Tribute To Dumb Crafters

A TRIBUTE TO DUMB CRAFTERS

My mom was so proud of her first grand-baby. A girl. She decorated the house to congratulate and welcome the new
arrival home from the hospital. But all my sister and brother-in-law could do is laugh as they drove up and saw the
big sign out front proclaiming, 'It's a gril!' It's been many years, but we still fondly call her our little 'grill'!

Crafting Mistake

I was pregnant with my first child and I read everything I could find. One of the home magazines had this neat
decorating motif, using primary colors yellow/red/blue and "splatter" design. I didn't bother to read the instructions
because it seemed pretty basic. I was very proud of being so clever. I would save myself money and time not having
to buy lots of paint to fully repaint the walls! After getting what I needed, I covered the whole floor with newspaper. I
then proceeded to take my very large standard paintbrush and started "splattering". When my neighbor stopped by
and saw me she looked fairly bemused, I about bit her head off. Not only did the paint go everywhere when I tried to
splatter it above waist level, it meant that the newspapers were sticking to my feet! Every time I tried to move to a
different section, the newspapers would move. Which meant I couldn't paint that area as the paint would get on the
carpet! grr... On top of the fact that I was already frustrated because even after putting on a hat so it wouldn't get in
my hair, it was splattering on my glasses. Not protective glasses, the ones i need to see with.

Mel

• As a teenager, I was just learning to sew by hand and thought that hemming a skirt would be fairly easy. So I

measured, cut, and

sewed the hem. The hem was even and the stitches were perfect. I was quite proud of my job

until I

tried the skirt on and discovered that I had sewn the entire hem up on the outside of the skirt! I was so

disgusted that I

threw the skirt away and never tried to sew anything by hand again.

Judy

• I wanted to make a Halloween tree. My plan was to paint a gnarled, dead branch black, and embed it in a cute,

painted Plaster of Paris pumpkin. I got a BIG pumpkin mold, mixed up a whole bucket of plaster, and set about it.

When

it was dry, it looked great - but I could barely lift it. A bucket of plaster must weigh 30 pounds. The crash was

tremendous when I managed to get it to the

dumpster

and drop it in.

Scott

• It was close to holiday season and I was rushed to get it done time, (prior to Christmas.) My son’s spoiled

Lhasa

was staying with me (since I had spoiled him, I couldn't very well complain about it.) I was painting furiously to

get gifts

finished. The Lhasa launched himself and managed to step in my painting. He ran all over the place

perhaps trying to

rid his paw pads of the sticky green paint. I chased him and finally managed to capture the

"painted sprinter", scoop

him up and wash the paint off his feet. After that I did get the paint off most of what he'd

trod on, in his race.

Unfortunately an antique quilt my Mom made by hand... has borne the marks ever since. At first it really upset me...

some of the materials had come from left-overs from Mom making our clothes in the 1940's & '50's. The materials

were

unusual and every stitch was by hand. However, I got over myself and since the Lhasa is long gone... the little

green

paw prints remind me of a delightful but naughty little dog... which we all loved. They also remind me to watch

what I'm

doing with sticky stuff... that might not wash off... or out.

Ann "Handicrafts seem to breed incidents"

• I made an adorable baby outfit for a friend of mine that had a cute little kitty face on the front. That one came

out

fine, a few months later there was another baby coming along in my family, so I decided to make the same outfit.

It was

a sweater and pants set. I made the sweater and remembering how to finish off the collar, I didn't bother

looking at the

pattern. Unfortunately I also didn't check to see where the kitty face was positioned. So I made the

collar, sewed

everything together, worked in all the ends, and yes, you guessed it, the kitty face was on the back. I

have to admit I left

it that way, because it still was cute.

No Name

• I am an avid snowman collector. A few years ago I had just finished decorating the entire house for Christmas,

including the bathroom. But I thought that it needed something extra. That evening...late into the evening around

1 a.m., I got this crazy idea to paint snowmen on a new unused black shower curtain that I had. I worked on it for

hours

and it was so beautiful. The snowmen were lined up perfectly, and each one was different. I was so proud,

and so tired

by the time that I got it done, I just wanted to hang it up and hit the hay. So that I did!!

