Scrapbook Adhesives Tips

Tip for Gluing Fibers or Ribbon on Your Scrapbook Pages

Fiber and ribbons can be tricky items to glue to your scrapbook layouts. When trying to adhere these types of items to your pages, liquid glue may be your best choice. Squeeze the glue in a thin line on your scrapbook page where you want to put your fibers and let it start to dry for a minute, and then place your fibers onto the glue and press down firmly. Allowing the glue to dry a little will let the glue get “tacky” so it doesn’t smear and make a mess on your layouts.

Using these and other scrapbook adhesive solutions will assist you in creating clean, attractive layouts for your scrapbooking albums.

Cropping Corner Tip: Scrapbook Adhesives

There are many different types of scrapbooking adhesives that are safe to use on your scrapbooking layouts. Here are some popular scrapbooking adhesives and their functions:

Glue dots: These little dabs of glue are strong enough to hold embellishments like buttons and ribbon. There are also pop-up glue dots that help add dimension to your pages.

Photo splits: These come in cardboard dispensers and are double-sided for easy sticking power.

Tape runners: These come in dispensers and are refillable. Just roll the dispenser over your paper and add your embellishments, photos, etc. You can use permanent or temporary adhesive with tape runners.

Xyron: A non-electric scrapbook adhesive machine that applies adhesive to the back of your paper so you can use it like a sticker.

Pop dots or 3-D foam squares: These are pieces of foam with double-sided adhesive that will raise items off the page.

Metal glue: This glue is used to adhere metal charms and other embellishments.

Tacky tape: Used for gluing down beads, sand, glitter, etc.

All of these scrapbooking adhesives can safely be used on your scrapbook layouts. Using the right adhesive will ensure the preservation of your scrapbook pages.

Correcting Your Glue Mess

If you get too much scrapbook adhesive on your scrapbook punches, letters or die cuts then it may show on the sides of your embellishment. The best thing to do is to get as much of it off the paper as you can without smearing it. Let it dry and use a Q-tip with colored chalk that matches your paper to cover up the shiny spot from the glue. If you don’t have chalk, you can try a white eraser and it should do the trick. Always test your correction techniques on a scrap piece of paper first to make sure they will work on your scrapbook layouts.

Scrapbook Adhesive: What Not to Use

Scrapbooks are made to preserve memories so everything you use on your scrapbook layouts needs to be archival-safe; including scrapbook adhesive. If you use scrapbooking adhesive that is not safe for your photos, you have defeated the purpose of “preserving” your photographs and memories.

Here are some scrapbook adhesives you should not use on your scrapbook pages:

• Rubber cement is very harmful to your photographs. The toxic fumes say it all. The chemicals in this adhesive will ruin your photographs and your paper.
• Good old-fashioned white school glue from Elmer’s is another adhesive to stay away from. This glue will dry up and your photos will not stick, but it will leave a residue that can damage your papers and photographs.
• Regular glue sticks are not safe to use on scrapbook layouts either. They can leave papers stiff and ruin the appearance of your scrapbook pages.
• Masking tape and scotch tape are not photo-safe products. There are some brands of double stick tape that are marked photo-safe that you can use, if needed.

So what can scrapbook adhesives can you use? Tape runners are good choice; they are mess-free and refillable. Scrapbook photo corners work well to secure papers and photographs, plus they are removable. Other removable or temporary adhesive are good for those pictures you want to have access to in the future.

Anytime you purchase or use adhesive for scrapbooking projects look for the “photo-safe” guarantee so you can make scrapbook layouts that will last and look fabulous years from now.

Liquid Scrapbook Adhesive

Scrapbooking adhesives, like liquid adhesive, can get messy to work with. Spreading liquid adhesive evenly over a large area may be complicated. One solution is to use the plastic credit cards you get in the mail with credit card offers. Instead of throwing them out, save them for your scrapbook supplies. The cards are stiff and have an even edge to help you spread the glue evenly and scrape off excess glue when needed.

Don’t let liquid adhesive leave you in a mess, try the credit card solution and enjoy a mess-free scrapping area

Double-Sided Adhesive Sheets

Double-sided adhesive sheets are another scrapbooking adhesive alternative. These sheets can be cut into any shape you need and are great adhesive solutions for ribbon, fabric and other types of scrapbook embellishments. Adhesive sheets can be purchased at most scrapbook supply stores or craft stores. These scrapbook adhesive sheets are archival-safe, so it is an excellent adhesive for scrapbook layouts and photo memories.