Disastercrafts: 15 Tales of Crafting Fails

Paw form
Jasper and Pixie, my two cats, are constants in my crafting life – and they don’t let me forget it. Pixie once decided that she’d had enough of me working, jumped on my desk, purred and snuggled, then walked off. I realised in horror that she had left inky footprints all over my finished cards. All three of them! I guess I’ll never know if she did it on purpose, but I love her regardless.
Ingrid Vichova, PaperCrafter designer

Upside down under
Being live and on camera doesn’t exactly make crafting easier, and while I was demonstrating a card I had a habit of chatting a bit too much with the presenter. Once I’d come back to my senses, I’d look down and realise the card had been made upside down! It happened so many times in one year it was dubbed my ‘Australian card technique.’ It’s not something I teach in my workshops, unsurprisingly.
Joanna Sheen, designer

Making my great grandson, who had turned five, a card celebrating his fourth birthday.
Natalie Cooper, reader

Crafty solutions
I was short on time for making some projects and it seemed everything was against me! My scissors were blunt, glitter was getting everywhere, and the remaining glue had settled in the very bottom of the bottle. So, I turned to the kitchen! I put the glue upside down in a glass, and while that made its way down the bottle, I gathered the loose glitter using a lint roller and sharpened my scissors by cutting through a few sheets of tin foil. There’s always a solution to those ‘oh no’ moments.
Stephanie Weightman, Tattered Lace

Nuvo, old problems
I have more than one Disastercraft, so let me reel off a list. How about dropping a huge tub of glitter on the sheepskin rug? Or leaving the hot glue gun on overnight and it leaking everywhere? Or cutting endless fridge magnets instead of card? And the classic, finishing off a spectacular card by dribbling irreversible Nuvo drops all over it. On reflection, it’s easier to say what I haven’t done!
Gill McCall, reader

I was making a card for my granddaughter’s birthday. My hand brace got caught up in the wings of the parchment butterfly sentiment. Ripped them straight off!
Lynn Jackson, reader

Corinne’s kitchen crime scene
I was asked to make a garden seat from two tyres, it was complex, but it went really well. At least at first. The paint I’d used was a universal all-in-one paint and primer. I mixed two tones to create a scarlet – it dried quickly so both coats went on in one day, and I drained the leftover mixed paint into a plastic cup with a cling-film lid just in case I needed it later. When I woke up the next morning, I was confronted with a bloodbath. A paint one. It had eaten through the flimsy plastic cup and flowed, well, everywhere – across the shelf, across the counter top, and onto the floor. Of course, it was a spirit-based paint which just spreads more when rubbed. It took me all morning to rid my kitchen of the wretched stuff but on the bright side, the seat is still alive and well after four years!
Corinne Bradd, PaperCrafter designer

A whole diet coke over my spring album… disaster!
Laura Gálvez Martín, reader

Die-cut drama
If I’m famous for anything, it’s fridge magnets – the problem is, I never mean to make them! I do it at least once a week if not more. I put my dies the wrong way round and as it’s going through the machine, as soon as I realise, I wearily say: “Well that’s another fridge magnet I’ve made then.” Thinking about it now, maybe I should start my own fridge magnet business – it might offset the costs of all the metallic sheets I buy!
Sharon Holden, reader

“Hi, uh – buddy!”
I remember it well – and kind of wish I didn’t! I was in my second year of university, and I fancied a guy who lived in the halls opposite to me. It was Valentine’s Day, and I thought I’d do him a cheesy card. I even plucked up the courage to give it to him in front of all his friends! At first he was happy, then confused – to my horror, he said: “You know my name isn’t Greg, right?” I laughed it off as a practical joke, but no, I didn’t! His name was Ed, and I’d obviously misheard it when someone told me!
Steph Henley, reader

My beloved cat knocking my glitter glue over… and then proceeding to roll in it. Turned into a little glitter fluff ball.
Nicola Mason, reader

Stuck on glue
I had an… incident with spray glue a few years ago. I wanted to add some temporary adhesive to some unmounted rubber stamps. I sprayed the back, that was fine, but the can continued to spray glue erratically even though I’d stopped spraying. It. Went. Everywhere. My hands were covered so I kept sticking to everything I was touching, including the can! It sprayed all over my room and worst of all it got in my hair which went rock hard. I ended up submerging the can in a bucket of water until it ran out of adhesive. I was coming across sticky bits three weeks later, and I had to cut a huge lump of hair out at the roots. I’ve avoided adhesives like the plague ever since.
Sarah Wilks, reader

Watching my brand new embossing mat getting torn to ribbons through my gemini machine!
Evelyn Hunter, reader

EKATSIM GIB S’EIRAM-ENNA
I’d prepped a demo using a die-cut alphabet and papers to make some bunting. While I was sticking it all together I recommended that you take extra care to make sure the letters were in the correct order, so as to ensure that when you turned it around it all worked. As I stuck the last bits down, I picked it up at each end and I had done exactly what I said not to do! Instead of saying ‘Jenny’ it read ‘ynneJ’. Note to self – check before you stick everything down!
Anne-Marie Catterall, Hunkydory

Armed with yarn
One of my funniest crafting facepalm moments was when I was arm-knitting an eternity scarf. Naturally, both of your arms are full of stitches and joined by the knitted portion in the middle – it’s pretty much a straitjacket. One day, the doorbell rang. I just about managed to open the door with my arms laden with yarn. The postman looked quizzically at me and asked if I could sign for a parcel. I replied, “Does it look like I’m able to sign for anything?!” Politely of course. He looked at me like I was crazy, dropped the parcel by my feet – and ran off as fast as he could!
Keren Baker, PaperCrafter designer