Come the next

morning my

hubby is the first to use the bathroom and comes out letting me know that he noticed I painted snowmen

on the curtain.

"Yep, isn't it cute?", I asked. " I just came up with the idea out of nowhere, and painted that thing until

about 4 in the

morning. Real nice honey" he said "but why are the snowmen standing on their heads?"...lol figure!

Colette

• I work with a lot of natural materials for my crafts and have come to put them in the freezer for a few days after

collecting them to kill off any bugs that may be on or in them. I had been busy the week before teaching my first craft

class, however, and didn't grab one of the materials (dried weeds) till I was on my way to class. Soon after starting to

teach the class, and demonstrating how to make the craft, I noticed bugs in the materials I had just collected. First a

few spiders, then some small bugs that I had never seen before. I looked closely at one of the branches and it was

covered! I had to try to keep teaching the class, kill the bugs, and try not to make a fuss about it! Never again. I'll

pick

the materials well in advance and make sure they are bug free!

Charlene

• Sewing a clown costume for a church fair, I was efficiently sewing, when I swung in my swivel chair towards the

ironing board [ergonomically placed of course]. I unknowingly stepped on the foot controller, while removing the suit

from the sewing machine. I heard this grinding noise and the sewing machine " Binding Up ". When I turned to see

why

the machine made the sound, I saw my pinky finger under the presser foot. I pulled the pinky out, but with it

came the

lower portion of the sewing machine needle! I had sewn through my pinky finger. I tried to pull it out, but it

was stuck!!!

My husband even tried, it wouldn't budge!! I went to the ER and had an X-Ray and found it had gone

through the bone

and fractured the tip of the pinky. Needless to say, it required an orthopaedic surgeon to remove it.

Once returning

from the ER with a numb finger with a numbing block, I figured what the heck, it's numb anyway, so I

completed the

clown costume in record time for the next day’s event. ( Ps. I am a nurse and how embarrassing to

come to the ER

where I work with a needle through my finger.)

Lainie

• I was working on a fabulous sewing project and was so excited about the seeing the end result. However,

supper

needed to be prepared. I hurried to prepare a quick pasta dish and rushed back and forth between the

kitchen and

sewing room. I love those pin cushions that slip around your wrist like a bracelet and mine was now full to

capacity. I ran

to the kitchen to give the pasta a final stir when my wrist and the stir spoon touched each other ever

so gently, but just

enough to loosen a straight pin that dropped into the boiling pasta. Luckily, I caught this before

serving supper, but

perhaps I may have not been quite so lucky if not paying attention!

Susan

• I've made a tradition of knitting a baby garment for each grandchild that came along. When my youngest

daughter was pregnant with her third child, I decided to knit a one-piece coverall sweater with mittens and feet

attached. (Here I need to tell you that each time I've made a sweater set, the booties have always knit up too large.

my kids have always made a joke that my booties would fit the babies until they're 21.)

I was really enthusiastic over this one-piece outfit, and worked diligently for months. I was very careful to follow

directions exactly. When I finished the knitting and it came time to sew it up, I was excited and couldn't wait to admire

handiwork. I finished tucking in the last stray ends, and held it up to get the full view.

Oh no! I had knitted the feet on backwards! I cracked up, it was the funniest thing. I couldn't rip it out yet, I had to

show

it to my daughters. They laughed so hard they cried. Needless to say, I ripped out the feet and put a regular

ribbing on

the legs instead of feet. This is one I'll never live down.

Mary

• This isn't so much a dumb crafter, as a just, " I had no idea what would happen if..." I cross-stitched my

nephew a

birth announcement, which took several months to complete, and a complimenting border out of plastic

canvas & yarn.

