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How Elmer's helped me make a monster!
Howdy Howdy crafty folk
suereal here. Today I'm going to show you an little project that I did involving three of the Elmer's glue products: the Embellishment glue, the Glue Dots, and the Permanent Glue Stick.
I was rather excited to get to play around with all the cool Elmer's and X-ACTO products, but I was the most excited about trying the Embellishment Glue. I had recently found packages of gems at the dollar store that had a huge variety of gems in them. As soon as I got them home and looked inside, I knew just what to make. There were a large amount of green dragonfly gems and all those little tails looked like teeth to me. So when I learned about the Embellishment Glue, it looked like a perfect team. I chose a small wooden box that had been mostly covered in red and gold leaf to transform into my newest monster.
It turned out that the first glue I used was not the embellishment glue, but the glue dots. The embellishment glue is designed to hold gems and sequins and such to porous materials, like wood and fabric. Since my "eyes" were going to be 2 large clear gems and 2 smaller colored gems, I needed a different type of glue to adhere them. Glue Dots to the rescue! They were fast and easy to use. The dots themselves were just a tad to big for the colored part of the eyes, but I used my fingernail to push the overhang onto the base of the gem and then they fit perfectly. You can see the prepared eyes in the photo above. You can also see that I have done some presorting of the gems. I needed to know how many "teeth" I had to work with. I also wanted to see which gems I had large amounts of, so that I could do some other kind of patterns on my monster. The rest of the gems are safely tucked in my sorting tray (which, in this case, is a glow in the dark Frisbee
). I first started gluing the dragonfly teeth down along the edge of the opening. I was nervous about getting too much glue on and gluing the box closed, but the precision tip on the Elmer's embellishment glue soon eased those fears. I could get just the right amount of glue, right where I wanted it. I would run a small bead along the edge of the box, just where the wings would be, and not get any on the tails/teeth. This allowed me to have the teeth hanging over the edge of the box, so they look much more like teeth to me (there will be a better picture of the teeth soon). Now the first thing I noticed about this glue was how well it held them gems on, but was still workable for a bit of time, so I could shift the gems for a few minutes after applying so they would lay just right. The second thing was that it dried quickly enough so that I didn't much have to worry about ruining one side while I was applying gems to the other side. I would lay down a row of teeth, go make a cup of tea, or play with my dog for a bit, and it would be dry enough to apply some more. The third thing I noticed soon after using the glue was the gems stayed where I put them. No sliding around on their own accord. So, by the time I got all the teeth laid I was pretty excited about this stuff.... so I got sloppier...
The hearts are where the eyes will go. I wanted them to stick up higher then the other gems. You can see a bit on the side, that the glue was not completely dry, but it was stable enough that I could work on other parts. The lid is open to show how, even though the glue is freshly applied, the gems are sticking where I put them. I have tried other things like this with other glues, and the embellishments move around a bit too much and it can quickly become a mess. Not so with the Elmer's embellishment glue. Even after I stuck my fingers in the 1/2 dried glue, the gems were more likely to stick to the box then to me. On top of all of that, there was no harsh smells with this glue. I was pretty convinced at this point that this glue worked by magic of some sort.
Look at how beautifully the embellishment glue dries! The way I was glopping it on, I was expecting at least some clumps of dried glue to show. But no! I think the glue fairy came and zapped away the glue clumps.....
So, here it is, finished... or is it? I am thinking at this point that it is more like a snake skull and not the monster I was envisioning. What to do... what to do?... LEGS! The poor wee thing needs some legs. But first, I want to cover the unfinished bottom of the box with some gold leaf, so that it will have the same finish as the rest of the box For this I used the permanent glue stick. It worked great! I just covered the box bottom with it and then laid the gold foil leaf over the top, then waited a bit for it to dry. Perfect.
So then I dug around in the pile where my embellishments are, and uncover 12 plastic drop style gems. We now have legs. I decided the pointy end of the gem is the part that will attach to the body, so that means I will need to drill small holes for the gems to sit in. I also get the clever (I'm being sarcastic there...) idea that the legs should stick out at different angles, so they will look more like caterpillar legs than straight legs. I use my small, low powered rotary tool to drill the holes, thinking that would help to keep it from shooting out of my hands and across the room... and that's when the REAL test of this glue started. My poor little rotary tool was having all kinds of difficulty drilling this wood. So, instead of getting a new drill bit, or changing tools all together, I just continued on, drilling and holding on to the monster body in a vice like grip. It didn't occur to me till later, that not only did all the gems stay on, that the pupils of the eyes also stayed on. The glue dots were as tough as the embellishment glue! Now I know for sure Elmer's is using magic in their glues.
So anyway... I get the holes all drilled at the angles they need to be to hold the legs as I want them, and most of the legs happily slide into place... except the four that I have decided need to stick strait out from the body to look as I wish. What was I thinking? But, armed with my new magic glue, I am convinced we can do it. I did sit and hold each leg in place (yeah for Netflix!) till it dried enough for me to let go, but they did all stick! After they were completely dry, I went back and added some gems in spots around the legs to help support them a bit more.
So the box is only held off the surface by the 3 legs at each corner, the rest are not touching the ground. I haven't been brave enough to drop it on the ground to see if any of them fell off, but I did do some gentle prying, and nothing seemed to move at all. So I did a little Happy Glue dance at this point
I can safely say I think the Elmer's glue line ROCKS! I think this project would have ended up in a sad little pile marked 'What was I thinking??" had I used different glues.
Thanks for looking
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