Sweet Shoppe Designs – The Sweetest Digital Scrapbooking Site on the Web

Hello, Happy Wednesday!! It’s Andrea here with another fabaroonie Hot 4 Hybrid blog post.

But I don’t have a project to share with you today, instead I have something really ‘useful’ to anyone who likes to glue and stick.

Glue, sticky stuff, adhesive. Whatever you call it glue is one of the most important resources you need to make papercraft projects and today I want to share my glue with you.

Even I was a bit taken aback by the sheer number of different types of glue I had in my drawer when I went looking to take these photographs (the neighbours must have thought I had cracked up when I started taking photographs of glue sticks and glue guns on my patio table in the garden 😆 )

But you see I have different glue for different purposes. Some I have that I bought and just couldn’t get away with but my crop friends wouldn’t possibly use any other so whilst people can advise you on certain types of glue it all comes down to personal preference.

Mod Podge – I have two types, matte and glossy. I have to confess to never having used the glossy one but I’ve used the matte mod podge to adhere paper to wooden projects that I was altering or decorating. Beware though, it can make your paper wrinkle as it’s a wet glue. My top tip is to brush it thinly onto your paper and the surface you want it to stick to, leave for a few minutes until it goes tacky then smooth the paper over. Mmmm, not my glue of choice.

Next up Glossy Accents by Ranger

I LOVE this glue. I use the Glossy Accents for sticking on anything bulky to my cards and projects such as flowers, buttons, resin frames etc. You can apply it over paper and embellishments and when it dries it gives a glossy coating so it does what it says on the label. I use this all the time and probably wouldn’t be able to make a card without it. Don’t be tempted to adhere your layers of paper together though as it will warp them. I also have Glossy’s brother and sister – Matte Accents which is the same but in a matte finish and Crackle Accents whichdries to a shiny crackle finish and is particularly good for giving painted chipboard elements a distressed appearance. One thing to note about Glossy accents is I’ve struggled to use it to stick on fabric flowers as the glue just soaks in – everything else though it’s worked perfectly!

Double sided tape is really useful for adhering layers of paper as it won’t warp your paper or squidge out the sides like runny glue does. I used this for years and years to make my cards, it doesn’t need to be expensive I bought mine from our Pound Shop (dollar shop)

Foam pads – Use these to lift and separate your layers of paper, to raise elements up from the background. They are brilliant for attaching flowers as they allow the petals to curve. I use stacks of these and the best ones I have found (and of which I have run out of and have on order are from Stampin Up)

Tape runners are next. I struggled with these for ages as they kept clogging up and forever running out. These are the types of glue that you either love or hate. A bit like Marmite (do you get that in America? It’s a yeast extract that people spread on toast. I hate it!!)

Do you want to add small amounts of glitter to your projects? and you want to be precise?

My quickie glue goes to all my crops as sometimes that cupcake just needs a spot of glitter sprinkled on the frosting to make it look almost edible. This is the glue for glitter 🙂

Next up are my glue dots. These come in different sizes and are great for applying flowers, buttons and small embellishments. I always worry about using them if my card is going through the mail though.

My hot glue gun gets used occasionally. If I’m making decorated boxes and giftbags and I want to decorate them with larger flowers or embellishments. Be careful of your fingers as this stuff burns and I wouldn’t use it with children. You can get cool melt guns but I have found that it doesn’t hold as well.

Gluesticks. I use my TomBow glue stick for all my chipboard mini albums. It creates a really good bond between the paper and chipboard and I’ve used it for all my Sweet Shoppe Hybrid projects that involve chipboard and wooden shapes. I can’t craft without this one 🙂

And finally we get to the big one. My glue of choice for papercrafting is my ATG gun. It looks like it would be big, bulky and heavy but once you start to use it you’ll never use double sided tape ever again. I’ve had this almost a year I think and I use it every time I papercraft. I can’t recomend it enough if you’re going to be doing a lot of papercrafting. All my crop friends have one but my friend who is left handed really struggled to use it as she couldn’t see where the strip of glue was going. The ATG gun works by laying down a strip of dry adhesive, it creates a permanent bond and nothing I’ve stuck on with it has fallen off. it gets my vote every time 🙂

I hope this has helped, remember what I said at the start of my post – it’s all personal preference. What works for some doesn’t work for others so you need to check out what your craft store offers and listen to what others say about your glue. These are all my personal opinions and not the opinions of the owners and designers of Sweet Shoppe Designs.