Misadventures With Spray Adhesive

Why didn't you tell me spray adhesive was dangerous??

I decided yesterday I needed to embellish some fake flowers. I had dyed them the night before and they didn't look quite right, so this was attempt to embellish #2. I had spray adhesive, and I had glitter. Sounded good to me. I figured a little spritz, a little sprinkle, and ta-da!

I was just about giddy at the thought of using the spray adhesive. I had just picked it up the other day. It was new to me. (Don't ask why, I am not new to crafting, just different glues.)

I pulled all the flowers off their stems, and held them over the sink to spritz them with spray adhesive. Spritz, ha. Douse is more like it. That was OK though, it was the look I was going for, right? Mistake #1. DO NOT USE SPRAY ADHESIVE OVER THE SINK AND DISHES. (I know what you are thinking- "Duh Megan." Right.) As I discovered later, the dishes and the sink ended up with a healthy coating of glue. Nice. Like I didn't have enough to clean in the kitchen.

I then dipped them into glitter. I had dumped it onto a paper plate. This was working for me. The edges were getting all glitter-fied, and looked all happy and sparkly. And so were my fingers. No big deal I thought, I will wash it off later. Mistake #2. SPRAY ADHESIVE IS DIFFICULT TO GET OFF HANDS ONCE DRIED AND SEALED WITH GLITTER. Another little tidbit I would discover later. I also, in the tradition of "Making-the-biggest-mess-possible", managed to spread the glitter love all over my kitchen during this adventure.

Good thing the baby was in bed, she would have been coated in glitter and spray glue too.

I continued in this fashion, spraying flowers over the sink, twirling them in glitter, la-de-da. I gave them a second coat of adhesive hoping to seal the glitter on. Hmmm...that didn't work so well. Glitter still came off though...Maybe I would try something else later.

I felt generally pleased with myself though. My hands may be coated in adhesive and glitter, but the flowers looked oh-so-sparkly and nice. The dishes and hands would come clean with a little soap and water. No worries. I laid all the flowers out to dry.

It was time to clean up.

First my hands. I washed them with soap and water. Hmmm. Nothing was coming off. Maybe a little scrubbing would help.

This stuff was a little stronger than I had anticipated. I scrubbed more- still stuck. What was the deal?

I picked at it, and that didn't help.

Now please don't ask me what I was thinking next. It was something along the lines of a recollection that you could get tree sap off with oil or something. I had the vegetable oil on the counter- why not try that on my hands? I poured the oil on my hands and started rubbing. At first I thought I had made a difference, only to realize that all I had managed to do was moisturize the glittery-glue sealant that covered my skin. Like the glue needed to be moisturized.

I paused my pursuit of glitter removal to use the bathroom. That little trip left me with hands coated in glue, glitter, and toilet paper fuzz. Another household chore and I had hands coated with glue, glitter, toilet paper fuzz, and dog hair. Life doesn't stop and wait for you to get gunk off your hands. This was getting annoying.

My husband suggested rubbing alcohol when he learned of my predicament. I scrubbed that on, and managed to get my palms clean, but now the tops of my thumbs burned. I picked at the glue with a little success. At this point I decided to forget about it and wait for it to all eventually wear off. I also decided I didn't even want to think about the result of the glue and the sink and dishes.

Thankfully this morning I awoke to find the glitter and glue had come off my hands. I decided to venture into the kitchen and see what havoc I had wrecked there. After much scrubbing the dishes started to come clean. Some I just stuck in the washer hoping it would work some magic. I got the majority clean. And learned my lesson.

Hopefully that lesson will stick when I decide to pull out the spray paint.

Feeling a bit sticky,
Megan