Glue Gun Review

Years and years ago, I am thinking around 20 yrs... I bought a hot glue gun. I thought it was the bees knees, it was small and light , got hot really quick and the glue sticks were cheap. I glued everything in sight. Over the years I used it less, but i was always happy to know it was there for those jobs where only hot glue will do. Definitely a staple in anyone's craft cupboard. 

Sadly last week I was using my relic of a tool, the glue wasn't running, the trigger was getting stiff and the project i was working on was an epic fail. I feared the worst, the poor old thing was giving up on me...and then kaput, it gave up and went to the great glue gun party in the sky. 

For something that I didn't use that much it was actually quite sad to see it go. I started looking around for a new one. There are so many, and so many prices and sizes and types of glue and even ...get this..COLOURS.. of glue. I had no idea you could get coloured glue. 

So after lamenting my loss I was super lucky to be offered a new glue gun by the lovely people at PaperArtsy. It arrived at 7 am this morning. It's not often I get out of bed for anything at that time of the day, but so glad I did. 

This glue gun is awesome.

However before I got to the awesomeness I had a full on fit of laughter at the size of the glue sticks. They are mahoosive, who knew they came so big. They actually had me chuckling all morning. 

Here is the gun as it arrived..

and just look at these glue sticks, they are a hefty 12mm in diameter and 285mm long. that's enough glue to keep you going for ages. 

So, what did i think of the glue gun...back to the awesomeness, because it really is. The gun itself , although billed as industrial, is in fact very light. The trigger is more than double the size of the trigger on my old gun, this makes it very easy to use. 

..on my old gun the trigger was pulled by only one finger, this new one has a trigger big enough to comfortably fit 4 fingers, giving you much more control. ideal for anyone with joint problems in their fingers..

You can see in the photo that the gun slips onto a stand, I found it very stiff to remove at first, but after a few times it slid into place and back off without too much effort. Though to be fair, the whole thing is still so light even while attached to the stand, that i would probably use it with the stand still on. I wouldn't recommend taking the stand off and discarding it, as the gun gets very hot and if you were to lay it down on your table it could cause damage. The stand is very useful.... and something that my old gun did not have at all. 

It didn't take long to heat up, the instruction leaflet suggests waiting 5-7 minutes and I would say that is about right. I kept a close watch on the gun, waiting to see the moment when the glue starting to drip out...

 It didn't!

Marvellous, no annoying drippage all over my craft mat, and no wastage of glue. 

The glue once pulled through is very runny, and stays runny long enough for placement and adjustment. 

So how can you get one of these guns???

They are not currently on the PaperArtsy site... but you can ring them direct to order..

44 (0)1277 212911

As of today they only have 3 in stock, so  if this is a purchase that you are thinking of making then ring them soon. They do however have lots of gluesticks in stock. 

So what did I make... Well, i didn't have any projects that needed 'sticking together', so I thought I would make some embellishments. 

When the glue was good and hot, I let it flow into some silicone moulds. 

Leave the glue to set fully..

flex the mould and the glue embellishment will just pop out. 

Now take your favourite colours of TREASURE GOLD and brush it on, once dry add a highlight shade. 

It does take a bit of practice to get the moulds full without too many airbubbles, as you can see I  got air bubbles in the face, but in my opinion that just gives them more character. 

I did the same with these flower/button moulds.. sometimes there is a little excess glue on the edges, this is trimmed off easily with scissors. 

Just look how the Treasure gold picks out all the details, that the glue has perfectly captured. 

I hope you found this useful, go on treat yourself to a glue gun and have a play.