Craft Glue Which One to Use?
The best craft glue is so critical to papercraft. When making handmade cards or DIY wedding invitations, you need to choose the right craft supplies and glues for the job to avoid your precious creations falling apart.
Craft Glue for Wedding Invitations
The right craft glue when making wedding invites is crucial to ensure they arrive in one piece. Wet glues have to be selected with care as they can crinkle, warp or bend the card stock which we’re sure won’t be the look you’d like!
Double-sided tape is a cost-effective way of sticking card and paper together without the messiness of a glue stick. Double-sided sticky tape can be ‘edge to edge’ (the tape goes right up to the edge of the backing). Or ‘finger-lift tape’ where the adhesive tape doesn’t go to the edge leaving an area which makes it easier to peel off the backing.
It’s a matter of personal preference which double-sided adhesive tape you find easier to use. Both are a good strong double sided tape for using on paper and card.
When making lots of invitations, it can be a little more time-consuming as you have to cut or tear each length of tape, stick it down and then remove the backing. Many wedding stationers use an ATG gun to speed up this process, but the adhesives act similarly. You can find out more about ATG tape and how to use it here.
Both are strong craft glues so are ideal for making flat, postcard style wedding invitations, card making as well as pocket fold invitations. One word of caution is to be sure where you place your tape as once stuck down it can be tricky to remove. If you’re wondering how to remove double side tape, then it has to be carefully peeled away, but it will often leave a sticky residue or take a layer of the paper or card with it.
For lighter duty options, a glue tape roller is convenient and easy to use and is often enough for sticking lightweight papers together
Types of Craft Glue
Double-Sided Tape
Double sided tape is ideal for sticking paper and card together and is mess free!
ATG Tape Gun
ATG guns are great for speeding up making your wedding stationery and handmade cards.
Craft Glue for Making Pocketfolds and Wallet invitations
- If you find that the double-sided tape isn’t working for you, then red double-sided tape is extremely strong and ideal for sticking down the tabs on pocketfold invitations securely. It’s always a good idea to test out which is the best double-sided tape for your craft project.
- Sticky velcro dots are ideal to use as seals for your pocketfold wedding invitations. They’re easy to attach and secure the invite for your guests to open with the advantage that they’re quickly closed again. An alternative to these are ‘duo discs’ which are perfect if you want to keep your wedding invitation slim enough to be posted as a ‘letter’ rather than a ‘large letter.’
- Glue dots on craft rolls are perfect for attaching little bows or embellishments and are a good ‘no mess’ speedy, option.
- If you decide to make your envelopes, then envelope glue is good for the gummed section, or again they can be sealed using double sided tape or something like Pritt glue stick.
Fingerlift Double-Sided Tape
Finger lift tape has wide backing so it’s easier to peel off ideal for card making and crafts.
Super Strong Red Double Sided Tape
Super sticky tape has a distinctive red backing and strong bond so is great for card making and crafts.
Glitter Pocketfold Wedding Invitations
Our pocketfolds are available in many card stocks including glitter.
Glues For Vellum Papers
Sticking vellum can cause issues with being able to see through the paper. It’s wise to be aware of this when designing your wedding invitations. Sometimes the glue can be seen through the opaque paper, and the adhesive can yellow as it ages. If the join is on the reverse of your invitation, then it’s unlikely that people will see it, but if it’s on the front, then you do have to be careful.
Craft Adhesives for Sticking Craft Embellishments
A hot melt glue gun or mini glue gun, which uses hot glue sticks is ideal for attaching all types of ribbon bows, diamante embellishments and ribbons to handmade cards and wedding invitations. Glue guns use hot melt adhesive and are convenient as well as quick and easy to use. Glue gun sticks are readily available and are used in many arts and crafts projects.
Good alternatives are craft glue dots sometimes called ‘adhesive dots’ or Gem-Tac, which is a great multi-purpose glue.
We’d always recommend that you complete a test first to ensure that you’re happy with the results before making all of your invitations.
Velcro Coins
Velcro coins are ideal for fixings for pockets folds so that they can be opened and reopened.
Gem-Tac Multipurpose Glue
Gem-Tac is our preferred glue for sticking diamante embellishments. It does need drying time but sticks them well onto paper or card.
Craft Adhesive Foam Pads
Craft adhesive foam pads are ideal when you want to raise an embellishment or pice of card in your design.
Gluing Ribbon on Wedding Invites
One of the most popular ways of using ribbon on invitations is to trap the ribbon between two layers of card. The ribbon may or may not be gathered and an embellishment added to the middle. The easiest way to do this is to use ATG, a hot glue gun or double-sided tape, which is quick and easy. Make sure that it’s applied it to the card, not the ribbon.
If the ribbon or lace is quite thick or textured, you may need to add some Fabri-Tac to where the ribbon or lace disappears between the card to stop it pulling away.
Fabri-Tac works for most ribbons and lace and, unlike tape you can add spots of glue where appropriate so no adhesive is seen between the gaps of the lace. A glue stick also works with lace in the same way.
The video tutorial below shows how we attach lengths of ribbon between two pieces of card.
Gluing Tiny Diamante Gems and Pearls
You can purchase hot fix diamante gems, but for peace of mind that your diamantes won’t fall off we recommend Gem-Tac from Beacon Adhesives. With the nozzle on the bottle, you can place tiny dots of glue where you want the gems then simply pick them up and place them with a Gem-picker it’s easy-peasy!
Don’t fall into the trap of using super glue which causes a white bloom on the glass of the gem.