Adhesives - Seven Ways to Make Paper Craft Projects Without Using Glue and Tape

It is very easy to reach for my double sided tape or any of my various glues when paper crafting. One of the things I love about paper is that there are often many ways to achieve the result you want. Adhering things with glues and tapes are just one way of making your elements stay where you want them. Come with me to look at a few other ideas for making things stick!

You can make your project without any adhesives at all. Taking a challenge to do so is a fun way to inspire yourself. Here are seven ways you could make your project without adhesives.

1. Brads

If you have been a paper crafter for awhile, you are probably familiar with brads. They are made of metal and come with a split pin backing that can be pushed through layers of paper to hold embellishments together. You often see them used in the middle of flower layers. There is no reason why you cannot use them in other ways such as to hold mats in place, to place tags where you want them, to bind together a small album or booklet, to make a swing tag to cover hidden journaling, to provide an anchor for ribbon or braid or cord, or as an embellishment in their own right. Use an odd number of brads in a row to draw the eye to a place on your page or card, make a curved line of them, or use them as corner points.

2. Stitching

Hand sewing or machine sewing can add a great deal to your pages and cards as well as being a convenient way of holding your elements together. Stitch together layers of cardstock or designer paper using straight lines or decorative stitching. Stitch around a photo using straight stitch or zig zag or blanket stitch to hold it to its mat (use a paper piercer and grid template first to make way for your needle and thread when hand stitching). Sew buttons onto your layout to hold things in place. Sew pages of an album together to bind them, with threads or yarn or string. Make a folded paper book with a stitched spine. Sew on felt or other materials to make flowers or any other shape you wish and then stitch them in place. Sew ribbon to your page.

Hint: If you use your sewing machine for paper crafting, be sure to keep a needle just for sewing paper. Stitching through paper will blunt your needle a little and may cause snags on fabric items afterward.

3. Clips and Other Hardware from the Stationers

Fossicking through stationery stores can reveal wonderful items for you to use in your paper crafting. Paper clips, little bulldog clips, pins, coloured staples and the like can all be used in place of brads or glues or tapes. Manufacturers are constantly coming out with new little trinkets for the Office. Why not incorporate them into your paper crafting projects?

4. Paper Folding, Cutting and Paper Crimping

Clever ways of folding or crimping paper can help you get by without adhesives too. Make slits in your paper to hold photos or mats at each corner. Make a row of slits and thread through ribbon, paper or a feather. Fold layers of paper together a few times and then punch through to add a brad or stitching. Use origami techniques on your project, folding flaps of paper over and tucking them under other layers of paper. Crimp papers together with a paper crimping tool. Investigate the stationers shop again to find paper binding tools that do not use staples, cleverly cutting and crimping the papers together without metals.

5. Magnets

Using magnets on a metal board or to hold elements in place can make for an interactive display. Using a magnet to hold a small book of journaling on your layout means people can pick it off the page, read it and place it back where it belongs. (Use another magnet on the reverse side of the page). Make paper pins that can be worn for special occasions and use magnets to allow people to wear them on their clothes (check to make sure no one has a pace maker before allowing them to wear a magnetic pin or it could interfere with the mechanism).

6. Velcro

Use Velcro to close your tag albums, make childrens fun books with elements that can be pulled off and placed back on the page at will. Sew Velcro to your page or element to keep it in place. Use Velcro to close a small paper box. Use it to make paper pins that can be worn on clothing, instead of using magnets.

7. Sealing Wax

Back before they manufactured glues and tapes i such abundance, people sealed paper envelopes and scrolls together with wax. There were special stamps and signet rings for pushing into hot wax to make decorative or informative pattern before the wax cooled. Try your hand at using sealing wax to make a special paper project. Use the wax to seal wedding invitations, for example. You can also use it on your cards or scrapbook pages to hold small elements in place.

And there you have it - seven ways to adhere paper together without the use of glues or tapes! There are other ways of making cards, layouts and off-the-page projects without the use of tape and glues. I encourage you to challenge yourself to find new ways of paper crafting and to share your ideas with me if you know if another way or two to make things without adhesives.

Want more ideas for making paper projects with or without adhesives? Go to http://www.papercraftcentral.com/papercraft-adhesives.html to find some.

At PaperCraftCentral.com, you can ask questions about paper crafting, submit your own work and subscribe to Paper Twists, a newsletter all about papercrafts, for free! To subscribe to Paper Twists go to http://www.papercraftcentral.com/subscribe.html

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Ideas for Using Various Kinds of Paper For Scrapbooking and Card Making

Scrapbooking Paper

There are many types of paper to use in your scrapbooking and craft projects including vellum, cardstock, labels, and transparencies. Here is a quick bit about understanding these types of paper and ideas of how to use them. When you are buying paper, remember to make sure it is acid and lignin free to protect your pictures against deterioration.

Vellum Scrapbooking Paper

Vellum paper is translucent, meaning light can pass through it, although things cannot be seen clearly through vellum paper.

