Art and Craft Supplies: Xyron 500 Create-A-Sticker Adhesive Machine and Cartridges

The Xyron 500 Create-a-Sticker machine is a handy way to create your own stickers, labels, and tags. It is also an excellent adhesive for use with die cuts for scrapbooking.

Xyron 500 Create-A-Sticker Machine Advantages:

Both the machine and the cartridges are high-quality.

Cartridges are available for both permanent and repositionable adhesive. (The photo included with this article shows a permanent adhesive cartridge.)

You can create stickers using paper, fabric, felt, dried leaves, dried flowers, faux flowers, ribbon, and some brands of chipboard. You aren't limited to just those things, though; there are so many more possibilities. If an item is flat enough to fit through the roller in the sticker maker machine, the machine will stick some adhesive on the back and make a sticker out of it. You could experiment with using so many different kinds of items.

This adhesive is about as mess-free as it gets.

This adhesive is perfect for impatient crafters who do not want to wait for glue or liquid adhesives to dry.

Smooth, even adhesive application is guaranteed.

The Xyron 500 Create-A-Sticker Machine is low-tech; it doesn't require batteries or electricity, and it doesn't have any computerized components.

It's easy to use, particularly for multi-sided embellishments. I can't think of an easier way to apply adhesive to odd-shaped borders and die-cuts.

This adhesive is acid-free, which makes it ideal for use in scrapbooking layouts and albums.

The adhesive in non-toxic.

You can let your kids play with the Xyron 500 Create-A-Sticker Machine, as long as they are older than 5 and you trust them not to do anything crazy with it.

The machine is lightweight, and it is also reasonably portable. It probably isn't the first adhesive I'd reach for if I were headed out the door to a crop, but it wouldn't be absolutely out of the question to take it along. With some careful packing, the Xyron 500 Sticker Maker Machine does fit inside my XXL rolling organizer. So, if you decide you want to have it with you for a crop or scrapbooking retreat, the machine is portable enough that you could find a way to make it happen.

Xyron Sticker Maker Machine Disadvantages:

The cartridges are expensive. If you don't waste much, they are still a decent value for the money you spend, considering the quality of the adhesive.

You need to plan carefully to avoid waste. For example, if you want to apply adhesive to a narrow 1/2" wide border that is 12" long, you could put it through the Xyron Sticker Maker Machine by itself, but you would be wasting about 4 1/2 inches worth of adhesive if you do that. It would be preferable to run multiple 12" borders through the machine at one time to avoid this waste.

If you want to create a sticker using a die cut that is not a solid piece, you might have to do some cleaning up in the open area(s) of the shape. For example, if you use the sticker maker machine on a die cut letter A, you might have to clean some adhesive out of the center of the A. I often use the Xyron sticker maker to create paper lace borders; for this purpose, the Xyron sticker maker adhesive is easier than many of the others I've tried, but I have found that I need to take a pin and clean out the "lace holes" because there is usually adhesive remaining in these areas unless I clean them. For intricate shapes that have open areas, it might be easier to use a liquid adhesive like Zip Dry Paper Glue.

Conclusion:

I think the Xyron 500 Create-A-Sticker Machine is a fabulous tool for scrapbooking, card making, mixed media art, collage, and other crafts. It is one of those tools that is NOT strictly necessary, but it serves a purpose. I would particularly recommend this tool to crafters who use a lot of die cuts, or to artists who create collages with flat but otherwise irregularly shaped objects. For crafters on a strict budget, there are more affordable adhesives that will get the same job done. For those who can afford it, this adhesive is really fantastic, and worth the money. I use my Xyron 500 sticker machine constantly. If you do get one, it probably won't be one of those tools that will go unused and collect dust. You'll find zillions of uses for it. Overall, I am happy to recommend the Xyron 500 to other artists and crafters.