Learning to use a laminator is a big part of the scrapbooking process. Here are a few tips to get you started.
Getting Started
If you have never use a pouch laminator before, there are just a couple things you ll want to know about before you get started. First, it takes awhile for the machines to get warmed up sometimes up to ten minutes. A lot of laminators have indicator lights that flash when the machine is warming up and glow a solid color, or change from amber to green, when the laminator is ready to go. Second, you always want to keep in mind that these machines do indeed get rather hot, and that you will always have to use a bit of caution to keep yourself from sustaining burns. Laminators in general are very safe machines when used correctly, but different manufacturers give their laminators varying degrees of safety features (such as heat guards) and it is never a bad idea to spend a little more, or to shop around for the safest machine that you can afford, especially if you ever want to use the machine with children around.
Laminating
When you are ready to start laminating, take the item you want to have laminated and place it into the pouch or envelope you have chosen. If your item is smaller than the envelopes you have on hand, you can strategically place it in order to save some of the laminating film for a future project.
Carefully place the pouch into the laminator, making sure that it goes into the machine nice and straight, and not at any sort of angle. You really don t want to know the mess that running your laminating pouches unevenly can create, and if your item is of any sort of sentimental value, you should know that it is somewhere between extremely difficult to almost impossible to salvage items that have been incorrectly or messily laminated.
The idea is to guide the pouch, rather than to push it through the machine. Let the laminator do the work, you just make sure that it goes in evenly.
Post Lamination
Make sure that you let your item clear the machine before you touch it. Don t pull or tug try to rush it through the process. The item will be quite warm, so be careful not only for the sake of your fingers, but to keep the still warm pouch from becoming marred by fingerprints, etc. Unless you are in some kind of crazy scrapbooking hurry, you can wait a few minutes for the item to cool.
Once the item is cool enough to handle without issue, you can trim the plastic to size if you wish. Make sure that you only trim where the plastic is fused together. For a more decorative look, you can use specialty scissors.
When you are placing the item into your scrapbook, be sure to use a glue or tape that is strong enough to hold the item in the book, as these items can be weightier than other typical scrapbooking objects.
Author Resource:-
Jeff McRitchie is the designer and Director of Marketing for http://www.mybinding.com .He has written over 500 articles on binding machines,binding covers,binders,laminators,binding supplies,laminating supplies,paper handling equipments,index tabs, and shredders.
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