I'm a total cardigan girl. I love pairing them with my outfits for a little color pop as well as a little pop of warmth. You know, the Southern California weather might not get too frigid that often, however the nights cool down like the Dickens and a cardi is a girl's best friend. (My BFF, fo sho! My car is like a cardigan factory)
I have a handful of ones with patterns and a bunch of just solid colors, so I thought I'd take one of those solid ones and zhuzh it up a bit!
Here's what it looked like before...
It didn't seem to get much love, so I thought a little face lift would do the trick. Instead of needles and anesthesia, we're going the glue and gems route.
Mmm, gems!
I took my flat-backed gems that I procured at one of those hole in the wall craft spots in downtown LA and began to test some patterns.
Anytime I'm using rhinestones, I always test out locations before actually affixing. It's like going to a party...you always make the rounds and take some laps to check out the crowd before settling on a location. (Am I right, girls?)
I came up with this fun triangle motif, and made a little faux collar at the neck...
...and continued the triangles in-between each button.
All my gems got placed and then I grabbed my Aleene's Glitter & Gem glue...
...and started tacking down!
I let my piece dry overnight and then had a new (and improved) cardi ready for the town!
I paired this piece with a vintage tie neck blouse, leather braided belt, and a fab pair of red clip-on earrings that I scored at the flea market!
To bring out the colors in the blouse, I grabbed my Trina Turk clutch and Michael Antonio platform heels.
Those heels are no joke! I got them at a sample sale in December because A, I felt like I needed a pair of crazy platforms, and B, who doesn't need a hot pair of red shoes??
I just love how the gems glisten in the light. It's the perfect amount of glam to add to any outfit.
This is something totally work appropriate and would also look darling over a dress.
This shot just happened to catch me trying to punch out the camera from afar with my clutch. Yep, pretending to be Mike Tyson, sans eye tat.
Cardigan, BP (from my closet) // Blouse, Vintage // Jeans, Levis (they were $23!) // Clutch, Trina Turk // Earrings, vintage // Sunnies, Urban Outfitters // Heels, Michael Antonio // Belt, Vintage
And speaking of TKO, don't mess with me (or my family/friends/blog readers/acquaintances) or I will cut you with my fierce shoes. Just giving you an FYI. I will take you down with these heels, so step back.
(Little side note, they almost took me out because of their weight, but now I'm feeling way more confident after our little talk. Yeah, we had a little talk and I asked them to be nice. They didn't say anything back, however I took that as a silent, "fine.")
Happy Friday, friends!