. Live and learn? cdahlgren at live dot com
My craft fail was trying to make my daughter a blanket using her old clothes and new fabric. I used wrong types of fabric,(who knew some fabrics shrink!) I started it when I was pregnant with my son (thought this would be a good thing for me to give her as a “ice breaker” to tell her about her little brother) I feverishly worked on it in the last months of pregnancy and got it all done except the edging which I couldn’t figure out. My sister finished the blanket when my daughter was 10, 4 years after I “finished” it! I found out I can not sew, even with a sewing machine!
Think what a spin you could put on it if you DIDN’T show the original!
I tried to knit a sweater for my husband and it came out about twice the size it should have! Turns out my stitches are just a wee bit loose than they should be. We got a good laugh out of it.
I made a skirt as a present for a friend, but it was too wide by 2 inches when she tried it on, so I measured in from the side seams 2 inches, and whacked them off — both sides. thus decreasing the width by 8 inches! I got a skirt that would fit a toothpick. I cried. That’s the last fitted skirt I’ve ever made as a present. 🙂
there was this gorgeous wreath for Halloween that was made with candy corn. it looked so easy and cool that i went out and bought all the items needed to make it. thank goodness i went to the dollar store for my purchases. when i started to lay out my design (i was going to copy the one right off the craft page) i realized that some of the candy corns looked terrible. they definitely didn’t wouldn’t fit into the design i wanted. what they never told me was that i would have to cull (separate) the corns that had good ends. so i attempted to go bag to bag and find all the “good” candy corns. after going through 8 bags and coming up with approximately 2 bags of usable pieces i gave up. anyone in the mood to eat some candy corn with me?????
A sewing fail (and still continues to plague me) is making pajama pants for my kids. Either the crotch is way too small and legs too skinny, or they’re way too huge (think parachute pants). I can make all sorts of other complicated sewing projects, but pajama pants elude me still.
My 12 year old daughter and I decided to paint the inside of glass jars. We measured out the Modge Podge and water and tinted it with food coloring just like the instructions from Pintrest told and showed us to do. We let the inside painted jars sit upside down for the allotted hour and then baked it at 225 degree’s in the oven just like we were instructed to do. Instead of beautiful glass jars that had a transparent look to them, one must have baked the Modge Podge mixture off because it came out clear, like when we started, no tint at all! The second jar we did had a wet, sticky mess of the Modge Podge mixture left at the bottom after baking. Still not sure what we did wrong, because like you said, it looked so easy even a moron could do it, well meet 2 morons, because we failed miserably on this “easy beginner” project. I am not a “beginner” crafter, so I knew this project would be easy peasy and we would have beautiful transparent jars that we could put dried flowers in, well, that’s not happening!! Would love to win a copy of this book, it looks like it is right up my alley!! Have a blessed Sunday!!
I love the idea of refashioning and eagerly bought a stash from the goodwill store and set about remodeling a pile of clothes. Except, I am petite, and looked like your shrimpy little sister playing dress-up. I guess it only works for tall people!
First time I tried to glitter Christmas ornaments & my friend went to pick them up and glitter was sparkling all over her outfit down to her shoes hair,,everywhere..It was too much glitter not enough glue not enough drying time .Glitter Mess for weeks but finally got it right.
For some reason I cannot make crochet booties. I am (or should be) a fairly seasoned crocheter but making booties that would fit a four year old or a very tiny baby is all I ever manage. I pretty much have one bootie syndrome because of this. Have tried every one I think I can do to no avail.
When I was a young teen (a long time ago before melted crayon art was popular), my sisters and I thought it would be cool to make a colorful candle. We had no idea what we were doing, but mom and dad were away and the kitchen was vacant. We peeled the paper off of used, broken and small Crayola crayons, put them into a frying pan and turned on the stove. They started to melt; we stirred it with a wooden spoon and Voila . . . we had a huge mess on our hands! I think my mom was able to adequately clean the pan for future use, but the wooden spoon a total loss.
nice book
I’m in my early 60’s now but I still remember the course I took as a teenager at the Singer Sewing Center in Detroit. (My mother signed me up because she thought every woman should learn to sew a shirt-waist dress.) Anyway, all was going well until I was told I had to trim the seams with pinking shears after the dress was complete. I not only “pinked” the seams but also the dress itself. I was so upset and tried mending the “accident” as best as I could. Thank goodness, the “accident” was near the waist so I ended up buying a wide belt to hide it. I have never forgotten that experience and can still picture the dress and the “mistake.”
love receiving your e-mails
I took Sewing in High School in 1972, my Junior year. For my first project, I had to make a long-sleeved, high neck dress (because, of course, everyone should learn on something impossible). I put the first sleeve in just fine, but got all mixed-up on the second sleeve. I ended sewing it into the neck hole. I ended up with a turtleneck dress for a one-legged giraffe. My teacher laughed and laughed at me. I hate knits to this day…
One of my craft fails is when I was trying to dye some fabric and it came out looking like mud.
I was laughing over the banana bread, and was wondering what happened to them. thank you and GOD bless.
While making an afghan I got so wrapped up on the next row I forgot the middle repeat rows whwn I got to the end of the instructions my afghan was two feet long. Rip it out I did.
I have a whole closet full of failed sewing projects or ones I just became bored with. I always list the finishing of the projects on my New Years List. Maybe this year will be the year.
My failures are mostly with bracelets and necklaces. I get an idea, get it all laid out, and strung, only to find that I left off a bead or mixed up two beads, or I just didn’t like it that way and had to start again. It really makes me crazy when I’m in a hurry (never a good thing) and have already put on the fasteners! Ughhhhh……………!
My paper mache always looks like an effigy of a martian. And many of them have ended up as camp fire starters. I really have to be more patient. I just love these stories about how things don’t work as expected. I have a box of “brilliant Idea” cards. Good grief. Still I can’t stay out of the craft room. No reason to stop now.
I’ve had too many craft projects that ended up filing for disability when I was finished with them….too many to have to pick one….when I get one right its fantastic but man when I bomb out on one firefighters usually have to be called I deserve my own chapter in the Craft Fail book..hehehe
I’ve had many, but one that comes to mind is when I tried to make clay beads, thought I followed the directions accurately but when they came out of the oven it looked like a two year old had done them.
When I was a Daisy GS leader, our troop was decorating tee shirts. I had saved cardboard from cereal boxes to put inside the shirts while the girls decorated with fabric paint. One of the other leaders let the girls start before I had distributed the cardboard. The girls saturated the shirts with paint. The paint seeped through to the back and they were stuck together. After the shirts dried we pulled them apart. The girls didn’t seem to mind, but I was mortified.
LOL, fails are many with me. I love those concrete containers. Hey, it’s simple enough, and wanted to have something other than clay pots. I mixed the cement, readied the container, and poured. But after waiting what seemed for days, I took off the mould, looked so pretty. Now I moved it to dry more, and it fell apart. Guess I can’t read, and added to much water to the mix.
ha,ha as I’ve said before Suzy,I love your blog & I think you have to do every day is have good laugh keep’s ya young,Like book now that should give people good laugh,ha,ha, Thank’s later keep up great work you do…