let's talk about laminating...

One of my readers has ask me about laminating,

I have done it in two different ways,

I started laminating with clear contact paper

It is inexpensive and easy to apply,

I like it because is flexible, good for infants and toddlers

my only advice with this is to make sure

both sides of the paper are covered and leave a little extra

contact paper on the sides of what you are laminating

to protect the paper from getting wet.

After doing this for nearly a year,

I decided to buy my own laminating machine

Wal-mart has a very affordable one, around $20

and it works great, it fits regular size paper

the only thing is that you can only laminate flat items.

I also bought the laminating sheets on e-bay

which made it really affordable for us,

is easy to use, but items won't be flexible as they are with the contact paper

to use the laminating sheets just cut all your items first

slide the items up in the laminating sheet

until they just touch the top edge.

Make sure items do not overlap

close the laminating sheet

and feed it into the machine,

wait until it completely comes out the back of the machine

and that's it. Make sure you clean your machine

once in a while feeding a plain paper through it.

Another method of laminating is with wax paper

I haven't try this one, but here is what ehow.com

says about it:

Step 1
Tear off two sheets of wax paper 3 or 4 inches larger all the way around than the item that you want to laminate. The items to be laminated should be flat, such as a paper document, a card or a leaf.

Step 2
Center the item between the two sheets of wax paper.

Step 3
Lay a thin cloth on an ironing board and spread it out to remove any wrinkles. A thin kitchen towel works well for this purpose, as do pillowcases or cloth table napkins.

Step 4
Place the item, which is now centered between the wax paper sheets, on the cloth.

Step 5
Spread the second thin cloth on top of item.

Step 6
Press the warm iron down on top of the thin cloth. Move it back and forth slowly and smoothly for several minutes to allow the wax paper to melt together to encase object between the two wax sheets. Let the ironed items cool off for several minutes.

Step 7
Trim around the edges of the laminated object, leaving at least a half inch of wax paper around the edges.

I hope this helps :)