Thursday, October 9, 2014

Card Candy Swap!


On World Card Making Day my wonderful, crafty friends hosted a Card Candy Swap. Have you heard of this? No? Me either! It's a great idea ... you make some embellishments (typically coordinating), package them up all nice and pretty, and then swap them with your friends. It's like going shopping, only you don't need to bring your wallet!
 

Let's start with the basics. For each set of Card Candy I made four embellishments:
  1. vintage bottle cap (found at a flea market for only 10 cents each!!)
  2. small felt bow (MFT Beautiful Bows die)
  3. Phone dial layered with various materials
  4. large felt bow


Each element I varied slightly, but tried to stay within the same basic color/pattern scheme. The bottle caps are backed with punched circles and/or PTI Sketched Stars die. The circles are punched out of 2 double sided pieces of paper so I had four different patterns to play with.


The felt bows have different colors for the three main parts (loops, band, tails). And the phone dials are all cut from a piece of patterned paper (Pebbles, From Me to You) and layered with different elements, like embossed vellum, cork, stars, fancy brads. 

   

 It was pretty late at night (because of course I was doing this at the last possible minute) but I was awake enough to get really excited about how they were turning out! They looked so neat together : )

Now, they need to get all packaged up.


  
I used some patterned papers for the base and/or the strip running down the middle. Here is where the sketch for the current Fusion Challenge comes into play, only the sentiment is on top:





The flap on top of the Card Candy uses the Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Borders die to finish the edge. Old alphabet letter stamps spell out "CARDcandy" and are embossed in white. The Tim Holtz tiny attacher works perfectly to close the flap.


Here they all are! My husband's comic book mylar bags ended up working well to package the candy. So what exactly do you do with it?!


The point is that you could take a basic card base, stamp a sentiment on it, and then add bits of your Card Candy to get a finished card. 


This one may be a bit plain, but hopefully you get the idea.


Here are some pics from the party ... it's so fun when it's time to gather around the table and see what everyone brought!


We all take turns explaining what we brought, how we made it, what you could use it for, tips we learned, etc. Maggie made these awesome hat pin embellishments. She starts with a boutonniere pin that already has a pearl on the end, adds some glossy accents to the shaft of the pin, and slides the beads on. It's amazing that they are held on the pin that way! We always learn a ton of things at these parties!


Then it's time to go down the line picking out one package from each lady's pile. The pretty, bright flowers on the right were made by the hostess's 9 year-old daughter. She's adorable!


Our co-hostess even organized a Halloween card make-n-take for us! She's amazing. She had just finished making 150 wedding invitations on her Silhouette with a crazy amount of scrolling detail that must have taken ages to pick out the pieces. Whenever you think you're the craziest one spending all this time and money on your crafting passion, it's nice knowing there's someone who's just a little bit crazier than you!

I'm linking this to the Winnie & Walter contest link-up for what I did on WCMD. Don't forget to enter your photo for a chance at an awesome prize, or any one of these other AMAZING prizes:
Hope you all had a wonderful World Card Making Day! Thanks so much for looking!
-Kelly

21 comments:

  1. How fun! These are so you and I love how you packaged them too! I bet they were a huge hit!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! What an incredibly cool idea!! My family does a card swap, but maybe an embellishment swap would be fun, too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have never heard of card candy...but, boy, how fun and lovely are these! It looks to me that you are starting a great tradition with your crafting friends on WCMD!! Wish I were there ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. No Kelly I have never heard of thisi either, but what a fun idea and what a fun day {insert envy here}! Love the candy you made, not surprised!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love these!
    You created some beautiful embellishments. They're packaged cute, too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Now, this is awesome! Lovin' the 'card candy'! Sounds like a lot of fun! And your cards simply, ROCK (as always)! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. These are fabulous, what a fun party. I love the embellies u created and the way you packed it :) great cards too !!

    ReplyDelete
  8. WOW what a fun idea for a gathering, I like it alot!!!! Cool Card Candy!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Unbelievably colorful, creative and lovely Kelly! what a great project - and a what a fun party!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What wonderful card candy, and it looks like a super fun party, too.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your card candy is fantastic, bet they LOOOOOVED them!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a marvelous idea, to make embellishments and exchange them with friends! I wish I knew you so we could swap! I've never made any, mind you, but I'd try due to your example and inspiration! Thanks for this great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Girl, you rocked the card candy! What a spectacular post. Love what you did and I haven't heard of this type of swap but how fun!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh my gosh , these are amazing! Looks like so much fun..... and a bit of work and love too!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh I'd rather do this than a cookie swap... and I love cookies!! How fun, Kelly... I love your card candy. Especially those bottle caps - what a find!
    =] Michele

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a fabulous idea! I might have to try that! I love your retro style cards - so happy!
    Thanks for your comment on my W&W card - made my day!

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a fun idea, Kelly ... your embellishments are fabulous ... so much detail! Looks as though everyone had a fabulous time swapping! Anita :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh, what a super fun idea! Yours are wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Kelly, I'm in awe! Can't believe all this fun and craftiness. Love, love the embellies you did! So clever to put them on the cellophane packages. Just all of it is a wonder!

    ReplyDelete

I absolutely love reading comments. Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to leave one! - Kelly