Friday, February 1, 2008

Friday Favorites

I'm frequently asked questions about various materials, supplies, and tools I use for stamping. Those who ask questions also like to know where I make my purchases. With that in mind, I came up with the idea for a "Friday Favorites" post. Each week, I will discuss a product I use and provide information (to the best of my ability) about where to purchase it, etc.

What's a better thing to start off with than adhesive? It's as basic as a supply gets, because everyone uses it. For the past couple of years, I have been using the Ad tech glue runner and refills that I purchase at Wal-Mart. My reason for using this product is two-fold. First and most importantly, it works. I have never had a card or scrapbook layout fall apart using this adhesive, which is more than I can say for some of the other adhesives I've used. My second reason for using it (the bonus) is cost. It's cheap! While I don't recall what the runner itself cost, I know that it was under $4. Because I purchase them so frequently, I know exactly what the refills cost. A package of two is $2.27. For the most part, this product is trouble free. On occasion, it gets a little gummed up, which is remedied by clearing away any excess adhesive that has accumulated near the roller. Every now and then, too, the tape doesn't want to advance, and when that happens, I just open it up and manually turn the back gear until the tape moves the way it's supposed to go.

Prior to using the glue runner by Ad tech, I used the Tombow Mono Adhesive runner. The biggest reason I switched product was cost. With regard to problems, I occasionally had the same problems with the Tombow runner that I encounter with the Ad tech product. Once in a great while, I ran into a Tombow refill that would not work at all, and I would end up throwing it in the trash. I have never experienced this with the Ad tech refill, although I may have just jinxed myself by saying as much. If you're a Tombow fan, the best place I ever found to purchase refills was Business-supply.com. The cost was, and still is, $2.49 per refill. Shipping from this company is free for orders over $50, which meant that I stocked up when I ordered. This company's service was excellent.

I hope you enjoy Friday Favorites and that someone will find the information useful.

2 comments:

Maricar said...

I'll look forward to seeing your Friday posts! That is a cheap adhesive. I just got one of the ATG guns (I think that's what they call them), so I'm enjoying cheap adhesive, but still getting used to the bulkiness of the gun.

scrappernic said...

This is what I use too! Have been for over a year now. I did have a problem one time that was hilarious. I bought 6 packs and when I started opening them, they were all wound backwards--sticky side in--Yikes! Little hard to put adhesive down that way. Someone was sleeping on the job or something. Walmart took them back, but I thought it was funny. Other than that, I've never had any problems with them and you can't beat the price.