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

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

You can make your task 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 task without adhesives.

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1. Brads

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

If you have been a paper crafter for awhile, you are probably customary with brads. They are made of metal and come with a split pin backing that can be pushed straight through layers of paper to hold embellishments together. You often see them used in the middle of flower layers. There is no conjecture 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 private journaling, to furnish an anchor for ribbon or braid or cord, or as an ornamentation 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 suitable 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 straight through paper will blunt your needle a small and may cause snags on fabric items afterward.

3. Clips and Other Hardware from the Stationers

Fossicking straight through stationery market can narrate fantastic items for you to use in your paper crafting. Paper clips, small bulldog clips, pins, coloured staples and the like can all be used in place of brads or glues or tapes. Manufacturers are constantly advent out with new small trinkets for the Office. Why not concentrate 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 straight through ribbon, paper or a feather. Fold layers of paper together a few times and then punch straight 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. Explore 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 habitancy can pick it off the page, read it and place it back where it belongs. (Use other magnet on the reverse side of the page). Make paper pins that can be worn for special occasions and use magnets to allow habitancy 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 man-made glues and tapes i such abundance, habitancy 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 development 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 other way or two to make things without adhesives.

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

What? You Haven't Got a capability Statement?

What's a quality Statement?

As the name suggests, it tells potential clients what you, or your organisation and staff are capable of. It highlights what your future quality is and reflects on your past successes.

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These are commonly produced as brochures or booklets and are now increasingly appearing in online formats eg, Html, Pdf and self-executable ebooks. (The Entrepreneur Magazine section of "The Weekend Australian" of 25 Feb 2005 ran an narrative advising that legal and other professional firms are now using electronic media for their quality information). contain your logo, corporate colours and graphics so that your store develops corporate identity and branding recognition.

What? You Haven't Got a capability Statement?

Some organisations and individuals prefer to call them Corporate Brochures, Organisational Profiles, Prospectus' etc. This seems to be the adored terminology and is, in my opinion, more spoton and descriptive.

The better quality Statements produced as printed documents are graphics intense, professionally laid out and attractively produced on hiqh quality papers. The simplest form can be produced in black and white or colour on a cheap laser or inkjet printer.

Why have a quality Statement?

When prospective clients enquire about your services or products, you send them a quality Statement. If they visit your Internet site and don't want to spend time reading about you and your organisation, they can download your file and read it when more convenient.

Clients may pass it to others when recommending your services. You can send one with your proposals, publicity materials, and on other occasions when the chance presents.

Clients may have dealt with you for years, but only buy the same service. They may have no idea you also provide other services they could use. It spells out what you can do in addition to what you do for them now.

If you don't tell population what you do, how can you expect them to call you when they want something done?

What's in a quality Statement?

It's not a dumb question! There are two trains of thought. One suggests that it should be chock full of verbage about how you can help your clients or prospective clients. The other view is that you plainly tell them what you can do and let them determine whether they want your services.

The latter selection would suggest you contain the following topics and any others you feel are relevant, not necessarily in the order shown:

History: When did your firm start operations and what has it done since commencement? (Keep it very, very short and succinct)

What You Do: What can you do for clients or what do you sell? Do you need any extra accreditations, certificates or licences to do what you do? If so, mention them.

Our Staff: Who is your staff and what extra qualifications, experience, awards etc has each staff member got that will help you provide services that are better than your competitors?

Your equipment or Resources: If you are renting training venues, hiring out equipment, or rely on resources to earn a living, place some photos in your brochures. As some smart fellow said, 'A photo tells a thousand words'.

Similarly if you have a extra way of doing something, try to find evidence that supports it as being the best way, most economical, safest or whatever. For example, if you clean carpets for a living you'll need to use cleaning materials that don't cause fade, are not noxious, don't harm animals or plants, are environmentally friendly and so on. You get the drift.

Where You Find Us: Where is your office, venue, factory, or whatever? How does your client find you? Do you need to contain a map?

Contacting Us: Where can you be contacted by phone, fax, mobile telephone, letter, or email? Do you have an Internet site? Where?

Client Testimonials: You can place a list of your clients here under the heading 'Clients' or you can write to your clients and ask them to provide testimony to the quality, cost effectiveness, or anyone of your service. Any of your longer term clients may be willing to accept telephone calls from population who are considering buying your goods or services. If so, contain their contact details so that potential clients can talk with them.

While a few, carefully chosen testimonials are good, too many can bog down an otherwise perfect quality Statement. Don't make it look like a testimonial contest! Nobody will read more than five or six.

Finally ...

Once you have your quality Statement, whether online, in hardcopy or both, make sure you have adequate copies to circulate and a plan to upgrade it periodically so it remains current. After all, the last thing you want is for a prospective client to telephone you about a aid you no longer provide.

Copyright Robin Henry 2005 - 2008

What? You Haven't Got a capability Statement?