How To: Feel Incompetent

I'm not a crafty person at all but once in a while, if a craft "how to" seems simple enough, I will attempt it.

"How To" articles, or so I thought, were supposed to be catered towards the craft-challenged, and somehow at the end of most of the instructions, I'm left with unusual cuts, bruises, and a pathetic excuse for a _________ (giant ice sculpture, homemade pop-up-cards, etc...).

Since I have the hand-eye coordination of a 2-year-old, I thought "HOW TO: Remodel phone book pages into beautiful bouquet" would be simple enough. First of all, the headline is way too long. I think it's a little bit redundant to even point out that you will be using the phone book pages. I know we're catering towards someone with a 6th grade education, but it seems a bit obvious when you are making a bouquet. I thought a better title would have been "How to: Make a Phone Book Bouquet." Then again, I failed at making the bouquet, so I could use the clarification of using "the pages" and not the book itself.

Also, I thought that the lede should have been cut out and the second paragraph should have been used as the lede. It was much more attention getting and concise. Plus, I think the reference to family members is somewhat overused.

The main complaint that I had when I read this article is that it didn't have pictures next to the steps. I think the biggest pitfall of "How To" articles are over-simplified. I know this bouquet is easy to make. I'd like to think I'm smarter than some phone book pages, but pictures would have helped immensely. I also understand that with the limited space, in The Red and Black, pictures would be a waste of space but I think that the online version of the story could have included some thumbnails.

This article shows how to make a wreath, and although this is much more difficult than a phone-book bouquet, the pictures and overly in-depth instructions make this more idiot-proof (for people such as myself).