“Christmas tree topper made with hot glue, glitter, paper towel tube, yarn and foil”

    My mother was a crafty woman. She could make anything out of anything. I don’t think I have ever met anyone like her. And while I was young, the last thing I wanted to do was waste my time learning to do crafts, but obviously a lot of it rubbed off on me.

    About 6 years ago, my family moved to the U.P. of Michigan from Orlando, Florida. Needless to say it was a BIG change and a major culture shock. We looked forward to getting away from the noise and confusion of the city as well as getting away from the crime. A small town was just what we needed. Unfortunately, small towns in the north usually consist of mostly very old homes. We’re talking homes that were built in the 1800’s and haven’t been taken care of very well. Most were split into apartments and rented out to college students, some to small families that couldn’t afford to rent a whole house. Due to the relentless long winters up here, very few homeowners or even landlords want to spend what precious few warm days they have fixing up homes, so they are neglected and falling apart.

Becoming a Hot Glue Freak by Accident

     One snowy day I was bored out of my mind and needed something to do besides stare at the TV, so my husband took me to the only craft store in town. I walked through isles and isles of assorted kits and whatnot to keep any bored woman busy. I picked up a few bags of transparent tinted stones, some potpourri, a hot glue gun and glue sticks, a bunch of other stuff that looked interesting and piled it all up in my cart. Even though I had no clue as to what I might do with all of the items I picked up, I had the feeling that I could figure something out.

    Once I got home I pulled everything out of the bulging bags and spread it out across my queen sized bed. Immediately I plugged in my new hot glue gun, loaded it with a stick of glue and began sorting through what I had bought. I couldn’t wait to see what I could do with all the goodies I bought. My home was so blah. No color, no personality. It was like living in a big brown box. I had the typical household décor all over my house, but it just wasn’t enough somehow.

The Beginning of the End

    As I glanced around my room for ideas of what to do with everything I bought, I noticed a loose piece of trim on the corner of the wall. I thought about it, and I thought about it. “Well why not give it a try”? I said to myself. So I took my handy hot glue gun over, ran a ribbon of glue under the edge of the trim and voila! Fixed in under 10 seconds and I bet that doesn’t ever come loose. So that was my first use of hot glue and it has gotten so out of control that my family has a running joke about it. “Don’t knock anything off a table or Mom might just hot glue it down!”

    Since that day of discovery I have used hot glue on just about everything that I want to fix, make, design and whatever else I think of. It would take me forever to remember all the uses I got out of hot glue, but here is a list of some of the crafty things I did with it in my life.

1. Fix torn wallpaper.
2. Glue house numbers onto our front door.
3. Make hanging window mobiles. (These are really pretty and made with glitter and grommets.)
4. Decorate our TV with stones.
5. Glue Barbie shoes on so they don’t fall off.
6. Made better cat toys out of crumby made store bought toys.
7. Made a dog bed.
8. Fix hems on curtains.
9. Made masks for our kids and grandkids.
10. Fix loose doorknobs that can’t be tightened due to stripped screws.
11. Decorated fan blades with material.
12. Made creepy Halloween spider webs by stringing the glue across the room.
13. Fixed figurines that had broken.
14. Made Christmas ornaments with potpourri.
15. Wrote names on assorted items and sprinkled with glitter.
16. Tacked down throw rugs to avoid tripping hazards.
17. Glued furniture back together that had come apart at a seam, or where wood had snapped.
18. Glued down loose veneer.
19. Put glue edge on bottoms of table top picture frames so they don’t slide.
20. Glued eye glasses back together.

    And these are just a few of the things I have done. But my favorite thing has to be securing things so they don’t move in our home. Whether it’s knick knacks on the tables or a picture on an uneven wall that won’t stay put, I have to glue them all. It’s an obsessive thing, but it makes me feel better in a house full of kids that my stuff isn’t going to hit the floor and break. I also know I can easily pop things lose if need be.

    The only gripe I have had about hot glue so far is the fact that it doesn’t hold in warm areas such as around a bathtub, oven, CPU’s, and outside in direct sunlight. But other than that, it’s one of my favorite things to do and if you see me coming with glue gun in hand, LOOK OUT!