Review: Glue Gun

Hello!  Today’s post is a little different than the usual DIY and I hope useful, as today I’m blogging glue guns.  I’m a believer [and still am] that you don’t need electrical equipment, tools and gadgets to be creative, but this small investment has not only saved me time, it’s added strength and saved many a project that otherwise would have been abandoned.

So, here it is.  A mini glue gun which I bought [as it was on offer] from HobbyCraft earlier this year and cost me £10.  Glue sticks were on offer [8 in a pack] at 3 for 2, so I grabbed them too, bringing my total spend to £14.

Typically, like with most things I buy, you can now get this for half the price – £5.

I've had the glue gun in my crafting arsenal for a fair few months now and I honestly could not be without it.

Here's my ode to my glue gun:

If you are impatient, like me, and need to get on a project there and then otherwise you’ll move on to something else and it will never be finished – this is your answer.  The speed at which everything dries securely makes you want to glue gun everything together to test it [don’t, for such a small product, it is deceptively strong stuff].  This does mean you need to be super quick - have everything ready to glue, fix and hold in place so that you don't become a complete mess and tangled up, grabbing your materials to stick together and the glue drying before you have the chance.  For projects you need completing in a hurry - say hello to your new best friend.

...and by strong, I mean you will break all your nails trying to rip anything glued apart.  It literally fuses things together, it's pretty amazing.

Which leads me to its multi-purpose use.  I’ve used the glue gun to fix felt, fabric, foam, plastic, cardboard, paper, coated paper, wood, sequins, thread and cork.  What's left for me to try?

Not to completely contradict my previous statements, the glue is surprisingly flexible.  In almost every project, I’ve used too much glue, which has either spread through any gaps or the joins in material.  Once dry, the glue has been easily tidied up by cutting the excess with scissors or a craft knife.  Magic.

Overall, I'm just a little bit in love with it's general ease of use - the glue sticks are easily changed, the flow [after a little practice] it easily controlled and most importantly, the gun heats up quickly - you're good to go in minutes.

Here are some projects that were saved with the use of the mighty glue gun:

Gemstone Tags:

Eiffel Tower Décor:

  

Broadway Lights Experiments 1 & 2:

Felt Flower Pom Poms:

Sequin Trim Decorations:

Bows:

Rope Jar Lanterns:

Giraffe Bookends:

Ombre Cord Bar Bracelet:

This glue gun has Christmas written all over it.

Which is all well and good, but what are the negatives?  Nothing more than you’d probably expect:

• If you spill or accidentally come in to contact with anything other than what you are trying to glue, you, my friend, have had it.  This may or may not have happened to my carpet.
• Protecting your surfaces – I’ve developed a habit of using newspaper stacks to balance and rest  my gun between gluing - you need something.  Anything [I've yet to cave in and buy the 'official' glue mat.
• The wire length - seriously.  So short.  If you work somewhere away from the sockets, you'll understand the first point.  Or at least, your carpet will too.
• The stabiliser.  If I'm honest, it's a complete fluke when this works. More often than not, the gun ends up on it's side [not ideal, so try and rest it against something if you can, or be prepared for the side of the gun to be a little tacky and stick to the protecting surface].
• It burns.  It really, really does. The tips of my fingers are now completely hardened to it, but in all seriousness, be careful.  It's small but can do great damage to your skin, so I leave you with this.

...and here are my two-pennies worth of tips [literally]:

• Stringy Glue - this is only caused if the gun hasn't heated up properly, so make sure you do give it a few minutes and test a small blob.  If your glue is stringy, it's really not the end of the world, just a little messy.
• The end of the glue stick - when one glue stick is ending, adding another is simple, but that last ends can be a little stubborn and the gun trigger just wont help - use a pencil to push the glue stick, but be a little controlled about how much will push through.

Bet you didn't think such a long post could be written about a glue gun, did ya?  

see you next time x

P.S – this is in no way a sponsored post [an affiliate link has been used to HC store and product] and I have made sure I’ve used it for a variety of projects before recommending – I hope I’ve covered most points in this post, but if you have any questions, please do ask!

Winter Wonderland Cookies

If you've been holding your breath waiting for a new recipe from me, you'd be a not-so-pretty shade of blue by now. Sorry! I have several in the pipeline, but they're either needing a recipe tweak or better photos. (Perfectionist, what me? Noooo!)


So, instead I'll just entertain you with some (pretty shade of blue) pictures from our last set of classes:

Winter Wonderland Cookies. 

The blue is a touch of turquoise gel-colour; and the lilac is a hint electric purple, and a smidgeon of violet gel-colour mixed into white royal icing.
Both colours mature quite dramatically - so mix the night before; leave them a shade lighter than what you want, and they should be perfect the next day.

The penguin was inspired by Glorious Treats. Follow the link to see a tutorial on how to pipe similar penguins.

The polar bear is inspired by SweetSugarBelle. If you follow that link, you'll see how Callye used a frog cookie cutter to create the bear's face. I didn't have one, or anything similar. So, I used an artist palette cookie cutter, and cut little V's out the side of the face with the tip of the snowflake cutter - which I was already using in this set of cookies. Convenient!

Final word - remember to colour your white icing white - really! To get that clean, crisp white add Bright White gel-colour to your royal icing. 

Time to go work on some recipes.  Anyone keen to taste-test? 

