Adhesives for Card Making Fully Explained.....There are a number of Adhesives for Card Making and by choosing the right one for your project you will be able to create professional looking cards.
Double Sided Tape is probably the most used product in card making! It is great for sticking background papers or card toppers to cards. You simply stick the tape onto the back of the background paper (or whatever it is you want to stick) and then peel off the backing and stick it onto the card. You can get this tape in different widths to suit different projects i.e. use a thinner tape to attach an insert into a card. However be warned - once the tape sticks it does not move. So if you position something crooked - crooked it will stay! Some crafters have difficulty lifting up the edges of the tape so if you are one of these look for "easy peel" or "finger lift" tape. This also works works well when sticking ribbon to a card but note it will show through Organza ribbon.
Glue Dots are very handy to have as they work well where the larger double sided tape would be too clumbersome. As the name suggests they are small dots of adhesive which can be used seperately eg to fix a punched border to a base card, or to fix individual embellishments such as flwoers or gemstones onto your cards. Again you can get different sizes to suit different projects.
PVA Glue is a multi purpose glue which you have probably used as a child in craft projects. It is a water based glue and this is a disavantage to card makers as if you use it to cover large areas of card or paper it can cause the card to warp and loose its flat appearance. The thinner the base card the more likely this is to happen. This adhesive is best used in small amounts to glue a small embellishment to your card, or to fix glitter to the card. As the glue takes a little while to dry you can always straighten any wonky work.
Silicone Glue takes a little bit of getting used - it will give height to your work and as such is perfect for sticking your decoupage layers together. When dry it is transparent which means the layers look like they are floating. However practise is needed to ensure that you apply the same amount of glue to each layer. It is also very useful for attaching metal embellishments to your work.
There are various makes of Tape Runner on the market and they are very handy for quick card making. You run the Tape Runner across your card and it lays down a strip of glue which you then use to attach your next layer of card / paper. The adhesive is not as strong as double sided tape but it is more forgiving and lets you straighten up if necessary. The down side of these is that they are expensive to buy and always seem to run out quickly.
Probably the hardest thing to attach to a card is Vellum. Using a normal adhesive would ruin the delicate effect as it would show through. A specialised Vellum Adhesive is the only glue you should use with Vellum. There are various brands on the market - some come in a strip format, others in a glue dot format. We would suggest trying both to see which you can work with best.
Sticky Pads (or Sticky Fixers as they are sometimes known) are little squares of double sided 3D foam. You simply peel them off their backing sheet and stick them onto your card, pull off the top backing paper and then stick whatever you want onto the top of them. These are great for attaching Toppers to your cards and for using between Decoupage layers. Whenusing them in Decoupage the disadvantage is that when you look at the layers sideways you will be able to see all the pads which some card makers think distracts from the work.
Finally no page on adhesives would be complete without mention of the ever popular Glue Stick. Handy and safe to use most households will have one of these somewhere. However like PVA glue they are water based so they should be used with caution as they can also warp the card. If you want to use a glue stick look for one which is intended for crafters, the likes of Tombow, which will not make the paper bubble or shrink.
|
