stiffening a crochet piece

I have been experimenting with stiffening some pieces for my next yarn bomb project. I did a little research and started with a spray craft stiffener but it did not stiffen as much as I wanted. I did a little more research and decided to use white glue and water because it seemed the most permanent.

I started by mixing about 50/50 glue and water and soaked the piece and layed it out flat on some plastic. It took DAYS to dry and was not quite as stiff as I wanted. So for the next one I used a ratio that was heavier on the glue. I did not use exact measurements but kept in mind one website's advice that it should look like whipping cream. (mine probably wasn't that thick)

That one took a good 5 days to dry but it was nice and stiff. Tonight I did three more pieces soaked in the glue mixture. It sure soaks up a lot of glue! I wring them out but you don't want to do that too hard because then it stretches out the shape of the piece too much.

I did two more pieces using a paintbrush to dab the glue mixture on. I was hoping that this method would use less glue. I can see that with this method I might have to flip it over after has dried a bit and do the other side too. But maybe the glue will soak through to the other side? I will have to wait and see. I am crocheting the last 4 pieces and then I have to finish glue-stiffening. This one is a total of 19 pieces that will go together in groups.