diff --git a/src/create-thing.ts b/src/create-thing.ts
index a87df12..4af4746 100644
--- a/src/create-thing.ts
+++ b/src/create-thing.ts
@@ -91,8 +91,13 @@ export const createThing = (cardConfig, isRow = false) => {
   const timer = setTimeout(() => {
     element.style.display = "";
   }, 2000);
-  // Remove error if element is defined later
-  customElements.whenDefined(cardConfig.type).then(() => {
+  // Remove error if element is defined later. Must wait on `tag` (the resolved custom element
+  // tag name, e.g. "hui-conditional-row" or "multiple-entity-row"), not `cardConfig.type` (the
+  // raw config type string, e.g. "conditional" or "custom:multiple-entity-row") - those are
+  // different strings, so waiting on cardConfig.type would never resolve, and for any `custom:`
+  // type it can never resolve at all (colons aren't valid in custom element names). See
+  // https://github.com/custom-cards/button-card/pull/1152 for the same fix in a fork of this file.
+  customElements.whenDefined(tag).then(() => {
     clearTimeout(timer);
     fireEvent(element, "ll-rebuild", {}, element);
   });
diff --git a/test/create-thing.test.ts b/test/create-thing.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fafbf70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/create-thing.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+/** @vitest-environment jsdom */
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { createThing } from "../src/create-thing";
+
+// See https://github.com/custom-cards/button-card/pull/1152 - the "wait for the lazy-loaded
+// element, then recover" mechanism was waiting on `customElements.whenDefined(cardConfig.type)`
+// (the raw config type string, e.g. "custom:my-card") instead of the actual resolved DOM tag
+// (e.g. "my-card"). Those are different strings, so the wait never resolved - for a `custom:`
+// type it could never resolve at all, since colons aren't valid in custom element names.
+//
+// createThing's error path itself renders a "hui-error-card" element (real HA always has this
+// registered) - stub it here so _createThing's error-card creation succeeds in this isolated
+// test environment.
+if (!customElements.get("hui-error-card")) {
+  class HuiErrorCard extends HTMLElement {
+    setConfig() {}
+  }
+  customElements.define("hui-error-card", HuiErrorCard);
+}
+
+describe("createThing recovery", () => {
+  it("fires ll-rebuild once the resolved tag is defined, for a custom: card type", async () => {
+    const tag = `test-recovers-card-${Math.random().toString(36).slice(2)}`;
+
+    const element = createThing({ type: `custom:${tag}` });
+    expect(element.tagName.toLowerCase()).toBe("hui-error-card");
+
+    let rebuilt = false;
+    element.addEventListener("ll-rebuild", () => {
+      rebuilt = true;
+    });
+
+    class TestCard extends HTMLElement {
+      setConfig() {}
+    }
+    customElements.define(tag, TestCard);
+
+    await customElements.whenDefined(tag);
+    // ll-rebuild is fired synchronously in the whenDefined().then() callback, which runs as a
+    // microtask - flush the microtask queue once more before asserting.
+    await Promise.resolve();
+
+    expect(rebuilt).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("fires ll-rebuild once the resolved tag is defined, for a built-in card type", async () => {
+    // Matches the actual reported scenario (button-card#1150): a built-in "conditional" card
+    // nested as a custom_field, whose type string ("conditional") has no hyphen and is never a
+    // valid custom element name on its own - only the resolved "hui-conditional-card" tag is.
+    const tag = "hui-conditional-card";
+
+    const element = createThing({ type: "conditional" });
+    expect(element.tagName.toLowerCase()).toBe("hui-error-card");
+
+    let rebuilt = false;
+    element.addEventListener("ll-rebuild", () => {
+      rebuilt = true;
+    });
+
+    if (!customElements.get(tag)) {
+      class ConditionalCard extends HTMLElement {
+        setConfig() {}
+      }
+      customElements.define(tag, ConditionalCard);
+    }
+
+    await customElements.whenDefined(tag);
+    await Promise.resolve();
+
+    expect(rebuilt).toBe(true);
+  });
+});