Upcycling, distressing, twine & gems, OH MY!

I'm still crafting like crazy getting ready to be away, and up until I leave I swear I'll be waiting for glue to dry (or cursing the embossing powder I spilled in my lap) or doing SOMETHING crafty. Building up my stash of cards to bring with me (at this point, possibly an entire suitcase? getting close, anyhow) means I'm keeping up with nearly every challenge I had noted in my little book. And then some. This particular card was made with 3 challenges in mind:

  Crafty Creations Challenges #184

to use gems & twine

(ends Tuesday)

little red wagon #147

upcycling!

(ends tonight)

Catered Crop

No Stress to Distress

(ends September 1)

Supplies: clip art from the Graphics Fairy;
Broken China Crackle Paint;
stick pins from Little Yellow Bicycle;
twine from Paper Smooches;
sentiment from Stampendous;
Broken China distress ink;
Sakura Stardust clear glitter pen

Click to see full-size

I bought some Crackle Paint months ago, and have only used it a handful of times, mainly because I don't think to add it until I've already started to assemble my card, and well, adding it then tends to be messy. And, in fact, I hadn't used the Broken China colour at all, so yay me! for cracking it open :) Of course the crackling and torn edges are my distressed elements for Catered Crop!

The upcycled items for little red wagon ...that fabulous clear blue button - it's hard to see with the twine bow, but you can spy it in the full-size picture. This is one of hundreds that my mother-in-law gave me in a tupperware container last winter. There are some really fun & funky buttons hidden in there amongst the standard shirt & jacket buttons! And, my other upcycled item - a popcorn box:

This panel is about twice as wide as my card - lots left over for another project!

I tried mightily to include some peacock feather fronds on my card (as you can see in the above photo) but no matter what it wasn't gelling, so I let it be. 

As cool as the blue button is, it does have a very plain centre, which I knew would be perfect for one of Emily Keaton's multi-loop twine bows! That link will take you to her tutorial. I sewed on the stick pins, then the button, then the twine bow. That made it much easier than trying to use the twine for both looks & function. So, we have twine, but we also need gems for Crafty Creations Challenges....but I've never made a peacock card that DIDN'T have gems, so twist my rubber arm! I used 3 shades of blue gems (and used up the tail end of one pack - no hoarding! Pat on the back there!)

You wouldn't think so based on the number of exclamation points, but I need to go pour myself another coffee...5:30 AM and one cup isn't going to do it! I'll be back - I have more challenge cards coming up :)

xoxo,

Jessi