Pre assembled paper embellishments are not a new thing.  However – there is a (relatively) new name for such things floating around the web.  The term “Card Candy” has been gaining strength amongst paper crafters everywhere and is trending pretty heavily these days on social media sites.

For my readers who might not be familiar with the term Card Candy, let me give you a quick explanation.  Card Candy is basically pieces of paper and other embellishments stacked together in a pre-assembled fashion.  They are then sold and/or used as decorations on greeting cards.  Some people also use them as decorative elements on scrapbook pages, and in other art projects.

You can see tons of examples by typing in the term, “Card Candy” in a Google Image, Pinterest, or YouTube Search!

My First Go at Making Card Candy

I started assembling paper based embellishments (and setting them aside for later use) about 15 years ago or so – when I was doing paper scrapbooking.  But in those days we called these little gems “nuggets” or “tags”.  I must have hosted and participated in a hundred nugget and tag swaps with my friends from the CraftHappy.com web site back then.  Most of our nugget swaps had themes attached, similar to the ATC swaps of today.

This is a set of nuggets and a Simple set of cards I made using them.

 

We typically used our paper scraps and leftover embellishments (brads, stickers, etc) to make them. And we’d make the embellishments in sets of 3-6 final art pieces.  All this was before steal dies and die cutting machines were invented.  Like those shown above, the nuggets were usually either square or round – the sizes that paper punches came in.  Any extra cutouts were done by hand.  Things were mostly centered and held together with glue, tape, brads, or eyelets.

They were rather elementary in style and very quick and easy to pull together.  You can make a batch of cards with these really quick or add them as embellishments to page layouts without additional cutting and pasting when you sit down to do scrapbooking.

Cut, Tuck, and Fold Card Candy

In the picture below you can see some cut-tuck-and-fold nuggets in the top right corner and a few cards I put together using this type of embellishment.  Once you have a stack of these card candies set aside, you can produce basic cards in hardly any time at all.  Great for when you’re mass producing like I do for the “cards for troops” thing I’ve been up to lately.

Newer Card Candy Styles

Nowadays I’m seeing these sweet artful pieces in many shapes and sizes.  Plus crafters are using a wider variety of elements on them.  The catchy name, Card Candy implies its originally intended purpose is for decorating cards, but of course many of these are also made with scrapbook enthusiasts in mind.  Some are made with so many 3-D elements they may not be good candidates for mailing or using on flat scrapbook pages.  However, the ones with poofy flowers, metal charms, and hard beads make them excellent creative additions to chunky books, canvas works, and altered art projects.

Card Candy Party in my Studio

This Card Candy definitely has a hold on my creative spirit.  I enjoy using my scraps for pretty little things!  And I’m all about creating in bulk for swaps, or card making marathons too.  Last week I got on a Card Candy making binge.

I totally love breaking away from the basic squares and circles from my nugget days.  All the various die cuts on the market today open up a whole new set of possibilities when it comes to cutting up pieces of scraps.

With this set (pictured above) I made better use of my paper scraps plus got rid of some little eyelettes that had taken up residency on a shelf far too long!  I also enjoyed being creative while purging out more of my stash.

Although I haven’t yet signed up for any craft booths in this new town that we’ve recently moved to – I’m sure I will.  And when I do you can bet there will be packages of Card Candy on my table.

Here’s some more I put together over the weekend.  Not sure if they will be packaged for selling or if I’ll use them on cards.  But either way they are assembled and ready to go whenever I get around to it.

Spill the Beans

So now it’s confession time. What do you do with your paper scraps?  At what point do you say, enough is enough and it’s time to throw it out?  Is your scraps box overflowing right now?  Is it a large box or small one?  Do you organize your paper scraps or do you just toss them all into a bin…. like maybe the trash bin?  LOL

Are you creating Card Candy or other sweet little things with your scraps? Oh please do tell!

Hugs to You All, ~ Cindy