I honestly had never even given laminating a second thought until I started my first teaching job. Once I started, though, I was hooked. Not only does it make most things virtually indestructible, it can also transform almost anything into a whiteboard-like surface (meaning you can write on it with marker and then erase with a simple wipe).
I soon learned to laminate anything that I wanted to keep for any length of time. I also had any student work that might be deemed “keepsake” laminated as well – Mother’s Day poems, special pictures, etc.
Once I stepped out of the classroom, I did not have easy access to a laminator. It wasn’t a really big deal until LJ came along and then suddenly I had all of these keepsake items I wanted to laminate. I never even considered getting one for myself – I figured they were waaay out of my price range.
Recently, I learned that Fellowes (who make the only paper shredder Jay hasn’t managed to kill – and yes, ours is still going strong!) has the which is perfect for families like mine and I we got a chance to try it out. Before it arrived, I had two concerns: Where was I going to keep a big honking laminator AND was I going to have to worry about LJ burning himself on it?
Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. The Fellowes laminator is slim and compact, taking hardly any room up at all. It also uses HeatGuard™ Technology which has double-walled insulation that keeps heat inside so the laminator is comfortable to touch, making it safe for use with children.
As soon as it arrived, we started coming up with ideas of what we could do with it. LJ decided we should laminate the school calendar since it gets a lot of use throughout the year. He also got excited about making placemats for the table by drawing and them laminating the paper.
He also needed a Wisconsin map for a Cub Scouts project and thought that would be great to laminate as well.
We found lots more ideas about what we could do with our laminator on the Fellowes website. Share your ideas for a chance to win a great prize!
I love that the Fellowes Saturn2 95 Laminator can do both hot and cold lamination and has a jam release lever in case of a mishap. (We had no problems with jamming – each items moved smoothly through the machine.)
My only criticism is that it only fits sheets up to 9.5″ which meant that our 11 x 17 placemats did not fit in the machine. I think I would have been okay with the machine being a bit bigger in exchange for being able to fit larger sheets in it.
The best part about the Fellowes laminator is that it is completely affordable. You can pick one up at Staples for $159.99 and even get $30 off that price until 8/25 with the coupon code 87298.
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Fellowes and received a product sample to facilitate my review.
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