; )

xxM 

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Back to school today! Yay!
My children don't share those sentiments, though. No, they are home-bodies (like their mom), and would rather be here (with me).
That, of course, makes me feel even more guilty that I'm relieved to have the mornings to myself again. But, I am!
This last week of holidays was particularly challenging. Between the two of them, they managed to crack my iPad screen, cut the cord for the computer mouse, and burn a hole in my table cloth (the latter was while they were under Gogo's supervision).
Yes, I'm relieved to have them back at school.

So, it's with that sentiment that I'm sharing these Thing 1 and Thing 2 cutouts I made for a friend recently. I love these characters, but boy-oh-boy,  they introduce a lot of chaos into the story.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 Cutouts

On the left is the image I printed out. 

I used that as a template to cut out the tylose paste Thing on the right. 

Left that to dry, 

then sketched the outline using a black edible marker. 

And coloured it in using edible markers. 

(You could paint it using a mixture of clear alcohol and gel colour, but the coloured-in look suits the Dr Suess theme.)

And repeated the process for Thing 2. 

"If Mother could see this, 

Oh, what would she say!"

Time to go tidy up. 

Happy creating!

xxM

Embroidery Hoop Dreamcatcher

What I Used:

Embroidery Hoop

Colourful Embroidery Thread

Felt Feathers

Needle / Scissors

 To create your catcher, it couldn't be more simple.  Start a length of thread with a tight knot on the inner hoop and wrap the thread in lengths across the hoop in varied patterns:

Continue until you are happy with the overall look, effect of the overlapping wraps and patterns

 made with any colours you add or incorporate:

 When finished, secure the thread in place with a tight knot at the back and trim the excess:

For the hanging feathers, I re-purposed this Felt Feather DIY:

 threading the ends with a length of the thread:

 ...and them looping them from behind the hoop, over to the front:

Before securing them in place by adding the outer hoop and tightening:

 The lengths of thread attached to each feather could then be pulled to vary the length until I was
 happy with the arrangement:

 Secure each length with a knot and trim the excess to neaten the finish:

 ...before your dreamcatcher is ready to hang:

 Simple as that - a few wraps of decorative thread and some feathers is all you need - vary the look by adding beads, charms or embellishments to the hoop and thread and you can create a variety of feathers using shop made or cut your own from decorative paper or fabric.

 see you next time x

How to Make Studded Cork Art

 Todays post is a corker [it's been a long week, sorry].

I've had these IKEA bought cork pot holders for a while now, determined to use them for anything other than what they are intended - along with some studs I've had in my stash for at least a year, inspiration struck during last nights thunderstorm and I made this in the earlier hours of today - cork studded art.

What I Used:

Cork Potholder Mat [3 for £1.99, Ikea]

Fashion Stud Brads [£2.99, HobbyCraft] [they have some fab star studs too - next project!]

Printed template

Like many a project on here, I probably don't need to tell you anything about how to make this - it's so easy and can be adapted to be as simple or detailed as you like.  

I decided on simple and printed myself a template form the computer to guide me:

Starting from the bottom point of the heart, I made my way around the shape, pushing the studs in to the cork as you would a push pin - they sit flush and are incredible secure [though can be easily removed if you get the placement wrong / change your mind]:

I continued along the template in fairly evenly-spaced measures, but I didn't worry too much about each gap being the same....

...until I completed the shape outline:

Remove the template and you have your studded art:

You could create a mixed media project, or add a painted message/design on the inside if this is a little too simple. I'm thinking of having a go with some studded words next [don't worry, no thread added this time!]  But this type of project and method could be adapted to all kinds of designs - if you have a go, I'd love to see!

have a great weekend,

see you next time x

How to Make Felt Pom Poms

Today’s craft is one of my favourite kinds – a simple technique and few materials that allows you to create something with impact – felt flower pom poms.

These can be adapted to any size, using exactly the same method.

One sheet of A4 felt made me a pom pom approximately 6cm in size.  Either using a template, or something round to guide you [I used the lid of a stationery storage tin], cut at least 9 circles of felt.

You don’t need to worry too much about the lines being perfect, but try and have them as rounded as possible.

Once all your circles are cut, each needs to be folded and fixed in place at the fold, twice.

To fix my felt, I used my trusty glue gun [I’ll be posting a review on this next week] – it was the quickest and easiest way, but you could also use fabric glue, or sew the fold in place [staples will also work, but will alter the shape of your final pomp om slightly and be a little less flexible to work with].  Add a small dot of glue in the centre of the circle and fold in half until secure:

...now add a dot of glue in the centre of the folded line:

and fold the semi circle in half, holding until secure:

This creates the main component of the pom pom - continue with the rest of the circles:

Now, to create the pom pom.  Start by fixing two of the folded circles together at the corner
points with glue - attach them so that the folds are lined in the opposite direction:

...add a third going the opposite way, with the fold going against the direction of the other two circles.
Fix this in place with more glue:

Continue this pattern, alternating the direction of the folds as you add each one to add movement and texture, building your pom pom by fixing each circle in place by its corner at the centre point.
Like traditional pom poms, the more felt circles you add, the more dense the final pom pom.

Once completed, leave to completely dry if needed and join the cult.  You'll feel the need to make loads, even if you have no immediate need for them - addictive.

Use them to decorate presents, string together as garlands, add to headbands or make a few
to decorate bowls/vases:

see you next time x

More traditional pom pom crazy here, here and here.