Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Mystery Thing Revealed. And we have a winner!

Two days ago, I issued a challenge - identify the Mystery Flowers in these upcycled jewels:


And you stepped up.  Many great answers!  Thanks for playing, EVERYBODY!  Here is my Honor Roll of most creative (wrong) guesses:

Life In Rehab: Fans from the world's smallest stripper.
Michele Pacey: You've gone and torn the wings off of angels.  Wicked, wicked you.
EricaB: Dragon scales.
Erin: Old wedding dress pieces - the white from the pure bride, the yellow from the not-so-pure.
BK: Badminton shuttlecocks.
Bridget: Tinkerbell's formal dining tablecloth.
Alex: Smurfette's collection of Royal Ascot hats.
Pearlie: Bits cut off one of those horrid bridesmaid dresses from the 80s and 90s? I have one in an alarming shade of green in my closet if you need more.
Ashes: Lace from Marie Antoinette's petticoats.
Saraccino: You just went into a plastic factory and  forced them to make strange and beautiful stuff.
Amy: Flowers from Kate Middleton's wedding dress.

I love that several people liked the idea of badminton shuttlecocks.  You must be new here!  Way back at the beginning of this blog, I made a whole series of badminton jewelry.  Great minds thinking alike.


You can find the shuttlecock tutorials here, here and here.

So.  Ready to see the solution to this week's Mystery Thing?

Okay, here ya go...


World's Ugliest Plastic Lace Table Runners.  Soooo hideous.  Overdone, ooky, metallic and god-awful.  I got them at my neighborhood dollar store - but had serious doubts about whether they were worth that much.

But yay!  Once isolated, the flowers and leaves became these super pretty components.


I plan to use them for a whole bunch of crafts.  While saving the world from two horrifying table runners.  In addition to upcycled jewelry, I'm thinking of home decor and papercrafting ideas, too.  Look, I made my very first greeting card:





So now I'm convinced these things were a real steal.  I got twenty-six sets of flowers and leaves for one dollar!  Beats a package of expensive scrapbooking supplies, wouldn't you say?  (In case you want to hunt for these specific thingies, it was a 99-Cents Only store.  But I hope you can find similar thingies at a dollar store or discount emporium by you.)

Winners!  Well, ahem, nearly everyone guessed this.  I decided to accept any version of "plastic lace placemats, doilies or tablecloths."  The First Correct Guess winner: imsteelefullofscrap.  And my random.org winner: Poor Badger Creations.  Congrats to you both, expect an email from me soon.  (Note: if you are one of the eight or nine people who entered as 'anonymous,' with no link or email, I deleted you to make it easier for me to count the entries.  I'm not mad at you - just disappointed.)

Here's a peek at a few more variations:






Come back next time, when I'll post a fun TUTORIAL for some of these flowerful creations!

12 comments:

  1. Only the world most creative one have heart and skill to transform something so ugly to so pretty and make me sleepless wonder what it is!Love you!

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  2. Wow I never win anything thank you so much, cant wait to get what ever it is I won love the necklace (hint) anyways will have pics of it on my poor neglected blog cause I cant stop reading every one elses!!!
    Thank you again and I sent you my email hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July
    HUGS JEN

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  3. again, you are a genious. Kind regards from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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  4. Love the first of the extra sample ideas...but also like the last one - for some reason they remind me of spirographs...

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  5. Hahaha "I'm not mad at you - just disappointed." oh dear, I hope it wasn't me. And I love the noodge card in particular. Story of my life.....

    Great idea about the doilies though. I have used for stencils but never thought about jewels. Hmmm...maybe be I could make some post-stencil doily jewels all painted up and colored. Toot toot!

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  6. hey!!! I guesses right for once...n its okay if I didnt win...I guessed right !!..the mat that you have showed us..has a pretty center also..you can try doing something with that also..a cuff or a card??

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  7. I just love your work with badminton shuttlecocks. You the genius with table runner awesome work!!!

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  8. Plastic and cute. Use em on some flip flops!!!

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  9. Darn, I missed this one. I've been busy with work, so not up on my blogs lately. bummer, but LOVE the card. I guessed to myself before reading the answer and I thought it might have been a shower curtain, cut up (just to give you another idea....) Good one!!!

    Thankful I have a job again. Was without for a bit, so nice to be working. Will try to keep up again. Love your blog, as you know. Congrats to the winners, and the anonymouses that were thrown out should be reading the rules!

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  10. Ohhhh..what i can say more...you are just clever,everybody was sure that it was doily or lace buttttt...

    well no need to be disappointed..`dont think about chickenhearted(cowardice)people,i think everybody must have the dare to write with link back while writing criticism.

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  11. I have been looking desperately for the gold lace plastic table runners for years now, since the local store that sold them closed. Where can I find them?

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Heather - these were from a 99 cents only store. I recommend trying dollar stores in your area. good luck!

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