I just knew it would be beautiful once framed. Well, I made the mistake of taking my cross-stitched

project to a dry

cleaners. Oh, was that BIG mistake!!!! It shrunk! It shrunk, and what is more, my border would no

longer fit

proportionately. I cried, and I cried. Never, never again have I taken a cross-stitched project to the dry

cleaners.

There is just far too much love & effort that goes into the work to leave it in the hands of someone who

may or may not

give a hoot. Not to mention...Your work will shrink! Ultimately, I had to make another border for his

birth

announcement. It did frame beautifully, but much smaller than the original. Sigh.

Cheri

• I was just learning embroidery. I had decorated a pair of jeans with lyrics written in Sharpie, and pins, and

paints,

and as an afterthought, I decided to stitch a band's logo on the back pocket. I was just finishing it off, when I

went to put

my hand in the pocket to check it... you guessed it! I had sewn the pocket completely shut.

Kaiti

• I love painting and drinking tea. So often when painting, I don’t look where I dip the paintbrush and then

wonder

why my tea has green, red and orange paint floating on top. I now try to keep the tea to my left and my water

jug to my

right.

Rene

• If I may, I'd like to tell you of something my mother did. She loved to embroider but hated making French knots,

so I always made them for her when I lived at home. My husband and I were stationed in Spain and I received a

package from her containing a tablecloth which had hundreds of daisies, each one containing about 6 French knots.

cried over that until I noticed the one strange little flower that she had embroidered in a corner. She had been

sitting

up every night to finish all those knots and couldn't resist smoking...sure enough an ash fell and made a little

hole that

she had to cover. That was a really special birthday to me and I always smile when I see that little flower.

Joan

Back when I was in my 20's [there had to be some DUMB reason I did this, right?], I decided to try and do

something with our family room carpet. It had acquired the wear and tear and stains from toddlers and pets and was

light in colour. At the time I was "into" dying everything around, the curtains, blankets, tablecloths, clothes, etc. and

just

happened to have some packages of burgundy colour RIT available... yeah, you guessed it.

I got out a bucket of water, mixed the dye and went over the entire carpet. It looked beautiful! I couldn't believe it!

Why

don't more people do this, I thought. It dried nicely and I was so proud to have come up with such a bright idea!

Until I

started to see footprints popping up in rooms all over the house... burgundy ones... OH NO!!!

I realized that any time anyone had even remotely wet feet or shoes in the family room and wandered off elsewhere,

their footprints followed. We ended up having tip rip out the carpet. We replace it with a beautiful deep

burgundy/wine

coloured carpet [the real stuff].

Every time the poem "Footprint in the sand" comes up, I think of

footprints all over the

house.

Lynn

I was 12 years old, using a hot iron for a craft project I was working on. The door bell rang, so I placed the iron

face

down on the white counter top, not thinking what would happen. Needless to say, an imprint remained on the

counter

for 5 years, until my parents got sick of people asking what happened.

Audra did this!

About 10 years ago in the wee hours of the night, I was up painting for orders that had to be done yesterday. I

was

sitting on my living room floor working on a large bench. I needed to get up, stretch my legs and grab a cup of

coffee. I

came back, sat down and could not find my palette. It was right there when I left, I had no reason to move it,

couldn't

remember taking it to the kitchen, so I drank about half of my coffee, trying to backtrack in my mind, where it

could have

gone. I decided to go back into the kitchen, just to check if I had absently carried it with me and as I

stood, it fell off the

right cheek of my bottom! Sure was glad my family was in bed sleeping and didn't see what I had

done or heard me

giggle. I have come a long way since then and now use a stay-wet palette... I always know where

that is!

Painter did this!

I'm sure [at least I hope] that I am not the only one that has ever done this. When I first began sewing well, I was

sewing

an outfit for my daughter and I was going along really well. Needless to say without knowing it, I ended up

sewing my

shirt that I was wearing onto the outfit I was making. When I stood, I saw that they were attached and just

started to

laugh...

Sherrie did this!

