Trash to Treasure charm swap

Hi Everyone,

Below are all of the participants in the Trash to Treasure Charm Swap On the Paper Digital Art and imagesbykim ning forum.

Each participant received a bag of trashy bits in the mail from me (Kim) The bag consisted of broken jewelery, buttons, beads baubles charms, plastic ugly bits, some flowers, glass blobs, beaded parts, chain and anything else that was shiney and broken.
The challenge was to incorporate a minimum of 1 itemfrom the bag into 10 different charm creations. Then the 10 charms would be sent back to me to swap out to each participant. Then send back 10 different ones to each person.

There wasn't a specific theme for the charm creations, and the charms could be any size, medium or theme. The participants just had to show how to recycle what may have been trash into something pretty, cute or even elegant.

The finished projects are amazing, and anyone would be happy to receive some of these charms back in their collection.

Here is a sample of what might have been received in the charm bag














And here is a close up with things a little more sorted.

I will be doing a separate tutorial showing you what you can do with some of this type of broken trash and treasure bits to create some very fun art collages. Stay tuned for more information.

Please be sure to leave comments on each of the posts below to the individual artist.

There were 14 participants, so be sure to check them all, when you reach the end of this page just click the link older posts to go to the next page. You can also view by artist name along the right hand side of the page by clicking the artist name links.

Thanks for viewing, if you would like to join us in upcoming charm swaps, head over to PDA and become a member and then join the charm swapper group!

((((hugs))))

kim

Charms by Thelma Findlay

Thelma made what I would call altered book embellishments. These pieces will be great for decorated book covers and scrapbooks.

Her use of the dominoe piece behind the silver bookplate frame is sweet and gives the piece some weight. I love the pink flowers incororated into the breast cancer charm.
Her style varied with each piece. I almost had the impression that she picked the trash bit and then built the finished embellisment from the ground up.

I think I had to search the most on her pieces to figure out what she used from the trash bag.

Charms by Sherry Edwards

Sherry used mostly items from the trash bag to completely make her charms. I love that! It's not an easy thing to do. I loved that she dry brushed some of the objects with acrylic paints and glitter and was able to change the look of the plastic items.
The red fabric heart looks so cute with glitter, what a great idea!

Her little art dolls are adorable, does anyone recognize the body? It's made from the brown plastic fused beads. The other doll is using the wicker piece as a background/body and this piece has 2 faces. However only the recipient will see the other side!

Charms by Sarah Upton

Sarah must have reduced her own button stash a little bit in creating these lovely winged button fairies. Each of the fairies uses a beaded dangle from the Trash bag at the tip of the tail. I also noticed that the wings are made from transparencies printed with the butterfly images from the PDA free image collection (Just had to get another plug in for PDA :)

Another piece we are going to need some tips about wiring those buttons!

Charms by Pat Upton

These are the cutest little dolls! If you look closely you will see that Pat used items from the trash bag to make either the wings or parts of the clothing. What you don't see, is that these dolls are approx 2 inches tall from head to toe! They jiggle and wiggle and look absolutely adorable in their trashy outfits! LOL
Pat we are going to be asking questions about how you made these dolls...Any chance of a tutorial? :)

Charms by Melanie Price

Melanie made beaded dangles and finished the ends with beads from the trash bag.

It is amazing how she was able to match the beads to beads from her own stash.

Actually.....it's a little bit scary that she has a vast collection similar to my own.... :)

A lovely assortment, great for a variety of art projects as a finishing embellishment!

Charms by Marjorie Jumisco

Marjorie took on a different approach and I must say I was impressed instantly when I saw these! She used items from the trash bag and incorporated beautiful backgrounds made from design papers and a heavy card stock or mat board. I am calling these pieces "Card Toppers" and I could see myself using these for card creations, or book cover decorations. I was able to snag one of these from the swap in my set so I am happy to be able to use my piece in an upcoming project. Although I didnt get the one with the pink flowers in the glass bottle, I sure love the idea!
What did you create with your pink flowers and glass bottle?