Frugal Friday: Foam Mounting Tape

Pop Dots…what is there to say about Pop Dots…if you love them, then you use them a lot…I mean a whole lot.

I love them.

A lot.

I mean a whole lot!

I used to buy All Night Media’s Pop Dots, but found that I was going through the packages like they were free! I even cut up the ‘left-over’ bits after all the dots were punched out…inevitably, though, I would find I was always out of them. And of course that means a quick trip to Michael’s…which was never for Pop Dots alone…know what I mean…wink-wink!

So, being frugal, I thought there must be a better alternative.

I have since switched from small packages of pops to a ginormous roll of Scotch Mounting Tape; more for the convenience of have large quantities on hand than the price since the roll,$35.99 from Staples, is a bit of an investment.


Curious about the overall cost, I did a little online searching and came up with the following price comparisons (I am guesstimating to the best of my mathematical abilities on the actual square inch of product in these packages…bear with me here):

EK Success 3D Dots: approx. 27 square inches of foam for $1.99/pkg = ~$0.074/square inch

All Night Media Pop Dots: approx. 40.5square inches of foam for $2.79/pkg = ~$0.069/square inch

Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares: approx. 64square inches of foam for $2.99/pkg = ~$0.047/square inch

Scotch Mounting Tape (ginormous roll): 1,026 square inches of foam for $35.99/pkg = $0.035/square inch

Scotch Mounting tape also comes in smaller rolls and they run between $0.056 to $0.087 per square inch…so in their case, the ginormous roll will definitely save you money in the long run.

The cost comparison showed that, the Scotch rolls aside, Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares (from JoAnn’s) is the best value…but I am still sticking with the Scotch ginormous roll, since in addition to the lowest price per square inch, the convenience of always having it on hand is invaluable.

The biggest difference between the package squares and dots is that you will need to cut the foam tape yourself. I use plain-jane everyday kinda scissors for this, and haven’t found that any residue is left behind on the blades. The foam tape cuts cleanly and you can cut a strip as small or as large as you need it. I tend to prefer a complete strip along the edge of my popped pieces, rather than small squares at the corners, as you would have to do with the pre-packed pieces…so for me, that is another benefit.

Here is my roll…after two months of use…you can see the outline of the full roll beneath my roll...

Hardly a dent in it...I think this will last me all year!



And here is a layout I did with the mounting tape…


Here you can see how the small frames at the corner are lifted to different heights depending on the number of mounting tape layers I used...

(Yep...those are homemade dew drops in there...)



Here is another layout, still in progress, where I am building layers with the mounting tape...




So was the experiment worth it? Here is the tally:

Cost: A ginormous roll of Scotch Mounting Tape cost $35.99 from Staples or about $0.035 per square inch.
Cats Annoyed: 0 (saving money leaves more cash for cat toys and treats!)
Time: Not really an issue here…
Skill Level: Basic

So there it is, bulk mounting tape! Easy Peasy…and Cheap! Cheap!