Tips and Techniques Thursday: Stickles + CANDi = A Delicious Embellishment

Hey Stickle-lovers! Ashley here today from Made Especially For You. And it's not just any day today, it's my birthday! In honor of all the delicious treats I'm sure I'll be snacking on today, I thought I'd share a "sweet" tutorial with you using Stickles and CANDi!

CANDi is a relatively-new crafting embellishment manufactured by Craftwork Cards, based out of the UK. But don't worry, you can still get CANDi at plenty of online stores here in the U.S. :) CANDi pieces are just like brads except without the legs! Instead of being pierced through paper, they get attached using a small foam square. 

They come in TONS of different colors and patterns, and work great on all types of crafts from cards to layouts to 3D items, they can really be used on anything. They have a Mini package, too, which are a little bit cheaper and contain less pieces, perfect if you want a small sampling of each color/pattern like me. :)

Now... knowing me and my love for glitter, of course I wondered what it would be like to Stickle CANDi! They already have a bit of shimmer to them, but a little extra glitter never hurts. :)

Here you can see their slight shimmer. This is the Mardi Gras set.

The first step is deciding where you are going to put your CANDi on your project. On my card I've decided I want three green pieces in the top righthand corner.

Now that you know where you're going to put them, it's time to bring out your foam dots so you can adhere them to your project. CANDi actually have their own foam squares that fit perfectly, but if you don't have any on hand cutting your own small foam pieces works just fine.

Peel the sticky back off and adhere the squares to your CANDi.

Then, adhere them to your project!

Now that your CANDi pieces are adhered, it's time to Stickle them! I've found it's easiest to apply the Stickles AFTER the pieces are adhered to the card, because then the pieces are already held nicely in place and are elevated enough to where excess Stickles won't get on the paper.

I chose to use Firefly Stickles. In the picture you'll notice there's a difference in the shade of greens between the CANDi and the Stickles, but that's okay, just wait and see. :)

Applying a light layer of Stickles combines the two colors together. See how the CANDi doesn't' look exactly like Firefly, but are a slightly darker shade then they looked before the Stickles were applied? As long as you have a shade of Stickles relatively close to the color of your CANDi, the final color should still match your project. 

And the final card:

The image on the card is called "Sandcastle Owen" and is from The Paper Nest Dolls, another design team I am proud to design for. They have super cute digital and rubber stamps, which also work well when applying Stickles to stamped images. :)

Here are a few other projects made using Stickled CANDi:

Decoration on 3D items!

Flower centers!

Use for clothing accessories!

Card accents!

Want to give this technique a try but have yet to start a CANDi collection? No fear! Custom Crops sells them at a great price, and if you sign up for a free account with Blitsy, they have them on sale every once in a while for a great price, too. If you live in the UK, you can buy them directly from the Craftwork Cards website! There are lots of online retailers, all it takes is a quick Google search to find a site you'd like to purchase them from. :)

Hope you enjoyed this "sweet" tutorial!