I've only recently started crafting, starting with my wedding invites which I started making around Christmas time and I started off with using glue sticks, foam pads and doubles-sided tape.
Foam pads are great for sticking card toppers on cards and decoupage but I always end up with the little square of backing paper getting everywhere! Also I've found that if I have just coloured in a die cut, I have to wait for it to completely dry or the tabs don't seem to stick.
Glue sticks are ok (ie like the pritt stick type) but I find that I need to have a bit of paper under so that I can go over the sides if not the paper/card does not stick down properly and also the sticks seem to dry to quick and don't stick down properly onto cards.
Double-sided tape was my favourite but it doesn't seem to permanently hold and also gets stuck to scissors really easily.
I then went onto trying tacky glue from Hobbycraft. I brought this for when I was making cardboard camera stands for our wedding (which we put business cards in asking people to upload their photos to flickr). This glue is good but does take a bit of time to dry or drys really quickly when you don't want it to. I also find that as it's wet, it makes the card/paper curl which can be really annoying. I suppose it would help if I got a glue spreader, not just squeezing a little on the thing I want to stick.
Recently while watching QVC craft shows and Ideal World Create and Craft, they seem to use roller glue a lot. I have thought about signing up to the Ideal World Create and Craft Club, and saw they did these glue rollers, but I have problems with items coming via couriers rather than Royal Mail as they can't get to our postbox to leave a 'sorry you were out' card, or they can't re-deliver for weeks. I ended up buying a 'Stick It' permanent adhesive roller via eBay for just under £2. It came yesterday and I've used it on a few cards and while packaging up the die cutters I sold on eBay. It is very easy to use and not messy (unless to slip and end up gluing the wrong thing, or the table instead, and then its a bit hard to remove).
I'm looking to possible buy the gel glue tubes next which I've seen on Create and Craft. These look like a great mess-free alternative to the foam pads as they can give a bit of height from what I've seen and would also be easier to use on more intricate cut outs where the foam pads are too big. Until then I think I'll mostly be using my roller for big items and tiny dots of tacky PVA for more fiddly items.
Update...
Have given in and am purchasing silicone glue! I've found 1 Create & Craft tube with nozzle from eBay and will see how it goes before buying more. I've seen many people moan about the smell of these glues and there are odour free ones on the market but will see how this one is (ie if it gives me a migraine it's going in the bin). For £1 it's not bad.
The roller glue worked great for packing up eBay sells and attaching the printable postage (a first time trying that too). It doesn't seem to like my cards much though as I am currently using textured cards, not smooth ones.
