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Silhouette and Laminator

Karen

Karen

Wiggle it, just a little bit!
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So.... I may have already opened my Mother's Day gift (that I ordered for myself). :rofl I had a couple small projects that I wanted to laminate, so on a whim I looked up laminators on Amazon and I couldn't believe how cheap they are!!! I got the Amazon Basics one for $25! I pulled it out of the box today at lunch and tested it out on 2 recipe cards that I printed out. It works so well!!! It's a little stinky, but they said that would happen, especially on the first few runs. Anyway, now my mind is thinking about the things I want to print from my digital stash and laminate. So I have two questions:

1. Does anyone else use a laminator? (I want fun ideas)

2. Can I laminate a full sheet of stuff with the Silhouette hash marks and then use my Silhouette to cut around the individual items?
 
here are the recipe cards I printed using the fun In My Kitchen | Recipe Cards by Soco Designs and Becca Bonneville:

IMG_2057.JPG
 
I have a laminator and love it. I've laminated knitting project instruction sheets for DH. (he asked me to--I am obsessed with laminating but I don't just randomly take his things too lol.) I've also made "dry erase boards" for the kids and for the fridge. I used a three-hole punch on DD's so she could put it in her school binder.
Love the idea of laminating recipes! There are a few recipes I love and actually make lol so I should do that. I use magnets to hold my recipes on the microwave, which is above the stove, so the recipe is out of my way but easy to read. Laminating would help with the little splatters
 
OOOH! I love the idea of a dry erase board! I've wished for one of those customized for my short term purposes in the past. This year I sure could have used one for my youngest son's online school requirements! We only have 2 weeks left, but I might make one anyway!

I really want to make another book kinda like this and add some digital elements and do-dads on the binding:

24ce2ee929c9512db14513ea2ffd85ca.jpg
 
I had one 20 years ago when I was selling CM. I used to laminate scrapping ideas I got from a forum I was on at the time for people to use at crops. I don't remember it from the basement clean out so evidently I got rid of it at some time in the past 15 years.
 
Yes! I have a laminator. I pretty much only use it for school things. I'll laminate schedules for them to mark off their subjects. I'll laminate flashcards or signs/posters that we use quite a bit.

The recipe card thing is a good idea!
 
I bought one awhile back.

I use it mainly to make little planner paper clips and planner dangle charms - and dangle charms for when I was doing the pocket letters.


Here's one pocket letter where I think you can see some of the laminated little dangle charms.


And here's a pic of some I have laying around right now. Some I've made into paper clips and some are just laminated and cut at this point:

62B120C6-AE47-4167-B0B5-526939333379.jpg
 
Karen said:
OOOH! I love the idea of a dry erase board! I've wished for one of those customized for my short term purposes in the past. This year I sure could have used one for my youngest son's online school requirements! We only have 2 weeks left, but I might make one anyway!

I really want to make another book kinda like this and add some digital elements and do-dads on the binding:

24ce2ee929c9512db14513ea2ffd85ca.jpg
Click to expand...
this is super cute!
 
jenn mccabe said:
I bought one awhile back.

I use it mainly to make little planner paper clips and planner dangle charms - and dangle charms for when I was doing the pocket letters.


Here's one pocket letter where I think you can see some of the laminated little dangle charms.


And here's a pic of some I have laying around right now. Some I've made into paper clips and some are just laminated and cut at this point:

View attachment 394294
Click to expand...

Your little planner charms are why I bought this laminator! I was hunting through all the old pocket letter threads and every time I saw one of your pocket letters, I'd spy a few digi elements laminated and then I NEEDED one! :giggle Those paper clips are SOOOO cute too! Thanks for the ideas!

Did you just hand cut around the items after you laminated them?
 
@Karen
yes, i just hand cut around them. you can see the seal and just try to stay a little bit further out from the seal or you'll end up with an opening in the laminated layers. bulky items can be wonky when going through the laminator sometimes (i laminate a lot of those 3D stickers you can pick up at dollar stores), but flat die cuts or printables or really easy to laminate and then hand cut around.
 
I use one all the time! I made a dry erase menu board 8.5 x 22 and write what is for dinner each day (so I remember what is available in my fridge). I designed it with a kit from Just Jaimee.

You can't print a full page of do-dads, laminate then cut...the laminating only sticks to itself. If you cut them out, the laminating falls apart. What you can do is print a whole page, cut out the do-dads, laminate with at least 1/4 between. Then cut out with an 1/8 or so edge by hand.
 
michele hillam said:
You can't print a full page of do-dads, laminate then cut...the laminating only sticks to itself. If you cut them out, the laminating falls apart. What you can do is print a whole page, cut out the do-dads, laminate with at least 1/4 between. Then cut out with an 1/8 or so edge by hand.
Click to expand...

I think that depends on your laminator and what you're trying to do. Hot laminating of a single sheet of paper will stay on OK if you cut it out. If you're laminating two sheets of paper together back to back then yes, they will fall apart if you cut them out. So, as Michele says you need to cut out then laminate with a margin and cut out again. I've had no problem with double-sided printing, hot laminate, then cut out.

Haven't tried using a cutting machine on laminated paper yet but I don't see why it wouldn't work with the right settings.

I used mine to make a Christmas board game one year and a Christmas Bingo set another year.
 
michele hillam said:
I use one all the time! I made a dry erase menu board 8.5 x 22 and write what is for dinner each day (so I remember what is available in my fridge). I designed it with a kit from Just Jaimee.

You can't print a full page of do-dads, laminate then cut...the laminating only sticks to itself. If you cut them out, the laminating falls apart. What you can do is print a whole page, cut out the do-dads, laminate with at least 1/4 between. Then cut out with an 1/8 or so edge by hand.
Click to expand...

That's what I do. Put the individual stickers or die cut pieces onto a full sheet - with plenty of space in between them. run it through, then cut them all out.

If I want a charm with "two sides" printed (a lot of times I use found objects like stickers or die cuts that don't have a back so I just don't stress over it), but I when I do digi supplies, I might print a front and opposite back. Then I cut with cutting machine, then glue the front paper piece and back paper piece together, then run it through the laminator. As long as they are glued and there's that seal around the charm - it seems to work fine.

I'm horrible at double siding printing for little charm type of items and would waste so much ink trying to get them positioned perfectly with my printer. The paper shifts in my printer tray a bit. But for bigger - full size things like recipe cards, dry erase boards - that is a brilliant idea that even I could handle! :giggle
 
Thanks for everyone's tips! I finally played again yesterday and printed out a sheet of little bits and made some charms to dangle off the spine of a cute book I made. I need to get better pictures today if the sun ever comes out and I'll be back to post here! I wish I had read the idea of printing a reserve image for the backside before I made mine! That's brilliant! I'm going to try that on the next batch. I'm also going to try cutting with my Silhouette next time too... just to see what happens.
 
I don't have a laminator but when I was volunteering at the local elementary school, I was the Queen of the Laminator machine! Never anything small, mostly 8x10 pages and pages and pages. Not a bad job in the winter but hot as blazes in the hot months! I never got around to laminating a couple of id cards e.g Social Security one...

btw, considering the laminating of small objects, I found that even with the brand new monster of a laminator I worked with at the school, when teachers had an 8x10 sheet of small blocks (passes, library coupons etc) it was hit or miss to laminate first then cut. I learned my lesson very quickly! Cut first is the best bet, laminate then cut again as @jenn mccabe says.
 
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