Hot Glue Gun Tips

Today, there are lots of different sizes and both low and high temp options, so choose based on what you will be crafting.  Unless you are working with teensy tiny crafts, I would recommend starting with a medium sized gun like&nbsp. (This particular gun is also a dual temperature gun and it is almost half off to boot!)   When shopping for hot glue sticks, make sure you are getting either high, low or dual temp sticks based on the type of glue gun you have, and be sure to get the right size!  Those miniature glue guns will not work with standard sized glue sticks and vice versa.

Before we get started with the nitty gritty, let’s talk about WHY hot glue is fabulous, shall we?  First of all, it can attach almost anything to almost anything else.  Wood to metal to paper to cork.  Brilliant.

Hot glue is also magical in that it causes less damage than your average adhesive.  In college, we used to attach photos and such to our cement block walls with hot glue because you could simply pull the whole thing off, hot glue and all, at the end of the year.  Of course, hot glue won’t come off paper or drywall as easily, but you get my point, right?  That same quality applies to those little “accidents” — the strings of glue that hang off your projects and the “overflow” that sometimes occurs when you use too much?  Those are easy to pull off and away when dry, making projects look seamless.

Just remember…

NEVER touch hot glue when it is HOT!  Just don’t!

Moving on, I am going to take you through a couple projects that show off the basics of the hot glue gun.  First off? Easter Egg Checkers.  I had to attach the little wooden eggs to the bottlecaps with hot glue, making sure they were attached perfectly straight up and down before the glue dried.

See that long string of glue hanging from the tip of the gun?

Beginner’s Tip:  DO NOT hold the glue gun super far away from the object you are gluing.

Those strings are easy to remove, but why make more mess than you need to?

Lay off the trigger,  pull the tip sideways just a bit to “cap” the glue and pull away.

Beginner’s Tip:  Let the glue gun warm up fully before attempting to use it.  The hotter the glue is, the better the glue will work!

Beginner’s Tip:  Make sure you allow the glue to dry fully before moving the project.  Hot glue dries quickly, but not THAT quickly.  You don’t want an ooey, gooey mess on your hands! (see below)

https://youtu.be/RAybbxd3jYs