When I was 18, my boyfriend [now husband of 10 years] asked me to the Marine Corps Ball. I purchased a

simple

long

black dress at a thrift shop and decided to dress it up. I thought I would bead the dress. I added beaded

loops at

the

bottom and around the neck line of the dress. I spent months beading. Once at the ball, I told people

that I had

made

my own dress. I guess I used the wrong thread, because all the loops started breaking. The women

had heels

and the

men dress shoes. There were beads all over the polished wood floor. When people began falling

like flies on

the dance

floor, we decided to leave. It certainly taught me humility because, I never brag about anything

I make

anymore!!

The

Great Bead Mistake!

A long time ago, in a rented house, I was on a stepladder stencilling a border on my freshly painted walls. I put

the

last

little touch on and stepped down to admire the results. I stepped right in the roller pan of paint, it flipped

over, I

freaked

out and jumped back, my right foot landing in the open gallon of paint. The paint rolled out of the

can, past my

stencil

supplies and down the cold air return where it stayed forever because I couldn't figure out how to

clean it up and

was

too ashamed to ask anyone. I threw out the room size rug (where I got the inspiration for the

border) and cried for

days. It seems funny now, but back then, I was mortified!

Stephanie did this!

While stencilling my bathroom walls, I opened the toilet lid (I figured, if it was open I wouldn't stand on the toilet

lid

and

break it) and placed plastic wrap over the bowl, just in case I had a little accident with my paint. Well, I forgot

take the

wrap off. It's easy to miss, cause you just can't see it.

Well... Hubby didn't see it either!

Susan did this!

put much effort into wrapping a wonderful gift for my mother in law, it was magnificent! Forgot to put the gift

inside the

box! It was her 65th birthday, with over 50 people watching as she opened an empty box.

No.., I didn't forget the gift tag!

Sue did this!

After writing names on white felt, with glittery fabric paint and cutting them out, I prepared to glue them onto

giant

stockings. The hot glue was ready, I even had an accomplice. We were happily gluing away, when I noticed

one wasn't

right, so I tried to reposition while the glue was still tacky. MISTAKE! Hot glue all over my hand!

EEEEEYOW! My poor

little hand was burned badly in 4 places. Fortunately, I knew a little about first aid and didn't

have to run to the faucet

(the bathroom was right behind me), under cold water for a while, and then wet paper

towels for the rest of the night.

BIG BLISTERS. BIG Mistake... WARNING! Be careful when using hot glue! The stuff

will melt you if you're not careful!

A tip from Susan: Keep a bowl of ice close by the hot glue gun! Experienced glue gun users still need it, all the time!

Mae did this!

I placed the mitten I was knitting on the floor, then I got up to answer the phone. When I returned... you

guessed

it, I

stepped on the knitting needle and drove one of the needles into my foot. The most embarrassing part,

was

explaining

to my high school gym teacher, why I couldn't participate in class that week!

Kat did this!

I was having a hard time getting the glue to hold on one of my "projects". I went out and got the strongest

plastic

glue I

could find. The directions said hold the pieces together for ten minutes till the glue sets. I applied the

glue, held

it tight

and walked into the family room. I sat down on the sofa with one foot tucked under me and after ten

minutes, I

stood up

and fell flat on my face with the sofa cushion on top of me. Apparently, while I was walking into

the family

room, the glue

had dripped on my sock and I had glued my foot to the couch. My four teenagers are still

laughing!

Kay did this!

I was young and got grounded for a while and thought I would paint designs on my walls. So I used tons of

colour

and

made very pretty stars, suns and moons all over the ceiling, a big goofy peace sign on the door and

swirlys every

which

way. Getting carried away, I wanted to paint my name in a giant rainbow, using all the colours

that I had. Red,

orange,

yellow, green teal, blue, purple and pink. Eight colours in all, my name only has seven

letters. So, it looked

"Shannon" for years. My parent punishment for the vandalism of my room, was the

embarrassment of miss-spelling

own name!

