Even Failed Craft Projects Hold Lessons for us All

This week’s craft was a complete and total bomb. And, that’s not an exaggeration.

In fact, although the jury is still out, it’s entirely possible that this craft will result in scars on one or both of my boys – both physical scars in the way of burn marks on their sensitive young fingertips and emotional scars of the “I-will-never-ever-attempt-to-use-a-hot-glue-gun-again” variety.

The project seemed simple enough. Dare I say even somewhat noble?

. You see the bird feeders we currently have are not suited for Cardinals, who do not like to feed on perches. Instead, Cardinals, known as ground feeders, prefer a bird feeder that they can land in and walk around in. Picture a shallow bowl suspended from a tree.

Our plan, such as it was, was to gather sticks and twigs and what-not and hot glue them to the sides of a wooden Clementine crate. Then, we intended to suspend our finished creation from the Maple tree in our yard.

The gathering part went well. The boys ran around the yard and hauled a vast assortment of former tree limbs of various shapes and sizes onto our back deck.

Next, I got out our mini hot glue gun and gave what I thought to be a bang-up lecture on the dangers of the hot glue gun, highlighting the many places in which the gun heats up and one could potentially be burned. The boys seemed to be listening. They seemed to respect the gun and its firepower.

Once I was comfortable that my warnings had been heard, I plugged in the glue gun and I began squirting thin lines of glue on the Clementine box and the boys took turns pressing sticks into the glue. Things were moving along quite well and everyone seemed to be enjoying the project until my older son put is finger directly into the hot glue.

Yeowch! He screamed and ran to the kitchen sink to run the offended digit in a stream of cold water.

As I asked him if he was OK, I was chastising myself inside…I never said not to touch the glue. All sorts of spots on the gun, yes. The glue…well, I thought the fact that the glue was hot should have been obvious? Bad, bad mom.

And, here’s where it went from bad to worse, as it were.

My younger child insisted on pressing on with the project while his brother was soaking his finger in cold water. A moment later, he uttered a pretty loud Yeowch! of his own and bolted for the sink.

“Did you put your finger in the glue?” I asked in amazement.

“No,” he said. “I touched the metal tip of the glue gun.”

So much for that lecture. The kids aren't the only one's who may have been scarred.