Adhesive: “to hold fast or stick by or as if by gluing, suction, grasping, or fusing”
Adhesives are the easy part of scrapbooking, you’re just sticking it all together. But when you’re first starting off in your scrapping adventures, how do you know what types of adhesive are out there? And even if you’ve been around the scrapping world for a while, you might find yourself thinking, ‘There’s got to be an easier way than this!’ (I know I’ve been there, especially after hours of peeling mounting squares!)
Types of Adhesive
Tapes and Runners These are my personal favorite because of their sheer ease. These are double-sided tape in a dispenser. Some look like the your regular role of tape, while others are come in an enclosed hand-held dispenser. Tape runners are good, because you don’t need much for them to work. For example, if you’re using a runner with a photo you don’t need to outline the whole photo, just the corners. This enables you to extend the life of your tape–and it makes your scrapbooking go a whole lot faster!
There’s also different types of runners like glue dots and vellum. Glue dots are very useful for adhering embellishments, but for photos or other scrapbooking materials they can be a nuisance. You can find these in a dispenser, sheets, or role. A vellum tape runner comes in handy, since the adhesive dries clear so you won’t see it
Mounting Squares To be honest, I’ve nearly grown out of using mounting sqaures. They work well with nearly all times of scrapbooking materials (from photos to paper and embellishments), but are time consuming. The plus side of mounting squares are they usually the cheapest adhesive you can find and come in a decent quantity.
Photo Corners I love photo corners for projects that I’m giving away (like brag books) or other mini albums. They also work great if I’m designing a layout a head of time and am not quite sure what pictures I want yet. These are also good if you have an important document (like a birth certificate) that you don’t want to adhere permanently. You can find these in clear, black, or white.
Other Adhesive In the “other” category of adhesives are glue sticks, spray adhesive, and metal & ribbon glue.
Glue Sticks There are acid-free glue sticks (also referred to as a craft stick) designed specifically for crafting purposes. If you decide to use a glue stick, I would suggest going with this type. They work fine with papers, but for photos, chipboard, or other embellishments you’re better off with a stronger adhesive.
Spray Adhesive I wouldn’t suggest using a spray adhesive in your scrapbook albums (it’s hard to control everything that gets sprayed), but these work great for other craft projects. I’ve used spray adhesive in decorating composition notebooks, making my own chipboard designs, and gluing labels on cans or jars.
When you are using a spray adhesive, make sure that you spray on a covered surface with a towel or newspaper. (I’ve left stains on my carpet from neglecting to this!)
Metal & Ribbon Glue I haven’t spent much time gluing metal, but it is nice to have a glue specifically for ribbon. Making Memories has a metal & ribbon glue product that doesn’t seep through the ribbon and dries clear.
This is by no means an exhaustive listing of every type of adhesive out there, but hopefully now you’re better equipped to “stick it all together” in your scrapbooking. Don’t be overwhelmed by all the options. Try something and find out what suits your scrapping needs, time, and budget the best.
To scrap well, you don’t need to have every specialty type of adhesive their is. To be honest, most of the time I use a type runner for my ribbon. (Although I have to admit, recently I used a glue gun for ribbon that didn’t want to stick to a notebook I was making!)
Just have fun scrapping!
