Adhesives 101

A good craft room needs a great stash of adhesives, but it can be quite tricky knowing which adhesive is best for your project. With so many different types on the market, it can be quite overwhelming! But don’t worry – we’re on hand with this useful adhesives 101 guide to help you discover which adhesive is the one for you!

If you’re a papercrafter, the Extra Strong Permanent Tape Pen or Tape Pen Dots could be for you!

The Extra Strong Permanent Glue Tape Pen holds a massive 22m (72 feet) of glue tape inside, so there’ll be no need for any fiddly refills. This double-sided adhesive is suitable for use on all types of paper and card, and is strong enough to even make boxes! The Tape Pen Dots is perfect for a quick and mess-free bond, especially when adhering highly detailed intricate die cut pieces to card or paper. Again, with over 22 metres (72 feet) of dotted glue tape inside, you’ll have plenty of adhesive for all your projects.

Both of these comfortable, easy-to-grip glue pens can be applied in straight or curved lines, so they may be small, but they’re definitely mighty! Both are also acid-free and archival safe, so you don’t have to worry about your paper or card becoming damaged by them.

The Tape Pen is available for £3.99/$4.99/€4.99. The Tape Pen Dots is available for £4.99/$5.95/€5.99.

Our double-sided tape is suitable for a wide variety of surfaces and materials, but it’s especially brilliant for papercrafts, particularly if you’re making your own envelopes. It’s an extra strong adhesive that mounts and bonds invisibly, so it’s perfect if you want to add delicate embellishments or adhere the edges of an envelope down.

What makes this tape slightly more superior than the tape pens is that it is heat resistant, so you can use it alongside embossing powder to achieve a neat finish. So overall, this is a highly versatile adhesive that would make a welcome addition in any stash!

The double-sided tape is available for £2.49/$3.49/€2.99.

Red liner double-sided tape is particularly good at bonding with super strength. Like our double-sided tape, it’s suitable for a wide variety of surfaces and materials, and it can also withstand heat, which means you can use it with embossing powder.

However, due to its red colour, this tape isn’t super invisible, so it wouldn’t work well on white or clear projects, but it does have a tremendous holding ability where a strong bond is needed – simply press firmly to ensure perfect bond.

3mm red liner tape is available for £2.49/$3.49/€2.99. 6mm red liner tape is available for £2.79/$3.99/€3.49. 12mm red liner tape is available for £3.99/$5.99/€4.99.

Low Tack Tape is absolutely essential if you need to adhere materials together temporarily. This makes it perfect for using with stencils, masking and inking techniques.

This clear tape is equipped with its own handy lightweight dispenser, making it easy for you to measure out exactly how much you need. As this tape is low tack, it promises to hold down your materials for as long as you need, but can be removed without damaging your projects, so it’s a must have in all craft stashes!

Three reels of Low Tack Tape are available for £4.99/$6.99/€5.99.

Foam pads are an absolute must for serious crafters who do a lot of decoupage work or want to create a raised effect with their embellishments. They can also be used to create amazing shaker cards! They can be cut to shape with scissors or a die-cutting machine too, so they’re handy for many uses!

They aren’t strong enough to hold heavy projects together for long periods of time, so they’re mainly good for papercrafters who want to have a raised effect on cards or scrapbook projects.

Our double-sided foam pads are available for £1.99/$2.99/€2.49.

Here at Crafter’s Companion, we have a spray adhesive to suit almost every need!

• Stick and Spray Mounting Adhesive – great for matting and layering, or mounting unmounted stamps. When paired up with a Rock-a-Block, this spray can allow you to re-position your stamps up to 30 times.
• Stick and Spray Adhesive for Fabric (orange can) – this is a permanent non-sew fusible adhesive designed for use on fabric, applique and quilting. It makes fabric, wadding, paper or any other non-woven stabiliser fusible and it’s also great for machine embroidery. Simply heat set by pressing with an iron to form a strong, dry-cleanable and washable at 40c.
• Stick and Spray Adhesive for Fabric (dark blue can) – this is a repositionable adhesive that will temporarily bond all fabrics. It can be used for machine applique, quilting, tacking, hemming and holding fabric to stabilisers in machine embroidery. It promises not to spot fabric or foundation material, or gum sewing needles.
• Stick and Spray Adhesive Remover – a powerful adhesive remover for a variety of surfaces including rubber, glass, plastic and china. It’s also amazing at removing labels, plasters, chewing gum and tar, so it’s great for household uses.

All available for £7.99 each.

Our hot glue gun has been designed with the crafter in mind. Featuring an ergonomic, easy to use design and built-in stand, applying adhesive to your products has never been simpler to do. It has also been fitted with a non-drip nozzle and trigger action, so you can be sure that mistakes and mess are kept to a minimum.

With multi-purpose bonding capabilities, this glue gun can be used to bond numerous materials including paper, plastic, fabric, card, ceramics and much more, making it the perfect piece of equipment for your kit.

We hope that this handy guide has helped you with stocking up your adhesive stash! We’d love to see your collection and any of your creations, so please tag us in your photos on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #crafterscompanion.