Vendor Spotlight & GIVEAWAY: Imaginisce i-bond Cordless Hot Glue Gun

Reported by Erika Martin

Have you ever been at the mercy of your hot glue gun cord? I can't count how many times I've swiped things off the table with the cord, couldn't reach what I was doing, the cord wasn't long enough to sit on top of the table because the outlet was JUST out of reach....or I've been teaching a class and have to set up stations around the room (away from our workspace) for people to use hot glue guns. There's good news for us crafters!

Imaginisce has just released their i-bond Cordless Hot Glue Gun and they were so generous to send it along to me to try out alongside their new Garden Party collection.

Imaginisce lists the features of the i-bond on the packaging:

  • It's cordless!
  • Uses 4 AA batteries (not included)
  • Lighted nozzle for easy application
  • Ergonomic design
  • Uses standard mini glue sticks (4" x 0.28" / 10 cm x .7 cm)

The packaging also includes 3 mini glue sticks to get started. That might not seem like a big deal to most crafters that have things like that on hand in bulk, but to be honest, I was SO glad they included them in the packaging because when I got started on my projects, I realized that my daughter had used up ALL of my glue sticks!

I created four projects using the i-bond:

  • Hanging Monograms for my bedroom
  • Altered CD mini book
  • Barrette
  • Jumbo paper clip bookmark

The i-bond was very easy to set up. It runs on 4 AA batteries and they're easily put inside the handle of the gun. When I first opened the handle, I found the directions and nitty-gritty instructions folded up inside. I made sure to put those aside in case I ever needed them.

The bottom of the handle easily pops off and there are battery diagrams inside the handle and also on the outside of the handle bottom that shows which was to put the batteries in. Just pop the cap back on and you're ready to go.

The gun has an on/off switch and a metal stand that swivels out from the barrel of the gun to help it stand up while you're not using it.

When the gun is in the on position, the light on the nozzle is always turned on.

I'm so used to having a cord on my glue guns and the whole way through my projects, I kept thinking I needed to push a cord away or that I had to hold the gun in a way so as not to have the cord in the way. it's so freeing to be able to not have to worry about that. I'm sure I'll get used to that soon enough. *wink*

My first project was a set of Hanging Monograms for my bedroom. I've been collecting D & E monograms for a little while to make a huge collage above the bed my hubby and I share. His name is David and my name is Erika and I thought it would be cute to have our initials hanging up all over the wall behind our head board.

I used some of the double-sided paper from the Garden Party collection to cover my press-board monogram letters.

I used some of the ribbon from the same collection to make a hanger for my letters and used the i-bond to attach them.

The i-bond is great for attaching embellishments to all sorts of projects. I used it to attach my silk flowers to my letters.

And having that little light on the nozzle is really handy when trying to get glue in tight and dark spots, like under the knots of the ribbons that I tied around my monogram letters.

My second project was an altered CD mini book. I used a bunch of old CDs to create the "pages" of my book. They are sturdy and hold up really well for an album that's going to get a lot of handling. I tried using the glue gun to attach the Garden Party paper to my first CD, but it created some bulky lines underneath the paper and I didn't really care for the way it turned out, so I ditched that CD.

I decided to use a double-sided tape for the rest of the CDs and found that worked much better.

I used the i-bond to secure the embellishments on the front of my album, including the cardstock stickers that I used. I felt it was better to have them firmly secured with the hot glue.

On the inside pages of the mini book, I used some of the die cuts from the Garden Party collection to decorate the pages, but I thought it would be fun to give them a little bit of height and dimension, so I applied some glue with the i-bond and when I adhered them to the pages of the book, I got JUST the look I was going for.

In the midst of working on my mini-book, I noticed that the glue from the i-bond didn't seem to be as hot or fluid as it was before. I checked the on/off switch to make sure the gun was still on. It was....but then I looked at the light on the nozzle and noticed that it wasn't on at all. I changed out the batteries and everything was fine again after that.

This was a bit concerning to me as I'd only had the gun on for about an hour with brand new batteries and they'd run down in that amount of time. They were Kirkland brand batteries, so maybe it has to do with the brand/quality of the batteries. I replaced the Kirkland batteries with Duracell batteries and it will be interesting to see how long those last in the gun.

My third project was a barrette. My daughter had made a barrette a few weeks ago but it didn't hold up, so I re-purposed the barrette clip to make a new one. I used the i-bond to create little loops out of Garden party ribbon and then glued them across the barrette clip.

I decided that I didn't like the placement of one of the ribbons and tried to pull it off and had to really work at it. The glue and gun do a REALLY good job of securing items.

I put together a couple of silk flowers with Garden Party brads and glued them to the front of the barrette to finish it off.

My daughter was psyched to try it on and plans to wear it to school tomorrow.

My last project was a quick Jumbo paper clip bookmark. I used a 4 inch jumbo paper clip and put together two sets of silk flowers with brads (from the Garden Party collection) and set one upside down with the brad poking through the top of the paper clip. I was very generous with the glue so that the flowers wouldn't slide down the paper clip when it was assembled.

I settled the other flower on top and pressed them together to secure them. Voila!

It's important to note that while this is a hot glue gun, this glue gun is not a *high-temp* hot glue gun. If you are creating projects that require a high-temp hot glue gun, the i-bond isn't the gun for that project. But, for all other projects using a mid-temp glue gun, the i-bond is the PERFECT gun for you! (Personally, I like to have one of each on hand.)

The i-bond Cordless Hot Glue Gun carries a MSRP of $15.99.

Pros:

  • Great price point for a heavy-duty glue gun
  • CORDLESS!!! WOOHOO!
  • Battery operated
  • Handy-dandy lighted nozzle
  • Uses mini glue sticks which are easily accessible - even the hardware story carries them!
  • Has a metal stand to rest on in between use

Cons:

  • Not a high-temp gun so if you're looking to do projects requiring high-temp glue, the i-bond isn't it
  • Not quite sure if this is a con yet, but the new batteries I put in ran out in an hour's time - I'll have to run the gun through a few sets of different brand batteries to find out if this is a matter of the gun using the batteries quickly or if it's a matter of what brand batteries are used

The I-Bond Cordless Hot Glue Gun is available from Amazon.com.

How about you? Have you tried out the new i-bond Cordless Hot Glue Gun yet? What's would be your favorite feature if you haven't?

**Giveaway is closed. Thanks for entering!**

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