An Epic Craft Fail!

Editors Note: This craft was thought up by the author without consulting Pinterest, and this post is her own commentary about this hairbrained idea that took up our table all week. (Perhaps, in the future she should consult Pinterest first.)

I’ve been working all week on a fun, “easy”, paper craft that can be done with kids in preparation for Halloween. I finished it today, and I have to say it was an epic craft fail!

It’s not that I don’t think the craft was cute. It just wasn’t worth the time or effort. What I was trying to make was a string of paper pumpkin lanterns .And, I was going to blog about how cute they were lit up, sitting on my window sill. I was also going to recommend this as a craft to do with kids. My kids even helped me. And I was going to say how quick and easy it was to do.

Except this craft was none of those things. It was frustrating to make. It took too long to create. My kids could only help with one part of the entire process – and that was stretching it.

I finished the craft because I had invested too much time into its creation. It’s lived on my table now for the better part of the week. We’ve eaten meals around it with the stark command to “not touch the pumpkins.” We’ve done homework around these pumpkin lanterns. They have in fact become “part” of the family, so I felt obligated to finish and proudly display them.

But I can’t recommend anyone make them.

Just to show how much of an epic craft fail these paper pumpkin lanterns are, let me explain how to make them.

First, gather the supplies. The supplies include five paper bags, orange and green paint, tissue paper, glue, tape, an egg carton, a string of 100 min lights, spray paint, scissors, and patience.

Take each paper bag and cut a Jack O’ lantern face into it. Next, glue tissue paper on the inside of each paper bag, covering the holes. Now, paint 2/3 of the bag orange –like a pumpkin. While the paint is drying, cut out the middle part of the egg carton. Cut each of the bumps apart, then take them outside and spray paint them green. These become the stems later.

After all the paint has dried, cut access holes on the side of the lanterns large enough to run the strand of lights through. Next, paint the tops of the sacks green and allow them to dry. Now, string the lights through the paper bags, and stuff 10 lights into each lantern. Tape the access holes closed.  (Stringing the lights is an incredibly tedious and time consuming job, which often times resulted in the paper bag tearing. Like I said, epic craft fail.)

Finally, it’s time to put the tops together. First, squish the bag together and create a bundle at the top that can be pushed into created stem. Tape the top of the paper bag closed and then squish the taped part into the stem.

This all sounds so simple, but the craft took an excessively long time, and didn’t end up looking very good. Have any of you had a craft that you thought would be fun and simple that just failed? I’d love to hear about it.