Living an artsy, crafty life requires a constant supply of adhesives – usually several different types, to meet different needs. Â While I have become a huge fan of the many specialty liquid glues on the market, I will never get completely away from my first crafty-adhesive love – the classic double-sided adhesive tape-runner.
These cute little Glue Tapes by Plus were given to us at Summer CHA to give a try. Â According to the website, the Plus Glue Tapes are “ideal for arts and crafts, scrapbooking, and gift-wrapping.”
The little green Glue Tape fits neatly in your hand, and is nice and compact. Â The cap twists off, and the tape is dispensed in a honeycomb pattern. Â There are 3 different Glue Tapes available in this dispenser-style, all in different tape-widths. Â This green one dispenses just 4-mm width of adhesive. Â The dispenser is clearly marked with how to remove the disposable cartridge, and the cartridge pulls away easily when it is time for a refill.
The white/blue Glue Tape also fits in the hand in an ergonomically comfortable manner, and is roughly the same size. Â It is also clearly marked for removing the empty cartridge, and the empty cartridge is easily removed to be replaced. Â This Glue Tape dispenses a solid line of adhesive that is 8-mm wide, so twice as wide as the green one.
I could not find anything on the packaging or website which would indicate that there is any difference in the actual adhesive which is in the dispensers – just a difference in the type of line and width of the line of the adhesive. Â To show you the difference, I laid down a short line of each adhesive on a piece of paper. Â The first photo shows the plain adhesive, and the second photo shows them with flocking brushed onto the adhesive.
Now, what would a Craft Test Dummies review be without some swatches? Â I used the Glue Tape to adhere several types of papers and embellishments down to plain cardstock – typical things one might use in scrapbooking or card-making – to test how well the Glue Tape would hold them.
After I glued everything down and gave it all a good burnishing with my finger for extra measure, I waited about half an hour. Â Then I tested each swatch to see how well it was adhered to the cardstock by attempting to pull it off the cardstock.
Most of the items stayed put really well – including the bottlecap, the button, and the acrylic embellishment, impressively. Â (I wouldn’t normally use tape runner for these types of items, so I was pleasantly surprised here.) Â The ribbons, however, all pulled right off without any resistance whatsoever.
Also, the craft foam did not stick – in fact, it actually pulled the adhesive off of the cardstock.
However, I found out by accident that the craft foam stuck really well to itself, using the Glue Tape – and so finding, I ran with it, using the Glue Tape to glue two thin pieces of craft foam together. Â I then cut it into pieces and used hot glue to a miniature rolling pin, following a tutorial I had recently seen on another blog. Â Here’s a hint of what I did with it, but to see what became of this, you’ll have to hop over to my blog, My Crafty Friend Jen!
So overall, I think the Plus Glue Tape performed well compared to other adhesive runners I’ve used in the past; perhaps even a little better. Â I found that the honeycomb shape of the smaller tape did help with ease of breaking the tape when stopping the line of adhesive, and I liked the feel of it in my hand. Â Price-wise, I think these are somewhat less expensive than others on the market. Â The smaller green one retails for $3.49, with refills costing $2.49; the larger blue/white one retails for $4.99, with refills costing $2.99.
The one drawback that I see with the Glue Tape is that I don’t see it mentioned anywhere on the packaging or website that the adhesive is acid-free. Â I personally don’t worry too much about this, as I use SO many pieces of ephemera, found objects and just plain random things in my scrapbooks, journals, and projects that the adhesive is probably not what is going to cause my albums to age over time! Â That said, I know that for many scrapbookers, this IS very important, so it is worth mentioning.
Have you ever heard of Plus Glue Tape? Â What do you think? Â Are you a wet or dry adhesive fan?
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Sarah Forhan says
Thanks for the review, Jen. I got excited at first when I saw this because I was thinking it would be perfect for my ribbon crafts. Good know that it was the one thing that didn’t work. Pretty amazing that it worked so well with the bottle caps, though.
Stacy Martinis says
Hello! My name is Stacy and I actually gave you the samples at CHA. I work with Plus and have my own store.
The tape is Acid-Free. The packaging is being redesigned for the craft market to reflect this. Before they ship out the tape to retailers they will place an acid-free sticker on the packaging because, being new to the scrapbooking market, they didn’t realize the importance of this fact.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know. We LOVE the tape at my store and sell a lot of it! Thanks for the great review!
Jenny says
Thanks for clarifying the point about the tape being acid-free- I appreciate it! And thanks for leaving a comment- it was great meeting you at CHA. : )
Karen says
Hi I am in New Zealand and I bought a few refills and dispensers last time I bought stuff from the States earlier this year. I had seen Jennifer McGuire (I think) trialling it and thought it looked great. I am a card maker but I am starting to dabble in the paper scrapbooking. I am putting together a kit for just that scrapbooking and just out of coincidence I looked at the new ones I put in to see if they were acid free. I couldn’t find it on the packaging so off here to the internet I cam and look what I find… This post. Thanks for clarifying about the tape being acid free. I appreciate it even though this comment is over a year from the last one. Info is still helpful.
Jenny says
Karen- thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment. I’m so glad that you found the information you needed at CraftTestDummies and hope you’ll stop by frequently. May I suggest you subscribe via email? That way you’ll see all the cool info and reviews right in you “inbox.” Thanks again, and you made my day! Best, Jenny