It is very easy to reach for my double sided tape or any of my various glues when paper crafting. One of the things I love about paper is that there are often many ways to achieve the result you want. Adhering things with glues and tapes are just one way of making your elements stay where you want them. Come with me to look at a few other ideas for making things stick!

You can make your project without any adhesives at all. Taking a challenge to do so is a fun way to inspire yourself. Here are seven ways you could make your project without adhesives.

1. Brads

If you have been a paper crafter for awhile, you are probably familiar with brads. They are made of metal and come with a split pin backing that can be pushed through layers of paper to hold embellishments together. You often see them used in the middle of flower layers. There is no reason why you cannot use them in other ways such as to hold mats in place, to place tags where you want them, to bind together a small album or booklet, to make a swing tag to cover hidden journaling, to provide an anchor for ribbon or braid or cord, or as an embellishment in their own right. Use an odd number of brads in a row to draw the eye to a place on your adhesive tape manufacturers page or card, make a curved line of them, or use them as corner points.

2. Stitching

Hand sewing or machine sewing can add a great deal to your pages and cards as well as being a convenient way of holding your elements together. Stitch together layers of cardstock or designer paper using straight lines or decorative stitching. Stitch around a photo using straight stitch or zig zag or blanket stitch to hold it to its mat (use a paper piercer and grid template first to make way for your needle and thread when hand stitching). Sew buttons onto your layout to hold things in place. Sew pages of an album together to bind them, with threads or yarn or string. Make a folded paper book with a stitched spine. Sew on felt or other materials to make flowers or any other shape you wish and then stitch them in place. Sew ribbon to your page.

Hint: If you use your sewing machine for paper crafting, be sure to keep a needle just for sewing paper. Stitching through paper will blunt your needle a little and may cause snags on fabric items afterward.