Updated on January 12, 2015
If you are a crafter or DIYer, you are probably no stranger to the dreaded craft fail. I have them all the time. Just in the past couple of weeks I put the iron-on glitter into my Cricut Explore upside down, made a mess of my first wooden Christmas tree project (think sad, little Charlie brown tree) and although it is not a craft fail, per se, I could not for the life of me take a decent picture of my handmade ornament without the whole thing swinging around and the little trees falling over!
Even though my crafting life is filled with craft fails, I often don’t document them. I scrap them, try again and show you the right way to do the craft the first time. I try to offer up my tips for what I did wrong to save you the humility of having to toss your project in the trash! However, so many of these craft fails are often hilarious.
Heather Mann of CraftFail.com and DollarStoreCrafts.com created an entire book documenting small and sometimes epic craft fails. Her site CraftFail.com is a great site to get some encouragement that even seasoned crafters like myself make mistakes.
I was recently given a copy of the book, CraftFail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong. I opened it up and started reading right away. The book is laid out into different sections such as home decor and food fails. There is a photograph of the way the craft “should” look and the way the craft really turned out for someone. The pictures alone are worth a thousand words.
If you have ever tried to recreate something you saw on Pinterest without actually going to the site to see what to do, you might have had a craft fail as a result. Some projects that look inherently easy can be deceptively difficult to pull off in real life.
Recipes can also be harder to follow than you expect. My college roommate and I made one of those shaped Wilton cakes where once you bake the cake the shape is there and you simply have to pipe on the different colors of stars. Ours was a Winnie the Pooh shaped cake. Let’s just say, ours definitely did NOT look like the picture on the cake pan!
This book is both enjoyable to look at and entertaining to read. I could relate to so many of the stories and fails in this book. You definitely need to check it out! I think this would make the perfect Christmas gift or stocking stuffer for your craftiest friends!
Purchase your own copy of CraftFail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong: (affiliate link)
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