Scrapbook.com is best known as being one of America’s best online craft stores. However, they are also a manufacturer; they make a number of their own paper crafting products, including adhesives, stamps, dies, inks, stickers, cardstock pads in various sizes, and many others.
Scrapbook.com’s double-sided adhesive foam strips are useful in cases where you want to add a three-dimensional element to your paper crafting project. You use them in much the same way that you’d use any other double-sided tape, except that this tape will make whichever elements you’re taping down appear to “pop up” off the page and be taller.
Using this stuff can make your projects appear much more interesting than they would without it. I’ve used these foam strips to create nearly all of my favorite paper craft projects lately.
Downsides to the Double-Sided Adhesive Foam Strips by Scrapbook.com
You have to think carefully about when and whether you should use this project on your pages, because its advantages are also its disadvantages.
Namely, the three-dimensional texture can, in some cases, be a disadvantage.
For example, if you’re making an art journal or junk journal, and you use this product on any of its pages, that’ll create lumps and bumps that can make it hard to write or draw on any of the other pages that are present in the same journal.
So, I don’t recommend using these foam strips on any pages that should ideally lie flat.
The foam strips are thin enough to be used in most scrapbooks. However, when you are making layouts to put in binder-style scrapbooks, if you use these foam strips, it’ll mean that you will be able to fit fewer pages into each binder. So, if you are hoping to maximize the numbers of layouts you can fit in each binder, these foam strips are going to work against you with that.
So if you have a limited amount of space for storing your paper craft projects, these foam strips might not be the ideal purchase for you.
But if you aren’t worried about space-saving considerations, and you are hoping to make the most interesting, three-dimensional looking paper craft projects you can make, then this product is worth your consideration.
The Verdict: I Recommend Scrapbook.com’s Adhesive Foam Strips, With Caveats
I use and LOVE Scrapbook.com’s adhesive foam strips.
I got hooked on this product after Scrapbook.com sent me a freebie pack of strips along with a bunch of other stuff I ordered.
They don’t look like much of anything in the product photo at Scrapbook.com’s website, so I hadn’t bought them before or even paid much attention to them, despite having seen them before.
But when I actually tried using them in my own projects, I could immediately see and understand their appeal.
And after I ran out of the freebies, I promptly re-ordered more, because I decided I didn’t want to be without them.
That said, I am not sure how well Scrapbook.com’s adhesive foam strips will hold up in the long term.
I’ve made a lot of projects with foam stickers from a different brand, though – and NONE of those projects held up well in the long term. That foam stuff is fragile. It really isn’t a forever material, in my experience. The foam stickers on my older projects all have unattractive damaged areas. I regret using them, in hindsight.
So, with that understanding, I wouldn’t recommend using these foam strips in cases where you absolutely need your project to hold up for decades into the future.
In that case, I would skip using these, and would instead recommend sticking with a flat adhesive that is known to stand the test of time, like Zip Dry paper glue.
Mind you, it is possible that these foam strips might remain viable in the long term, but like I said, I’m not sure about that. The jury is out.
So if you want to take a risk on that, there are surely projects that are worth the risk.
These days, most people are scrapbooking with digital photos that can easily be re-printed and replaced as needed. So if you’re scrapbooking with digital photos, and your foam adhesive strips fail a few years from now, it won’t be any big deal, in the scheme of things; if that happens, you can simply re-print your photos.
But if you’re making scrapbooking layouts with irreplaceable family photos from the film camera era, I encourage you to think through the risks before using this product on those pages. I wouldn’t personally risk using these adhesive foam strips with irreplaceable photos or mementos, because it is possible that the foam adhesive might fail in time.
Furthermore, this foam stuff is trendy right now, but a few decades from now, it might not be trendy any more. So that’s another consideration to ponder.
Before you use these foam strips in any project, ask yourself whether it matters, how well the project you have in mind will age.
If you’re hoping your grandkids will inherit the project someday, this might not be the best product to use for making it.
But if you are hoping to make the cutest, trendiest, or most interesting project right now, and the project’s long-term viability isn’t a concern, that’s when you’d want to use these foam strips. In that case, they’re a fantastic buy, and I’m happy to recommend them to you in that situation.
Where to Buy These Adhesive Foam Strips:
Find More of My Top Picks for the Best Adhesives:
- Cherry Tape Adhesive: Product Review
- Glue Dots Adhesive: A Product Review
- Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Product Review
Find Our Main Directory of Paper Craft Pages HERE.
By Amy Solovay
About Your Product Reviewer: Amy Solovay is a content creator and educator who holds a bachelor’s degree with a studio art minor; she has also earned a separate degree in textile design. Amy learned to make collage art as a small child, and she still enjoys working with adhesives and different collage materials all these years later. Beyond that, she enjoys introducing other crafters to the best new craft supplies, and she also loves helping crafters learn new techniques for making the most of the craft supplies they buy.
As an educator, Amy Solovay used to teach in-person college courses in trend forecasting, marketing and surface design at California Design College in Los Angeles.
Nowadays, Amy uses online platforms to teach digital courses to craft pattern designers, content creators and influencers all over the world. If you’re an artist, crafter or DIY enthusiast who is interested in earning income from your creative work, you’re invited to visit Crafterprise.com to learn more about monetizing the arts, craft(s) and / or DIY projects you do.
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This page was last updated on 9-8-2024.