velcro help
 

I made the exploding handbag from the tutorial today but it reminded me of an issue I have frequently. Whenever a paper project calls for velco closures the velcro I have is too strong and I'm afraid if I'm not careful, I will tear my project. Does anyone know of a better lightweight velcro or another way to hold the purse closed? TIA

Kathy, I found these lightweight velcro fasteners at Walmart and they worked pretty well for this purpose. I even cut them in half, and got more uses that way:

Velcro White Wafer-thin Fasteners VEK91386 - Walmart.com

Thanks. I'll check those out Friday.

I have done handbag shaped cards in the past and used magnets instead. I took one of those freebies you get all the time as advertising and cut two pieces to the size I needed and glued them on, then covered the advertising with alcohol markers or light weight paper that didn't interfere with the magnets.

Voila, free closures!! Just be sure to test, to make sure you get them right. You don't want them to repel each other instead. I liked it much better than velcro as I too was worried about my card getting torn.

I tried magnets on occasion but the ones I have were too strong and they ripped off the project. They were self adhesive so I tried adding glue for more strength and they still ripped. If I get too light a magnet then it may not hold the project closed....

When I was doing some craft fairs, I made a bunch of cute purse gift card holders to sell. I tried using the magnets to close them, and wasn't happy with the results. I had the best luck with tiny pieces of velcro, the lightweight kind.

You also want to be careful with magnets around anything that's supposed to hold a gift card - it can mess with the mag stripe on the card and make it unreadable:)

I found these hook and loop fasteners at Michaels: Velcro Tabs (the link leads to the Joann website, because that was the first site where I could find a photo) and they work quite well. I actually used them for a non-paper project at work and the adhesive hasn't let loose yet.

Have you used them on paper projects? I just want to make sure they don't tear my project. A non paper project doesn't have as much "give" as paper does so I can see they would work on those. But paper pulls as you try to open it. KWIM? I took a picture of the product and will definately check it out next time I get to Michaels. THANKS!

I bought some Tombow light velcro closures on clearance about a year ago. I bought them up for mini album closures. Here it is on Ebay. I'm going to tell you this is really nice stuff. It is really strong adhesive but light on the velcro... perfect for paper

Tombow Craft Collection Fastener Adhesive Tabs 121362 | eBay

In regards to magnets, I agree that you have to be careful with them. But with that said, I like how Kathy Orta uses them. She uses 1 magnet and a light disc that she purchased at the hardware store. It's not heavy duty magnets attaching to each other with causes the paper to rip.

Just some personal thoughts.

Thank you for that suggestion. The magnets I used were two lightweight magnets but the lightweight disc might just be the key!

I use the small disc magnets as I don't like the look of Velcro. To keep the magnets from pulling off the paper I add an extra layer of paper so I can put the magnet under the piece of paper that would be the layer the you can see. I'm not sure I'm explaining correctly but the magnets are hidden and it lessens the pull. Make sense?

Yes, you need to put them under the paper.

I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying you just glue a piece of paper over the magnets? I'm recovering from bronchitis so my brain isn't in gear today! LOL Thanks.

Yes, what I do is I glue it on the base then I cover it with the pretty paper. I usually use them with little flipflop albums.

Here is Anna from paper creations. She shows you exactly how to use them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ3PqEDYcoU I love her work. It's about midway through that she shows you how to align them then cover them up.

You can find others too. These are mostly mini albums that are covered with the actual pretty paper after. I sure hope this makes sense.

This one is LivArtnow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biv9nwnJgJ8

Thank you so much! I never thought to cover them. I will go look at the youtube videos.