Shannon did this!

ok well I guess I will give in and tell my dumb crafting accident....I was 8 months pregnant with twins and decided

pant

the wood floor with a farm scene to match his walls the floor was going to be the ground of a fields complete

with

pond...

well I get it all traced and get all the paints I need...and I had a craving for milos tea so had a big cup of

that

also...after

about 2 hrs of painting the floor looked great I was so proud.....well the tea was gone and being

pregnant

with the

tumbling 2....you can guess I had to get to the bathroom fast....but to my horror I had painted my

self into the

back of

the room....no way out except through my painting.

Keshia did this!

My family and I travelled a lot this summer and during our long drives, I took advantage of the time and worked

cross stitch blanket. I did a strand of thread and lifted up the blanket to admire the work. Much to my dismay,

cross

stitched it to my pant leg. With much sadness, I removed the stitches and started all over again.

Kat did this!

I was just getting into wood crafts and I made several switch plate covers... Intricate painting on these things,

very

minute details. I finished the one I was making for my Mom and was about to spray it with clear coat. Imagine

my horror

when I realized that I had picked up a can of spray paint instead of the clear coat varnish!

Daffy did this!

I was using Crazy Glue to glue some of my crafts. The first time, my husband had to pull the wooden cow off my

head,

then while making supper and crafting, I has some glue on my finger and when I tasted the sauce with my

finger...

didn't enjoy the sauce nor did I use the glue again!

Kelli did this!

I was going to make poppers as a Christmas Favor for the kids, in my son's first grade class. I ordered several

small

erasers and kept tons of toilet paper rolls in the same sack as the erasers. When it came time, I had saved so

many

toilet paper rolls, that I took the rolls I needed and threw out the sack. Away went all the cute little erasers!

Kidosmom

did this!

One year I was house-sitting for the whole of December, so I had lots of time to prepare for Christmas and

decided

was going to sew all my own gifts. For my nieces, I was going to make patchwork hobby horses. I got a

large plain

backing sheet and started to crazy-patch my heart out... some of the materials frayed rather a lot, so I

went over the top

and used the machine's embroidery stitches, with coloured thread to cover it up. Then I made

myself a pattern and cut

out six half-heads. All well and good, until I came to pin them together... all six faced in the

same direction!

Kati did this!

I was nine and sick in bed. While embroidering a dresser scarf, I went to pick up and move it... I had

embroidered

it to

the bedspread! I think my mom must have cut it off, 'cause I didn't.

Marie did this!

Back in the 50's, when wallpaper was popular, I decided to take on the project of wallpapering my kitchen, wall

wall. I

bought the wallpaper, a nice simple ivy print. My neighbour liked it so well she asked me to help paper her

kitchen with

the same paper. When her kitchen was finished, we stood back and admired it. Something looked

different and we

were puzzled. When I arrived home, I was shocked to realize that MY wallpaper was upside down!

Arizona Bunny did

this!

One time I was decoupaging onto plaster ovals which were mounted on wood, I had to do a lot of them and I had

them

all spread out on the table as I gave them their coats of Elmer's glue I was cooking dinner at the same time and

of my

kids ages 2&3 were under my feet (I was young and foolish, instead of waiting for them to go to sleep)

anyhow, I

stirred

the spaghetti sauce with my glue filled brush instead of the wooden spoon. Since Elmer's is non

toxic I kept my

mouth

shut and we all had dinner. My Italian husband never noticed a thing, but it was a long time

before I fessed up.

Cat did

this!

When I first married I wanted to make everyone in my husband's family a craft and bake cookies too. My

painted

jars

turned out pretty good, but I forgot that the buckeye balls I made had wax in them. I poured the left over

batter

down

the drain. For Christmas that first year I got new pipes! LOTS OF THEM! Now I can laugh about LOL

(Don't

ever pour

wax down the drain!)

Shirl IN Ohio did this!

Spent hours doing a 60's type design with one of those permanent paint pens. Really psychedelic/retro. Then I

decided to stain over it and the oil based stain totally dissolved the paint pen!

