Acid Free Question

[greatestnanaof3]

I would love to make some of the dryer sheet flowers for scrapbooking pages. I have has some folks tell me not to because they are not acid free. Does anyone have any information they can share on the subject?

[shazsilverwolf]

This Wikipedia page talks about both fabric softener liquid, as well as tumble drier sheets, putting them in the same category. From having quickly skimmed over it, I think they could be a risky proposition. It would be hard to tell which brands may be safe. There seem to be a number of different types of acids used in them.

[greatestnanaof3]

Thanks. I have been looking for answers but haven't found much of anything. I know they are being used on cards. I wonder if they were attached to a piece of paper if that would make a difference? I think its such a cool idea.

[shazsilverwolf]

I think to be honest, it all comes down to how long the items are likely to be kept afterwards. If the card is for a 'special' birthday/event, that may be quite a while, but equally, I can imagine it would take a good long while before any problems showed up. It's also possible that the worst of the effects may be nullified by them being used first, I guess.

[Cook22]

I don't know whether it too would have acid - but when I tried using dryer sheets I really couldn't handle the smell - so next time I wanted to make one, I used a stiffish fusible interfacing, which has a very similar texture. Would that work for you? At the very least, it should be easier to ascertain for sure if it's acid-free.

[greatestnanaof3]

Thank you for the interfacing idea! I'm going to look in that.