Glue Dots

Written and Created by PaperCraftCentral Susan

Glue dots are very sticky double sided bits of glue that can help a papercrafter out quite a bit in certain situations. You can use them for far more than the mending mentioned in the quote below:

"Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue".
~Eugene O'Neill 

In fact, I reach for them whenever I need to adhere something rather heavy or large or something that needs to stay right where I put it in spite of experiencing some stress.

More information below!

What's So Great about Glue Dots?

Glue dots are one of my favourite adhesives. They help me stick ribbon, bows, embellishments, gems and more to my cards and scrapbook layouts in the blink of an eye.

They are strong and do not add a lot of dimension to things as they are fairly thin.

They hold better than double sided tape or other less sticky glues.

They are thinner than a hot glue gun can be and the adhesive is more flexible.

Those are some of the features that impress me quite a lot. But they have more!

Here's a Quick Trick:

The best way to place mini Glue Dots is to press your project against the dispenser roll. This way, you don’t even need to touch the adhesive with your fingers!

I like to do that especially with ribbon bows.

If you are like me, I lay down a strip of ribbon on my cardstock then tie a bow with a separate piece of ribbon, working with it till I am happy with how it looks. Only then do I try to stick it down, and these little adhesive circles are perfect for the job.

Depending on the size of the bow, I sometimes use three of the sticky bits, one on the middle of the bow and one on each side of the bow.

I just press the bow onto the adhesive and lift the ribbon off, pulling the circle of adhesive with it as I go. I add another bit of adhesive under the ribbon, to hold the bow in place.

Here are some more Features and Benefits:

1. They are super-sticky, double-sided, small adhesive circles
2. They have no fumes, cause no mess, and no drying time is required
3. They bond instantly to a variety of materials such as paper, fabric, wood, foam, plastic, and more
4. They are easy to use
5. They are acid free so are safe for your photo albums
6. There are 300 dots per roll. Each one measures approximately 4.8 mm in diameter (Size of dots may vary plus or minus 1.6 mm).
7. They are great for attaching embellishments right where you want them to be

Here's how to use them:

Press the paper or object onto the adhesive on its roll, then pull your project away. The adhesive will adhere to the object. Do not try to pull the dot off the liner paper with your hands because the adhesive will stick to you and not to the paper.

OR

Use your paper piercing tool, the pointy end of your paper snips or tweezers to lift the adhesive off the roll and place it where it needs to go.

Did you know?

You can get these sticky little critters in various sizes.

I have seen them in 1/4" (1cm) size right up to 1" (2.5cm) size.

The larger ones are great for holding heavier elements to a scrapbook page, for example metal embellishments.

The largest of them holds a heavy paper flower to things really well too. You can even make paper plate art with Glue Dots as long as they are not mini glue dots. You could use minis but would need to add enough of them clustered together to provide adhesive for really heavy sticking!

Tacky Removable Glue Dots or Fugitive Glue

People have asked me where to find tacky removable glue that is like the glue you get when the bank sends you a new credit card. You can remove the card from the letter without tearing the paper. Normal Glue Dots will tear paper when you try to remove them.

Also known as Fugitive Glue, this gummy type of dot is not often used in my papercrafting.

It is important to make sure you get the right kind of glue dot when you are shopping. If it says the gum is removable, you are probably holding Fugitive Glue in your hand

Stampin' Up! does not currently carry this type of adhesive. I believe you can purchase it in office supply stores though.

Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets

When you want your glue to cover a larger area, Stampin' Up! also has Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets for use with your Big Shot Machine.

Easily adhere shapes you cut with your Big Shot and dies with these 12 sheets that come in  6" x 12" (15.2 x 30.5 cm) size.

Once you have a supply of glue dots and other special adhesives, you will find lots of uses for them.

Happy crafting!