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Crafts with a hot glue gun: The basics and beyond

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If you’ve never tried crafts with a hot glue gun, you’ve been missing out on an easy and quick way to add decorations and ornaments to a wide variety of projects. Get the basics here and start thinking of projects you’d like to do.

Arts and crafts with a hot glue gun—the basics

Hot glue guns make it easy to attach various materials together...and the bond is very strong and durable. Why not give it a try?

The advantage of a glue gun is that you are able to glue bigger and heavier items with ease because large amounts of adhesive can be dispensed. It hardens quickly (just a few seconds) and forms a strong bond.

Glue is applied to the edge of a lampshade from a hot glue gun.
Working with a glue gun is easy and fun

Best hot glue gun crafts for the DIYer

There are probably a million projects you can do with a hot glue gun....no, really! Obviously, we can’t list them all here. So let’s just start with a few simple ones that you might want to try. At the very least, these will help you come up with your own ideas for creating DIY crafts with a hot glue gun.

  • If you are sending a letter to someone special, why not seal the letter with a dab of hot glue and attach a little item like a small dried flower or a cut-out of something appropriate?
  • Hot glue works great to attach almost anything to picture frames or other objects. Dried flowers, beads, twigs, let your imagination run!
  • If you have some clean and attractive rocks from about golf ball size to fist size, you can make some beautiful bookends by hot gluing them into the shape of a triangle (vertical on one side and sloping away on the other).
  • Use hot glue to attach decorative beads, stones, or fabric to the outside of an old mug or jar and turn it into an attractive storage place to hold your pens, markers, or flowers.
  • Make your own kitchen magnets. Show off your interests. Cut out small images of whatever you are passionate about...musical instruments, sports images, etc. Then hot glue them to magnets and display on your refrigerator.

You’ll never run out of ideas. Try some easy crafts with a hot glue gun today.

                                    Projects with a hot glue gun—and alternatives

                                    As you can see, a hot glue gun is an amazing and versatile tool. They can be purchased at almost any crafts store or hardware store.

                                    A person is gluing a border on a lampshade.
                                    Whether repair or embellishment, there are probably a million projects you can do with your hot glue gun

                                    There are times though when you need to do a quick repair or a smaller project and it isn’t necessary to get the hot glue gun fired up. In those cases, try Loctite Extreme Glue Gel. It contains the revolutionary Flextec formulation and forms tremendous bond strength. It is a versatile, gap-filling adhesive that bonds, seals, and repairs almost all materials. It stands up to flexing and vibration and dries clear, making it a great hot glue alternative.

                                    Products used

                                    • loctite extreme gel 18ml tube
                                      Loctite Extreme Glue Gel

                                      Multi-material bonding for projects or repairs requiring higher viscosity, constant impact, tremendous bond strength and resistance to extreme conditions.

                                    Expert Tip

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