When I started DIYing, I quickly learned that not everything goes according to plan. Like the paint saturated roller cover that fell off my roller cage this weekend. Or the umpteen million cuts I’ve made too short. I generally don’t share those things, because they are just stupid things I didn’t think through. But recently, I had a craft fail so bad that I just had to tell someone.
You may remember when Kelly sent me the box of goodies for our thrift store swap. I made a pendant light out of the ice bucket that was in the box. I also had a covered wooden cheese plate and an Elvis silhouette.
After I finished the ice bucket light, I set my sights on the cheese plate. I thought it would make a really cool candle plate to house a group of mismatched candles.
I went though my candle stash (which is pretty large for someone who doesn’t have many candles in the house) and picked a few different sizes and colors. I cut down some taper candles so that they would fit under the glass dome, and I hot glued everything into place on the plate.
Now at this point, I should have been able to tell that things were going badly. There was hot glue all over the place for crying out loud! But, I thought I could fix it. With fire.
I didn’t count on the big candle being sheared by the other candles. And I didn’t consider that all of the candle wax would pool in the grove where the glass dome was to rest.
I should have stopped here and thrown it out. But no. I didn’t. I kept letting those candles burn until wax covered the entire plate.
Well, that looked anything but cool. The candles looked sad. The wicks were just pathetic. And there was hardened wax everywhere.
But, I still couldn’t convince myself to give up. I cut the wicks and peeled up the wayward wax. Did that make it look better?
Negatory.
It was at this point that I decided to throw in the towel. I tried to do something unique and it turned out…well, it did turn out unique – but not exactly the type of unique I was going for.
So, now that I’ve embarrassed myself, it’s your turn. I want to hear about your worst craft or DIY fail. I know you have some stories…and if you don’t, then you aren’t taking enough risks!
I tore apart our ottoman and carefully reconstructed it only to have to be flat as a pancake in about 2 days (see it here). I then redid THAT redo and it turned out better, at least. Still – it is so frustrating when you spend time and it fails – just like trying a new recipe and it flops! But, I guess that is how it goes when you try new stuff, and the high I get when it works is worth it, right??
This is why I don’t do crafts. I fail more often than win. 🙂
If I told you I’d have to make you sign a non disclosure agreement!
Sorry that little cheese dome had such a fate – but I’m glad you gave it a go!
Hoping Elvis is safe!
Kelly
Thanks for the laugh, dude 🙂
Don’t mess with The King, okay?
My sister and I have some pretty epic crafting fails. We once spent an afternoon painting bricks to look like townhouses,to be used as door stops. I think we each eked out one (pathetic) attempt, before we headed back to the shop to buy our inspiration.
I should add that was one of my favorite afternoons ever!
So funny! I’m so glad you are willing to share the good and the bad…
And your timing is impeccable.. just before I was getting ready to write my own project fail post I opened your Blog and saw this. Priceless….
Here is the link to mine: http://www.primerandpaintednailsblog.com/2014/05/im-big-fat-failure.html#.U2mKNPldWSo
I repainted my dining room table with Annie Sloan Chalk paint, not once, but twice! I didn’t like the color the first time, so I repainted it all one color, then put a Minwax polyurethane sealer on it. In a matter of 2 hours, my white table was now yellow from the sealer. It is horrible and totally ugly! So, hopefully the third time is a charm. I’m going to strip the paint and stain the table top, then keep the base and legs painted. Kim in R.R.