CraftFail Book Review

One of my favorite thing about crafting is the process. It is pretty rare that I start out with an idea in my head, run to go get all the supplies, and then actually make the thing exactly the way I originally planned – with all those supplies I just bought. (I think that’s the main reason I stopped taking “supplies” photos. Ha.)

I have to try out lots of different things to see what works best. And sometimes that process results in a mess. Sometimes it’s a little thing that can be tweaked and fixed, and sometimes it’s a hot mess of “oh-my-gosh-what-on-earth-was-I-thinking.” I remember a few years ago I had a ~genius~ idea for this cool t-shirt rag wreath. It was going to be made up of strips of old t-shirts and be all fluffy and awesome. Kind of like a pom pom but round. Yeah. Not so much. After knotting maybe 100 little pieces of t-shirts around a wire frame I had to come to the realization that I was basically making a shaggy hula hoop for a toddler. There went 2 hours I will never get back.

It also usually happens when I’ve gotten delusional and pulled out the paper crafting supplies. I give myself a big ole pep talk and dive in – and make something that looks like small monkeys have been let loose with scissors. Seriously – I have some handmade cards that I thought would be sooooo cool that are just hideous. Hideous. I keep them in a drawer to remind myself of the evils of sticky glue tabs and embossing.

But for me that’s all part of the process – it’s so fun to try and see what works and what doesn’t. That’s why I just loved getting to check out Heather Mann’s new book, Craft Fail!

When Heather asked if I wanted to review her new book I jumped at the chance. I am far from a perfect crafter and I thought it would be so fun to see other people’s oopses. I was so right!

Craft Fail is a great collection of all those projects we’ve seen that look just amazing – and how the attempts can go horribly wrong. I think this would be such a great gift for your creative friends – or anyone really! When the book came in the mail and I started thumbing through it – I showed a few photos to my son. We ended up looking through the entire book together and laughing so hard. It was great.

Here’s a description from the publisher:

“Written by Heather Mann, publisher of CraftFail.com, her hilarious blog with millions of page views and hundreds of thousands of followers, CraftFail celebrates the creative process, but from the other side. This is the stuff that gets the “A for Effort” and LOL for outcome. But once the laughter dies down, it also inspires a warm feel-good respect for crafters who aren’t afraid to fail. After all, even if there’s not a mortal alive except Martha who can make a Waxed Heart worthy of hanging in your window to catch the sun, why shouldn’t many try? When it goes wrong, why shouldn’t the rest of us enjoy this Epic Fail? And then look at all the full-color photos that document it. 

Home decor fails, fashion fails, holiday fails, food fails, kid crafting fails— as one anonymous crafter said: “It wasn’t supposed to end this way.” Luckily for us, it did.”

So let me show you a few pages from inside!

I just love those gorgeous nail projects on Pinterest – but these fails are totally what it would look like if I attempted them.

These Reindeer Treat fails had us laughing so hard.

One of my favorites pages was these sad little sheep cookies. This is why I don’t attempt crafty baking.

I recommend the book as a really fun read and a great gift idea! You can pick it up at Amazon or other book stores I believe.

 

And now that I’ve shared a few of my “Fails” it’s your turn! Share your favorite fail in the comments so we can all join in the fun! :)