10 Best Hot Glue Gun Hacks

If you’re a crafter, you likely use a hot glue gun on a regular basis. We’ve heard quite a few crafters express some frustration with using one though. These hot glue gun hacks could make a big difference to how you feel about using yours and the results you get.

These tips will help you learn how to use a hot glue gun in a professional way so that it isn’t as messy and you get cleaner results. It will make crafting easier and more fun. These glue gun tips are going to come in so handy for your craft projects!

10 Best Hot Glue Gun Hacks

1 – When using lots of hot glue, do this.

If you are working on a large project and you will be using lots of hot glue, you can add a dab of hot glue to the tip of a glue stick and glue that one onto the glue stick that is in the glue gun. Then, you can just keep working without having to stop and add more glue sticks. Easy peasy!

2 – Work on a silicone mat.

This will help reduce mess and make cleanup a breeze! You don’t need an expensive silicone mat either. You can find suitable ones at Dollar Tree and Walmart.

3 – Use a glue gun stand.

Using a glue gun also makes your crafting easier and can help minimize the mess. If you don’t have an actual glue gun stand, no worries. You can actually use a large binder clip as one.

4 – Glue before painting.

When you glue before painting, it sticks better! Otherwise, you are adding glue to the paint layer and not the surface and it peels off easily.

5 – Use a glue “clamp”.

Did you know that you can combine super glue and hot glue when working on projects that need some extra holding power? The hot glue serves as a clamp to hold the items in place while the super glue has time to set. Apply the super glue first and then the hot glue.

6 – Get rid of those annoying strings.

One way to let go of the adhesive and make some of those strings go away is to twirl the glue gun around as you pull it away from the glue application. If there are still strings remaining, use a blow dryer to gently heat them and they’ll go away. The quicker you do this, the better this method works.

7 – Make embellishments.

Use hot glue to make embellishments for your other crafts. Simply add beads of glue to a silicone mat. They will self level and you can easily remove them from the mat once they harden. It’s easy to make a variety of sizes and then glue them onto your other craft projects like paper flowers.

8 – Add “rubber” grips to coasters.

Using a similar method as you did when making embellishments, add beads of glue to the corners on the bottom of ceramic tile coasters to serve as rubber grips on them.

9 – Clean your glue gun.

Fold some aluminum foil so that you have several layers of it. With your glue gun on and warmed up, use that foil to wipe around and rub the tip of the glue gun. This will help remove built-up residue.

10 – Avoid burns while making bows.

The hot glue seeps through the layers of the ribbon really easily. To avoid burning yourself, use a spatula to press down on the spot where you’ve applied the glue instead of your fingers. We find this works even better than the hot glue finger protectors you can buy.