Vellum paper is categorized by weight. The samller ther number, the light the weight of the paper, and subsequently, the more transparent, or see-through, the paper is. For example 17# is more transparent than 29#. There are many weights and colors of vellum to experiment with.

You can print on vellum using any laser printer. When using an inkjet printer change your settings to economy, draft, or speed depending on yout printer so the least amount of ink possible with be used. This will decrease your chances of smearing the ink. Let the ink dry completly before handling the vellum paper.

If you have only a small piece of vellum to print on, print your message on a regular piece of paper first. Then temporarily tape the vellum over the message on your test paper and run it through the printer again.

To mount your vellum paper to your scrapbooking page, lay your piece of vellum paper up-side-down of newspaper, and lightly spray photo mounting spray on the back. The vellum paper will them mount easily to your scrapbook. Other methods include using clear photo corners, and punching holes in the vellum and using a ribbon or eyelet to attach the vellum to your page.

For scrapbooking, vellum is great for printing titles, and adding embellishments. One simple idea is to stamp or paint a design on vellum paper that is trimmed with a thin metal frame. You can attach the vellum embellishment to the page with a ribbon. This is a good idea for pages where an anitque look is desired.

Vellum Invitations - Great for weddings or other formal events


Print the information for the event on vellum paper.

Select a piece of heavy cardstock to back your vellum paper.

Cut the cardstock to be about half an inch bigger than your vellum paper in both directions.

Place the vellum on top of the card stock so there is a quarter of an inch of cardstock on each side as a border.

Punch two holes in the top of the vellum paper and cardstock that are about an inch or an inch and a half apart. And use a matching ribbon to tie the papers together.



Hint: To keep the ribbon from comming untied use a dab of clear-drying glue.

Another option is to decorate the vellum and attach it over the printed invitation. The velum can be embossed or you can add a a dash of glitter to make it sparkle.

Embossing Your Paper - Embossing is a way to really enhance your pages. Vellum looks great embossed, but you can experiment on other types of paper as well. Here is how it is done.


Stamp or print onto your paper and sprinkle embossing powder on the design while it is still wet.

Shake of the excess powder from the paper.

Use you embossing heater or other heating tool to heat the embossing powder.


Cardstock

Carstock is usually thicker than normal paper, and therefore is good to use as a base for your scrapbooking pages especially if you like to add heavy embellishments. It is also good for matting pictures onto. I like to buy smaller pieces of cardtock to mat my pictures on. That way I don't have to worry about cutting perfectly straight lines. There are many types of cardstock. Two popular types of cardstock are smooth card stock and linen card stock. Both are excellent choices for scrapbooking. Linen card stock is semi-rough and has the look of linen cloth. It is good for adding more texture to your scrapbook pages if you think they are too dull.

There are many grades of cardstock. Remember that the higher the count, the thicker the paper is.

Labels

Before I started scrapbooking I thought that labels were just for business uses like addressing letter and labeling files. I have come to find that they are actually an inexpensive way to make neat stickers. If you have a good printer, you can find pictures you like on the internet and print them onto your label paper. Then just peel them off or cut them into the desired shape and stick them onto your scrapbooking page. If you want to add dimension to your page, mount your sticker onto thick cardstock and use double-sided tape to attach it to your scrapbook.

Transparencies

A transparency is a clear piece of paper. It is competely see-through like glass. You can buy transparencies at office supply stores, and some craft stores. You have likely only seen transparencies used with overhead projectors. But here are some other ways to use them for scrapbooking. Use your imagination, the possibilities are endless.

Transparency Covers


Stamp letters on a piece of paper. Cut them out, and glue them right side up onto a transparency. You can also use shapes of any kind instead of letters.

Paint over the transparency on the same side you glued the letters. You can paint using a splattering technique, streaks, or any other way you can think of. Acrylic paint works great.

Once the paint is dry, remove the letters for a cool effect. This technique is great for page titles.

Optional: Attach the transparency using spray adhesive.


Transparency Tile Accents


Stamp an image on a transparency with solvent ink.

Trim the transparency around the image. You can also cut the image into equal size squares to create a mosaic look.

Completely cover the image with clear dimensional adhesive until it can't hold any more. Let the adhesive dry for a few hours.

When the image is competely dry, apply clear-drying adhesive to the back and attach it to your page.


Transparency Accents


Cut the desired shape of your accent out of a piece of transparency paper.

Cover the accent with crystl laquer until it can't hold any more.

Cover the accent with crystl laquer until it can't hold any more.

When the crystal lacquer is dry, peel the transparency off of the back of the accent.

Lisa Robbins is a businesswoman and an enthusiast for sports, family, and crafts. She is the creator and maintainer of ScrapsAndCrafts.com, a scrapbooking tutorial and wholesale scrapbooking supply website. She is also a contributor to ScrapbookFinds.com, a search tool for scrapbooking products.

In addition to these roles, Lisa is also one of the owners of RobbinsSports.com, a team sports and fitness products store.

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