Hello and Happy Holidays crafters! I know we’re all rushing to finish those last minute handmade gifts and cards!  (I know I am!)  What perfect timing for a quick-dry adhesive review by the fabulous people over at Helmar!  Adhesive is one of those main staples that every crafter needs.  I was so impressed with their Acid-Free glue I reviewed, I couldn’t wait to give this one a try!  Helmar describes 450 as

“A high performance premium glue that sets quickly, dries crystal clear and is machine washable.  Bonds to almost all types of fabrics, ribbons, plastics, leather, balsa and other soft woods, paper, cane, most hand craft materials and more! Excellent for bridal wear, costume making, lamp shade making, paper crafting, acetate albums, millinery work and general household use.”

Wow!  Quite a lot of uses, eh crafters?  Since the possibilities and combinations of materials are endless with adhesives, I’m going to show you how this adhesive worked for me with various applications in my projects and samples as opposed to a traditional swatch.

First off, is this truly a, “Crystal clear,” adhesive?  Why yes it is!  There’s some slight bubbling, but no big deal!  The less you apply, the quicker it fully dries.  This little blob above “gelled” within a few seconds and was fully hardened within a couple minutes.  The glue has a slight smell to it, almost like an E6000.  The 450 glue contains acetone which could be the smelly culprit.  When working with it, it almost reminds me of hot glue because it can sometimes have those little glue strings.  I didn’t find this to be a problem at all, though!  Just yank’em off!

I will admit, I *kind of* used the 450 glue prior to the review.  Remember that fabby little pumpkin I made for the Heidi Swapp color shine review?  Well, when creating it, I ran into a problem; I couldn’t figure out how to attach the stem on top because any other liquid adhesive wouldn’t have been able to hold up the thick, glossy paper unless I sat there and held it in place for several minutes.  I was able to use the 450 glue, hold the stem in place for less than 30 seconds, and it was dry and ready to go!  And I can actually pick up the pumpkin by the stem and bounce it up and down and it won’t come apart!  The fact that it was clear was an extra bonus.  I also used it to attach all of the little twirly stems and leaves quickly!

Then came Halloween time.  The velcro that attached my daughter’s cape to her Super Girl dress fell off just as we were getting ready to leave for trick-or-treating.  I can’t sew well and there was no time heat up a hot glue gun! Helmar 450 to the rescue!  Within minutes I was able to re-attach the little velcro piece to her costume and she was on her candy-collecting way!

For this fun sample I used the 450 glue for just about everything!  From gluing all of the paper pieces together, the colorwashed muslin leaves, the metal birdy and the muslin fabric.  It was great for all of the paper corners as I was assembling the box; I knew that the adhesive bond would last and I didn’t have to hold the edges together for a long time to wait for it to dry.

For this fun project, I took random grungeboard alphas and glued them to a wooden box. (I used grungeboard because of its bendable quality)  I can’t imagine using any other glue to complete this box.  Any other liquid adhesive would have taken forever for the dense grungeboard to adhere to the wooden box.  A dry adhesive, like a tape runner, would have allowed the edges to pop up and not last very long.  I was able to glue down one part of the alpha, hold for a few seconds and move on continuing to glue the pieces as they wrapped around the box.  After I was done gluing on al of the alphas, I painted the box with a shimmery red acrylic paint by Jacquard and then used a clear varnish to really make it shine.  I love the way it turned out!

So let’s see, through my tests and samples, Helmar 450 quick dry glue works well with:

– Paper on paper

– Grungeboard/paper based product on wood

– Fabric on fabric

– Fabric on paper

– Metal on fabric

– Metal on paper

– Glossy paper on glossy paper

The only real problem I ran into with the 450 adhesive is when my bottle got low.  It seemed to take a long time to get the glue to the tip and then it took a bit of muscle to get the glue out.  I tried to clear the bottle of any clogs but couldn’t find any.

Overall, I’m extremely happy with this adhesive.  It gets a rating of, “Super Awesome,” in my book when it comes needing something for a quick fix and especially when your project requires a liquid adhesive and you want a fast bond; not where you want to sit and hold your pieces together forever until they dry.  Because really, who has time to wait for things to dry these days?  Helmar products are beginning to be sold in the United States at select Hobby Lobby stores and at Helmar’s own website.  The 450 glue is available in two different sizes; 1.7 oz and 4.23 oz and approximately $5.80 and $10.15 repectively.  For being such a versatile glue, I wouldn’t have a problem paying this.  What do you think crafters?  Think this would come in handy-dandy for any of you?

Make sure to stay tuned for more Helmar adhesive reviews. Don’t forget to check out the Acid-Free adhesive glue review here and the Helmar Remove review here!