If you are new to scrapbooking you may have many technical questions at first. One of the most common is what do I use to glue my pictures and other keepsakes into my scrapbook? There can be a whole aisle at the scrapbook store dedicated to adhesives alone and it’s tough to decide which ones are right for your needs. Many people who are trying scrapbooking for the first time make a mistake when it comes to choosing an adhesive. If you are new to scrapbooking here is a simple list of do’s and don’t when it comes to picking which adhesive is right for you-
•Do not even think about any glue that you bought for your child’s school needs. Adhesives should be specifically labeled as safe for scrapbooking (acid-free) in order to be appropriate for use on your layouts. You will want to make sure that you purchase adhesives that are designed specifically for scrapbooking.
•Do not use any type of glue stick. Glue sticks are an inexpensive adhesive and some are even acid-free. But they still do not make the best adhesive for scrapbooking. This is because as the glue dries it tends to become brittle and some items even fall off of your pages. You will want to spend the extra money and get good quality adhesives for use with your photos.
•Do use a photo tab dispenser for scrapbook adhesives. Photo tabs are small squares of double sided tape that will work especially well with photos. You will only need a few per photo (one in each corner is sufficient). In addition if you adhere your photos, with limited amounts of good adhesive you will be able to remove them later if needed. Photo tab dispensers will allow you to apply the adhesive squares with a rolling tool which makes using them quick and easy. There are now even photo tab dispensers for adhesives that allow for a pop up mount on your pages.
•Do try out a few different tape runners. Tape runners are the most time and effort efficient scrapbook adhesive. There are many different company that manufacture runners and each has its own pro’s and con’s. Some tape dispensers are refillable and some are disposable. Some tape dispensers roll out a clear adhesive strip, some little light blue dots, and some white tiny strips of double stick tape.
You can also choose between repositionable and permanent adhesives depending on your scrapbooking needs. Your local craft or office supply store will have a variety to choose from and it is recommended that you try several to see what fits your scrapbooking needs best.
•Do not use rubber cement. While some rubber cements state that they are now acid-free this is still not a good choice for scrapbooks. Using rubber cement is still a messy and time consuming way to assemble your scrapbook.
•Do not use any permanent adhesive on photos that you may want to remove in the future. If there is any chance that you may want to remove photos from your album in the future for copying or reprinting, you will want to use an adhesive that allows you to pop the photos off the page. You may want to consider old fashioned photo corners which were designed for this purpose, and are great for heritage albums. Be advised though that photo corners are very time consuming to use in comparison with tab dispensers and tape runners.
•Do use specialty adhesive for specialty items. For example if you are gluing vellum be sure that you are using the specialty adhesive that allows you to mount the vellum. This is an adhesive that will dry clear behind the vellum eliminating the aggravation of trying to figure out how to mount vellum without the glue or other adhesive showing.
•Do follow the general rule of less is more. No matter what type of adhesive you are using never use more than you really need to.
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