Karen did this!

I was embroidering a pillowcase and when almost finished with one case, I unhooked the embroidery hoop to

discover

that I had sewn through both sides of the case. Of course it could not be opened... I tried! I was younger

then

and

laughed! I'm a tad older, I probably would cry and throw the whole thing in the dumpster!

Betty Jean did this!

Spent almost 3 days, practically non stop, making a beautiful wall hanging of a dimensional pineapple. Hand

quilted in

grid fashion the entire thing. Used my new "Quiltack" basting gun to hold the whole thing together during

the

quilting.

Left all the tacks in, even while binding the hanging. When cutting off one of the last few tacks, I cut a

hole

right in the

top of the wall hanging. Now it sports an embroidered area containing my initials and the date (to

cover the

hole)!

Dewzy did this!

You know those cans of compressed air that you use to blast lint out of sewing machines, sergers, etc? Let's

just

say

that you should never use that stuff around a lighted candle!

Mellisa did this!

The dumbest sort of craft thing I did was I took my wall border and cut out roses and pasted them to my toilet

and

toilet

seat. They looked great so I thought I would put mod podge over them for a finish. Well imagine my

surprise when

used gesso thinking it was like mod podge. Needless to say I had to toss that seat and get a new one

and do it right.

Your page looks great. Good luck with it.

Lois did this!

Susan. This is a great idea. It shows that we are all human. The dumbest thing I did was telling my 11 and 15

year

olds

that they were allowed in my craft room.

Michelle did this!

I'm a completely self taught sewer, and had to figure a lot of things out on my own. The first time I ever put a

zipper

into

a jumpsuit, I followed the instructions, letter by letter. I had a lot of difficulties and had to remove and

replace

stitches

many times, but eventually it was in and I was quite proud of my new garment. Then I put it on only to

discover

that the

zipper pull was on the inside. I was so frustrated and so didn't want to do it over again that I decided

I would just

keep it

that way. Pulling up a jumper zipper that is inside out is only a minor difficulty, but pulling down the

zipper was

almost

impossible. Needless to say after one time of wearing the jumper, and realizing that it took me

almost a half an

hour to

dress and undress in order to go to the bathroom, it gritted my teeth and took out the zipper.

Wendy did this!

A few years ago while working on wooden Santas that had arms attached with hinges, you know the kind with

the

small

screws. I had an awful time getting the screws started and holding things, I was using just a conventional

screw

driver.

After saying more than my prayers while working on this project, my 12 year old son said "why don't

you use the

cordless screw driver". Needless to say, it didn't take long to finish them, he lent me a hand and they

were together in

no time.

Too embarrassed to say, did this!

I was so proud of the sign I made for my daughter's surprise 30th birthday party held at the beach house we

rent

each

year. I'd spent hours, rubber stamping [using stamps I'd made myself] and cutting out the letters. I hung the

sign

from

the porch for all to see. The party was almost over when someone finally noticed the misspelling...

[SUPRISE]

how

embarrassing! I

haven't lived it down yet.

Mary Jane from Staten Island, NY Didn't!

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work"
Thomas Edison

About the contributors...

All of the "dumb crafter" moments above have been shared
over the years, by very brave and generous visitors to Craft
At Home. We all do really dumb things... it's admitting our
mistake that is sometimes far more painful than the actual
mistake itself. Of course we laugh, giggle and sometimes feel
the pain as we read through these mishaps, but we know that
when our time comes... we will not make the same mistake...
or, do the exact same thing!

Will you share your mishap?

We all do really dumb things in our crafting adventures.
Mine are far too many to list! However, I have stepped in
paint, glued things that were not meant to be glued, stitched
upside down and hundreds of other 'things not to do"... I
accept my short comings and welcome the results of many
of my mistakes! Some of my best work has happened by
mistake! How about taking a minute to share your story with
us? We as crafters will feel your pain, embarrassment or
simply have a silly little laugh with you.