Laminators

I've had a laminator for years...my Xyron 900 has been a faithful tool at our house. The Xyron is a cold laminator and you just crank the handle and it puts the film on your paper as you roll it through. It's like having a tool that allows you to put Contact paper on seamlessly. The nice thing about the Xryon is that you can buy different rolls of film to put on your paper and they interchange out of the machine really easily. The cartridge just drops in and out. I love to use the sticky backing and laminate front roll to put covers on our folders for school, for example. I can also put a magnet backing on cardstock with my Xyron. There's a few other films too- an all occasion tool! The only downside is the price of the cartridge. At AC Moore, I can get the laminate for $34.99 for 50' of double sided laminate. The other specialty rolls are the same price- only they offer less footage. Magnet backing is $34.99 for only 10'. I usually use a coupon to purchase them, but I have always conserved on using it because of the price.

My Xryon 900- a versatile and faithful tool

The Scotch Laminator- a trim little performer!

Until now! At Christmastime, there were a few bloggers singing the praises of the Scotch laminator and it was on sale at Amazon for $16! I notice the price right now on Amazon is a bit high. You can get it at Walmart and Target for about $25. Now I know many of you have probably had this laminator for a long time, but having a laminator already prevented me from buying it. However, it doesn't take up much space and the whole machine was half the price of a cartridge for my Xryon. So...I took the plunge. I used it for the first time to laminate our summer cards- because I ran out of the Xyron laminate. And I have to tell you...this laminator is a dream! It feeds so easily, the pouches are inexpensive particularly compared to the Xyron and it's a thermal laminator which means no sticky to deal with on scissors when you cut it. It heats up quickly and works like a charm.

I will not abandon my Xryon, but now I can use it for the adhesive backings rather than the laminate and I can laminate more things!

So, what sorts of things do I laminate? Anything I want to last a while! Game cards and boards, charts, animal cards for our classification game, and my next project is to make some cards from grocery flyers...a grocery store challenge sort of game.

Cards from our animal classification game- laminated magazine cutouts.

What sorts of things do you laminate? And if you've always thought of getting one but have not...now's the time! Go for it! Stay tuned for news an another new tool at our house. I will demonstrate its usefulness just as soon as I take it on its maiden voyage!