One of my personal all-time favorite guilty pleasures involves gluing myself to the computer monitor and browsing pages of posts on Craftastrophe, home to the world’s crafting nightmares. I had a chance to catch up with the creators of the site last week and thought I’d share part of our short but sweet conversation with you, our delightful readers.

Some items featured in the posts at Craftastrophe are actually amazing. But, as I may find it wicked (good wicked), you may run hiding and cry in terror in your corner. I’ve grown a bit attached to the baby centipedes, yet I could not imagine their tiny heads staring at me from all angles on my bookshelf. No thank you very much.

As good ‘ol Ben Franklin said, “”Beauty and folly are old companions.”

1. For our readers, what exactly is a “craftastrophe”?
A Craftastrophe is when a well-intentioned crafter has some sort of mishap along the way.  Maybe in their mind a craft seems like it will be amazing, but once it’s brought to life, it turns out to be something incredibly wrong on many levels. (sometimes though, it turns out to be SO. AWESOME.)

2. How did Craftastrophe get started?
Craftastrophe was created by nothing more than a few innocent messenger chats where we shared some creative pounces we came across on Etsy. From then on it was a mirage of craftastrophes which couldn’t very well be kept to ourselves, but had to be shared.

These craftastrophes aren’t necessarily bad crafts, many are well made and have taken the crafter a lot of time and energy to create; this site’s goal is to showcase those crafts that are funny, weird, strange and make us laugh. We mean no harm and can honestly say that there have been sales for some sellers on various sites due to their craft being featured on this site! We merely want to share the laughs and enjoy the talents of many. Talents which neither of us have.

3. Do you find the craftastrophes on your own or are they submitted by fans on the site? I’ve seen some pretty terrifying craftiness in my time.
Most Craftastrophes now are submitted by readers.  Many of them have been reading since the beginning (November 2007) and are devout fans.  We love our readers for their witty comments and consistant participation.  (Oh HAI guys!)

4. What Craftastrophe is the most popular and what do you think makes it a fan favorite?
The taxidermy posts seem to get high traffic, like Ricky Bobby’s Custom Squirrels and the Tree Rat Earrings.  Other popular posts include a Hairy Spoon Rest and a prom dress gone wrong (Jam Out With Your Clam Out!) that got us a feature on Boing Boing!

5. What is your favorite Craftastrophe so far?

I think Sam and I both have a soft spot for the Toddlerpedes.  Especially since the artist just gave us permission to use his image for our business cards and our new header on our new feature column at Craftster.

(A big thanks to Karen and Sam of Craftastrophe!)