I’ve already had a wonderful time review Helmar’s 450 Quick Dry Adhesive as well as their Acid Free Glue; reviewing their Zapdots and Scrap Dots was no exception. I always have my eye out for good adhesives and Helmar proves itself time and again.
Zapdots are 3D double-sided adhesive squares that are acid-free. They come in three colors; black, white and clear. The black and white are mounted on nice, thick squares, whereas the clear were made of a plastic material. Here is the difference in thickness:
I was really happy with the performance of these fun little squares. They have a great tackiness to them; I was able to touch my fingers to the sticky parts and move them around my projects and still have them be sticky to the medium I was using on them.
Scrap Dots is a 3D Dimensional Acid-Free liquid adhesive. This stuff is pretty darn cool. You can truly create a small amount of dimension to an incredibly large amount. You can cover the tiniest die-cut alpha to a larger chipboard piece with it.
I loved working with the liquid Scrap dots. It can tend to be stringy like a hot glue or the Helmar 450, but once your adhesive is dry, you can easily pull off the little fly-aways. It doesn’t have much of a smell to it, but if you leave the cap off while working on a project, it may give off a slight odor. It wasn’t anything that bothered me.
Now to play! While I was looking at the packaging I noticed that there was something called “paper tole” mentioned. I had never heard of this and did a quick google search. It is the process of layering multiple 2D images into making a 3D image. I quickly went through my stamps and found some super cute ones from CTD sponsor, SCACD, that Jenny had sent me at Christmas time. After layering about nine layers of the same image and using some of the white Zapdots and liquid Scrap Dots, I came up with this pretty little lady!
It was really nice to not have to worry about finding small of enough 3D adhesives and knowing I could rely on the liquid Scrap dots for tinier pieces. And I will admit, I cut up some of the zapdot squares into smaller for some parts and they worked just as well!
On this card I took the clear zapdots and removed a checkerboard pattern of the main sheet of protective plastic. I then layered that onto my card, removed the excess zapdots and used luminarte pigments to create an almost ombre effect. I added a quick little sentiment and created more depth by using the black foam zapdots. This was a pretty easy card with a great effect! I kind of want to make one in every shade of color now!
For my final project I really wanted to test out the liquid Scrap Dots. I took a fun quote and cut it out in different fonts using my Silhouette then colored the words with distress inks. (Do this before removing any of the paper from your mat to save you a HUGE hassle!) I then used the liquid Scrap Dots to adhere all of the words to a black canvas. With the thinner words I was able to get a smaller 3D effect but with the larger ones I was really able to get it nice and thick and make them pop. I suggest using tweezers when applying the small letters. If the alphas kind of “sag down” while applying them, wait for the adhesive to dry just a bit, then gently pick them up a bit. This will allow for some more resistance to the weight of the paper.
Again, I was not disappointed when testing out these Helmar adhesive products. The zapdots come in circular and square shapes and in a 1/4″ and 1/2″ sizes. All packs cost approximately $3; you will get less zapdots for the clear, but I assume that’s because of the plastics, compared to foam, are more expensive to manufacture. Totally understandable. The liquid Scrap Dots are approximately $8 a tube and that comes in a 1.06 oz. tube. I consider all of these pretty good deals. Whether you use half a sheet of foam dots (which I did with the tole project,) or just a couple for a card, you’re spending pennies per use.
Well, what do you think, crafters? What do you think of Helmar products so far? Let me know in comments! And don’t forget to take a look back of our other reviews of Helmar products here at Craft Test Dummies!
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I have always wanted to try these – thanks for the review!
(LOL oh that canvas is so wrong!)
The tube adhesive is really unique. Something I will want to try.
Unique possibillities. I’ll have to think how I want to use them.
Becca
Thank you for the good review. The squares didn’t interest me that much but the Scrapdots glue looks like something I could use. I am putting it on my list of adhesives to try.
I’m afraid I can’t tell that any of the letters are raised at all. I’m sure they are so may e next time you could take a photo from the side to help us see!? I’ve been looking for clear ‘foam’ dots so nice to know there is more than one brand. I’ll keep my eye out for these. Thanks!