Wire Heart Finger Ring

Jewelry wire

Pliers

This was supposed to be a simple way to get rid of that old, cheap jewelry wire you have laying around. Who wouldn't want an adorable heart ring that you can give to friends? Clearly jewelry wire and I are at an impasse. After following the directions 4 TIMES, I still could not figure out how to wrap and fold the wire so that it resembled anything like a heart. This was a disaster of the finest order. I suppose you could wear it as some post-modern wire scuplture mess and try to fool people, but this resembled nothing like a heart.

Disaster level: ***** (I can't bend wire)

Wire Heart Finger Ring

Comics Clutch

Clutch

Modge Podge

Old comics

Scissors

Paintbrush

Paper clips

This is one of the few crafts I will ever have on here that isn't actually linked up to instructions on how to make it since I didn't have any. I had seen someone do this with shoes and thought that a more useful method to use this process might be with something not worn on as much. So I bought a clutch and found an old Thor comic and proceded to cut out some of the more colorful panels. From there is was just a process of fitting the panels and modge podging the crap out of them. The clutch surface was slick and the comics weren't exactly keen on staying put, especially around the curve of the clutch and over the edges. I found the best way to work with the edges was to paper clip them in place until the modge podge had enough time to dry to stick. This was honestly far simpler than it looked and I'm quite proud of what I ended up with even if the metal part of the clutch is a little gunky. I haven't had a chance to clean it off yet. My only worry is how well it will all hold up over time, but as of now everything seems to be sticking and I'm quite pleased.

Disaster level: ** (once I figured out how to paper clip everything it went pretty well)

Fireflies

black construction paper

white paint

metallic pipe cleaner

glue

scissors

This should be an easy craft to not screw up. All you have to do is make thumb prints in the shape of wings in white paint and then glue segments of cut pipe cleaner down to make the bodies. I started to wonder if something other than a thumb print would work better since the thumb prints started coming out strangely shaped sometimes. As you can see, some of them look a little chopped up. You also might want to look to place them more evenly. Mine got a little bunched in certain areas.

Disaster level: * (a few oddly placed with choppy wings)

Fireflies

Easy Octopus

Oval Template

Felt

Yarn

Googly eyes

To look at the picture on the site I found the craft, you'd think this is a fool proof way to make an adorable sea creature that will sit on a table. Not true. With only 4 supplies I managed to make something lopsided that tips over.

First you have to print the oval template and cut out the felt. Then cut 8 even pieces of yarn and glue them spaced evenly around one side of the felt. After that dries, wrap the felt around a finger and tie the bottom with an extra piece of yarn. This is where the problems formed. Somehow I could never get the oval to wrap around my finger in such a way that A.) the bottom was even and B.) that the head looked anything like the picture. After struggling for a while I finally got it tied off, but the bottom is lopsided and because of that all it can do is lay rather than sit in any fashion. I finally glued googly eyes and gave up, leaving what you see there. It looks sort of cute while you're holding it, but the minute you try to sit it down, the flaw becomes glaring.

Disaster level: *** (Someone tell me how to make it wrap even!)

Easy Octopus

Homemade Kotinos

Supplies:

9 brown pipe cleaners

green construction paper

glue

scissors

I felt that any craft involving only 4 supplies should be a snap. I mean this is a kid's craft and a novelty kid's craft at that. No one is going to be giving an Olympic wreath as a Christmas gift. There's plenty of leeway on how much you can bungle this one up. Right? Interestingly it was a bit more easy to ruin than I originally anticipated.

First off, wrap three of the pipe cleaners to make a thicker, twisted pipe cleaner. Do this to the other two sets of three pipe cleaners as well. You should have three thicker, twisted pipe cleaners then. Wrap the ends of each of the twisted bundles together and modify it to how big the head you're putting it on is. You should have a nice circlet effect going on. I did and thought things were going great at this point. Next, cut out leaf shapes in your green construction paper. Make quite a few so you have plenty to put around the wreath. Things still going well.

Then we hit the snag. Rather than use white glue that takes a long time to set and would have me holding the leaves there for a long time, I decided to use super glue. Unfortunately super glue and construction paper do not mix. Not only does it not stick, but it also bleeds through the paper. I had no white glue on hand, so thinking fast I whipped out a tube of glitter glue and put a thin layer on small spots on the leaves, let it dry, then put the super glue on that. That actually worked. Those leaves are going nowhere. I believe I ended up with a wreath far sturdier than originally invisioned.

Disaster level: ** (very sturdy but there are still glue spots showing through and I don't know how white glue would do with it)

Homemade Kotinos

Olympic Rings

Supplies:

5 cups (Styrofoam work better)

5 plates or bowls

Blue, black, red, yellow, and green paint

Paint brush

White paper

To be fair, this craft turned out better than it should have. I just wanted something Olympic to put on the door of my office. The only thing you need to do is put a thin layer of paint in each plate and use the lid of the cup like a stamp. The rings are going to be a bit uneven in the paint thickness, but I actually liked how that looked. I had a lot of white space left so I free handed a version of the Olympic logo on the bottom. Unfortunately I still had an area of white space left since I have no depth perception.

Disaster level: * (It came out looking pretty good in spite of my measuring error)

Olympic Rings at Busybee