Expensive Rocks

Of all the crafting I've done, this one was probably the most time consuming and also the most invested I've been in a failed project simply due to the time it took to find supplies and the time it took waiting for the concrete to set.
On a sunny San Francisco afternoon, some buddies and I took on the task of creating planters and candle holders out of concrete. There were many blogs and pins we referenced for this one. The best and most informative ones we found were Home Made Moden - DIY Modern Candle Holders and radmegan - Molded Concrete Planters.
After gathering all the supplies, we hauled everything up to the rooftop to start our project. For the most part, we followed the instructions pretty well. After filling the containers with cement, we set them on a ledge to dry using a creative adult beverage solution for holding the cups/candles in place (we found that the air bubbles in the cement would push the empty plastic cups up and needed to be weighted).

...Then we waited.... and waited.... and waited.....
The quick drying concrete we bought should have dried fast, however, I believe we used too much water so they took a little longer than they should have to dry, which was mistake #1. Mistake #2 was leaving the concrete containers on the roof overnight. It was a misty and foggy night in San Francisco which added even more moisture to the concrete, which I think was bad? Maybe it was all the sun they got before the fog? Maybe the shade would have helped? Who knows... (seriously, if you read this and you know, tell me!).

The next morning, I was really excited to see how they turned out and hoped they wouldn't fall apart. I peeled off a red cup from the outside of one of the containers and it looked great! I was so excited! But then I tried to take out the inner cup and this happened:

So I tried my luck on another one I made from an orange juice container. It stayed together but had some major cracking that I will need to glue.

 

 

After two in a row with structural damage, I let the remaining continue to sit hoping they that would harden more as some of them appeared to have cracks as well. 

 

My fingers are crossed! Hopefully some of these will turn out ok. If not, we still have another bucket of concrete - there's always round two! Maybe the next time around I can get one as nice as Camille Styles (I secretly... now publicly... hate her because her's turned out so perfect):



Sad Small Vessel

This lovely failure is brought to you by a good friend of mine who also often crashes and burns with crafting. She attempted to recreate a painted bottle with lettering craft using an old soda water bottle, a hot glue gun, and spray paint.
Step number one was to add the lettering to the bottle using the hot glue gun. She tried to make it easy on herself by drawing the letters on with Sharpie first.

Despite her efforts, the lettering turned out a little inaccurate. Regardless of this, she moved on to faze two: applying the paint.

This also didn't turn out as well as she hoped. The paint came out a little drippy leaving her with droopy letters and paint drips. We will just blame it on spray painting outside in the dark at night. To the best of my knowledge, this bottle is displaying proudly in a San Francisco window somewhere, almost spelling out the word "GROW".

Cake Blobs

Happy Valentine's Day to the 15 people (according to Google Analytics) that will actually read this post! <3

Today's lovely disaster is brought to you by an attempt at a thoughtful Valentine's Day gift. 
My other half happens to really love cake pops so I thought I would make some as a surprise. My weapon of choice was Red Velvet and I felt pretty confident with the simple instructions found on the Ben Franklin crafts blog, which ensured my cake pops would look just like the following image:

I nailed the cake baking part, which I am usually known to either under cook or catch on fire, so I was excited thinking the hardest part was over. I failed in a big way, however, when it came time for the candy coating.
As I tried to roll the 1st ball o' cake into the candy melts, the cake crumbled a bit into the candy creating a chunky red consistency. When it came time to roll ball 2 the problem just got worse.

Despite the fact that the candy melts were STEAMING hot they were not as easily applied as the cake crumbled into it. Everything still tasted alright though.... So my solution was to spoon dollops of the candy onto the balls o' cake.

And thus, I delivered a tragic looking Valentine's Day gift. Gift number two was a destroyed kitchen covered in red hand prints :) Lesson learned. I can't bake and need to stop trying.

Gold Farm Animal Magnets

This craft wasn't so much a "fail" as it was almost an "incomplete". I decided to try the "Party Animal Magnet" craft on a rainy Sunday and it turned out to be more of a challenge and an effort than I thought. You can find a tutorial here on SugarAndCloth.com, however, it's a pretty straight forward concept:
1. Cut animal in 1/2
2. Paint gold
3. Apply magnet
UNLESS, you purchase solid plastic farm animals instead of the hollow ones. If that is the case, you will have an hour long battle on your hands.
If this is you, do yourself a favor and find a saw because scissors, steak knives, bread knives and butcher knives wont cut it (pun intended). 

Running the animal under hot water for a few minutes + extreme force ended up doing the trick. Even though I purchased three farm animals, I stopped here because I didn't feel like struggling with the other two (which were much more thick than this one). You also may need several coats of gold paint as most brands seem to be semi-transparent.

 On a final note: buy strong magnets. My bunny halves will not even hold a piece of thin paper (but they look nice! kinda...)

Octopus or...

Sometimes, I like to pretend that I know how to crochet. I mean, I know the basics and can do ok as long as I am making some variation of a quadrilateral shape. Often, though, I over estimate my skills. Such was the case when I decided I was going to make a crocheted octopus similar to the one below:

 

 

I followed the free pattern here (posted on Squidoo) and gave it a shot.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here is the GORGEOUS "octopus" I ended up with:

Wamp wamp.
The result here was mostly due to mediocre skills and failing to follow instructions/count stitches. A few adult beverages may also have been the problem.
I did try this again a few days later and got much better results:

So, unlike Ikea furniture, following the instructions actually helps with this one. 

Sea Anemone

This holiday season, I thought I would get crafty and make pom poms to top my gifts.  I pinned a tutorial months prior and came to find out the link to the tutorial was dead. The image was pretty descriptive, however, and I thought it would be easy enough for me to just wing it without written instructions (see image below).

So I gave it a shot, and this is what I ended up with:

Obviously, I wasn't using enough yarn even though the bundle I created looked like the picture in the instructions. My pom pom looks like a cross between a sea anemone and a Muppet Baby. I did later find this blog, by Elisa Mclaughlin Designs, where a much more clear description is given. Had I followed her instructions, I'm sure my pom pom would have been less sad looking.
I decided pom poms were too much work and my gifts got dollar store bows instead this year.
:)

Sub-par Silverware

Today's post is a common craft found on most DIY boards and blogs: painted silverware. Sounds easy enough, right?

I thought so too.

I was looking for an inexpensive way to jazz up my cutlery collection without spending a lot of money. I thought I had found the perfect solution.  After consulting multiple posts, I followed the instructions found here on the Free People blog. The instructions are pretty straight forward: tape off a section with painters tape, cover the section with acrylic paint, let dry, then spray with protective coating and you're done!

Here's how mine turned out:

I did this to the whole set without testing it first. I used 2 coats of paint and 2 coats of non-toxic shellac. If I wanted to eat with these once and never reuse them, then this craft was perfect. Unfortunately, I did this with the intention of actually using my silverware again and it now looks like this after washing one time by hand and placing them in a drawer.

And yes... That is tape on the spoon. It's shellacked on and can not be removed. Oops.
Moral of the story: test first!