Scrapbooks exist because of adhesives. Period. Every time you assemble a layout, you require glue. You could also assemble a layout solely from brads or eyelets, but those are the exceptions, not the rule! On the other hand, when buying bonding agents you have faith that they will securely preserve your lifelong and beyond family and personal memories. But will they?

Gone are the days when white glue, rubber cement, and cellophane tape were the main options for scrapbook adhesive. A fresh batch of trustworthy and secure adhesives has emerged leaving many torn between the options with crucial questions. What kind of tape do you use for scrapbooking? And better yet, how do you use scrapbooking glue? The following guidelines will give you the answers you’ve been looking for.

Familiarise Yourself with the Right Adhesives for the Job

Dry Adhesives

This type of adhesive is perfect for hassle-free bonding because it’s mess friendly. One of the most popular dry options is the strong glue tape which will keep all your pictures and ephemera secure for many years to come! It works best for bonding between sheets of paper and can be refilled or disposable, permanent or detachable. Need to make a scrapbook to surprise your dad for Father’s Day or awe your mum for her annual birthday? It’s all an absolute breeze when using glue tape.

The majority of these tapes come in compact plastic dispensers of varying sizes. They create a strong, transparent adhesive that self-sticks, making it the ideal option for scrapbooking paper. The sole drawback is that some businesses’ glue tapes cannot be refilled, necessitating regular disposal and the purchase of new dispensers.

Another great option is foam tape which is a double-sided adhesive made of foam. It comes in different thicknesses, widths, and lengths adding more dimension than your typical scrapbook tape.

Since you can cut out the foam tape pieces in any shape or size you require, foam tape offers a strong bond and lots of versatility. It is attached to a piece of the backing sheet and packaged in a plastic sheet. It could also come on a roll of tape. For that reason, you can easily create 3D or pop-up effects on our scrapbook pages using this adhesive.

Washi tape, on the other hand, is not so strong option for scrapbooking adhesive but people love using it because of its unique advantages! Namely, it can be used as a backdrop, as decoration, or borders for your photographs as it acts as a decorative element.

Wet Adhesives

Paste, pens, and spray cans are all common packaging options for liquid adhesives. These widely used scrapbooking adhesives are practical and simple to use. Some offer permanent bonding, while others just provide temporary bonding.

With liquid or wet adhesives, the only drawback is that you have to exert more control over the amount you apply. Keep in mind your scrapbook pages may wrinkle or warp if you use too much liquid glue. Instead, you can experiment with the dot approach by using an old paintbrush to create tiny glue dots in place of a straight line.

Low Tuck Adhesives

Crafters all over the world swear by some very popular low-tack or repositionable tapes. These tapes are essential for many procedures, such as holding stencils in place when cutting with a die-cutting machine, masking off areas of your product that you don’t want to be inked and using thin metal dyes.

A small piece of tape will not only hold up through numerous passes with your dye-cutting machine but also won’t rip your creation because it isn’t overly sticky.

Know What Not to Use

Children’s School Glue

To use it on your layout, adhesives must be specifically labelled as safe for scrapbooking! Many people who are new to scrapbooking assume that because their children bring home construction paper projects from school, school glue must work well for adhering objects to paper. Even though regular school glue has a high acid content and might work in the short term, over time it will cause your images and pages to turn yellow.

Rubber Cement

Rubber cement has a high acid content and does provide a strong, flexible bond. Although some rubber cement products claim to be acid-free now, this method of scrapbook assembly is still cumbersome and time-consuming.

Acidic Adhesives

When it comes to acidic adhesives you should stay away from using magnetic photo albums because they have transparent acetate or vinyl overlays over adhesive pages. Acid is concealed in the adhesive material to which the photos adhere and in the acetate overlays of non-acid-free magnetic photo books, making them unsafe for storing photographs.

Over time, the overlays’ plastic components release dangerous gases. Gases become trapped between the overlay and the paper since there is no ventilation due to the tight binding. Your priceless pictures will be softly destroyed by these chemicals. So, you’ll have to remove them safely as soon as possible!

Consider Certain Things Before Purchasing

Acids and Photos

Photographs and acids don’t mix. Photos that have been processed contain acid. A chemical reaction takes place when such acids are mixed with acidic paper, adhesives, artefacts, and page protectors. As a result, your album’s acid will slowly deteriorate over time, leaving you with layouts and images that are faded, brittle, or otherwise damaged.

When it comes to scrapbooking, our mothers and grandmothers had little knowledge and little supplies. They merely believed that their pictures were becoming “old”. Only those who worked in environments where preservation was essential, including national, state, and private archives and libraries, were aware that acid is harmful to pictures and paper.

However, these days, the real scrapbooker will go to tremendous measures to keep acids out of their albums because they don’t want them there. Before you contemplate buying a product, you should check the label for the terms “Acid-free,” “pH neutral,” and “Archival Safe.”

Adhesive Uses

Many people avoid sticking glue to the backs of pictures because they want their scrapbooks to be archival. This implies that you can extract any photo as needed from their secure location, frequently it’s the corners of the photo. Since technology allows us to reproduce, edit, and copy images, having detachable photos is no longer as necessary as it once was. If you don’t mind your images being adhered to your layouts, opt for pressure-sensitive adhesive dots. Use photo corners if you want your scrapbooks to be genuinely archival.