When I began my homeschooling journey three years ago, I wasn’t quite sure where to start. What is a “must have?” What is a “could do without?” How can I homeschool on a budget and still have what I need? To be honest, I really didn’t know! I just kind of jumped in! As time went on I started to discover things I thought might be a “could do without” was really a “must have.” One of these was a laminator!
Disclosure: I received the L80-95 Fellowes Laminator to facilitate my review. This post contains affiliate links. Regardless, all opinions are my own.
I did not realize how much you can do with a laminator! Not only has it been nagging me for years when I would print out flash cards that state “laminate for reinforcement” or printouts meant to be hung or reused, etc. There were seriously SO many things in the various curricula we used that had printouts that noted it should be (or was recommended for it to be) laminated. Have you ever tried to use flash cards printed on thin card stock alone or just plain paper? It’s awful! Plus, after a few uses, they’re done. I kind of have a “thing” about wanting to save things we use with our oldest two for our youngest as well, but not having a laminator was making this difficult.
What was the biggest barrier in my mind, though, was the cost, which I discovered was not at all what I thought! Fellowes offers a variety of laminators for the home (and office). Their laminators for the home are small and affordable – perfect for home use. Even for those that aren’t homeschooling, it’s a great machine to have for a variety of projects!
In fact, if you’re looking for great ideas, check out the Fellowes Idea Center for great project ideas! There are Ideas for Home, Ideas for School, and Ideas for Work! Crafts, Organization, Seasonal, Flash Cards, Worksheets, etc. I was so impressed by the amazing variety of projects they have available! They are downloadable files, so you can easily download them and print them when needed! You can even submit your own ideas for a chance to win a year’s supply of pouches!
The L80-95 Fellowes Laminator is simple to use. Its key features include:
- Advanced Temperature Control: Hot laminating capabilities up to 3mil for high quality, smooth results every time
- Jam Release Lever – Permits easy removal or re-centering of stalled pouches
- 3- 4 minute warm-up for increased productivity
- Includes a laminating pouch starter kit
Upon starting it up, the red light will turn on signaling that the machine is powering up. Once the green light is on as well, the machine is ready to use! I was surprised how quickly it warmed up! It had a very slight odor particularly the first time, but it was so subtle that it was barely noticeable even for someone like me who has a heightened sense of smell!
With the L80-95 Fellowes Laminator feeds the pouches through the front (sealed edge first) and has entry markings to help guide the entry to be sure you feed the document/item through straight and not at an angle. You can use it for a variety of document sizes. One thing I did was print a picture on plain printer paper and then laminate it. You want to be sure to use the right size pouch. It has entry guides for both paper and photos.
I found it feeds items very smoothly. Although it has the jam release lever I have yet to use it for any reason as I haven’t had any problems with centering, jamming, or stalling. Everything has gone so smoothly! I was sure I’d feed something in crookedly by now (human error), but I have followed the guide, and it catches it, takes it, and just kept it going straight through. I was pleasantly surprised!
As the pouch exits, it is hot, of course, but it just needs a gentle pull to remove it. Then I set it aside to cool before doing whatever I need to do with it. Sometimes it’s complete, but sometimes I need to cut it (flash cards, for example). Once it dries you can start to use it for dry erase projects as well. I will laminate a worksheet and use it with dry erase markers, so we can erase it and use it over and over again! I haven’t had any problems with the edges opening, bubbles, etc.
Overall, I’m definitely happy with the L80-95 Fellowes Laminator, and I’m really excited they introduced me to the Fellowes Idea Center as well! It can be purchased on Amazon for $29.99.
For More Information:
Visit the Fellowes Website
Connect with Fellowes on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and YouTube
*Giveaway!!!*
Would you like to win the L80-95 Fellowes Laminator? This giveaway will run through 9/21/14 at 10pm Central Time and is open to US residents ages 18+. Enter the giveaway now!
Love that this laminator is compact and I also love your idea of laminating kids art.
I like that it feeds smoothly.
Thanks for the review, this looks like a fun item to own. I wondered how it worked, i see now with pouches that heat up and seal. Would love to win! Thanks for the giveaway!
Thank you for the great review. I’ve entered the giveaway, but feel that I will buy this product if I don’t win.
This would be really nice for saving all the grand kids works of art. I wish I had one when my kids were little to save some of theirs. 🙂
This would be great to have for both my high school aged son, and my granddaughter, who just started preschool. I like that it wouldn’t take up a lot of room.
I think everyone should have the laminator. Thanks for the chance.
Wow I love your review of this, this lamanator sounds amazing, so easy to use, who wants some crazy hard one to use, this sounds easy red light green light… and 4 mins to warm up easy …. would love to own this. lots of great ideas. thank you so much
You can even use this to make calendars with this machine that you can use the markers that you can erase too. Thanks for sharing. This is an awesome machine.
Boy could our Family use one of these. So tired of having so many important documents getting destroyed through daily carrying or accidently going through the wash. This machine would be perfect to help avoid that.
I never knew how helpful one can be.
This is a really good idea, kids love artwork and this way they can laminate their work.
This looks super! I would love to have this for my house – I sell for a direct sales company, work for a non-profit foundation and have a disabled child that I love to keep all of her beautiful work she does at school because everything she creates is a miracle 🙂 This would be great for doing what you show in your pics to save her work and put it in a scrapbook 🙂 LOVE it! Thanks for the chance on the giveaway 🙂
You would definitely get a lot of great use out of it then! Yes, it is so great for preserving their artwork!
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I’ve always wanted a laminator too. Wish I would have gotten one when my daughter was younger, as I also saved a lot of her papers from school, special greeting cards, etc. I would love to win this to use for my little grandson. The flash cards are a great idea!
It would be so great to have one of these! My youngest grandboy (I’m a live-in homeschooling grandnanny) is on “the spectrum” and has a lot of language problems. He loves cards, any kind of cards, and I can think of so many good teaching games I could use if I could laminate cards. I’ve tried just card stock cards and he tears them up fairly quickly, but plastic cards he wants because mom and gramma have plastic cards.
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This would be wonderful! I sure could appreciate it and what it could for us.
We have a laminator right now that is getting old and not working as well as it should. We’ll be needing a new one pretty soon, since my daughter uses it quite a bit (she sells her art and books at anime conventions and one of her top sellers are her bookmarks, which we laminate). This laminator has two features that I really like – ones that are different than the one we have. First of all, the laminator we use right now requires a thin cardboard over the laminator sheet (which often keeps the heat from really sealing as well as we’d like). I especially love that the Fellowes has a release, since once in a while the bookmarks shift when going through the laminator, and with the one we have, we’re stuck and just have to let them go through wrong, and often lose several of them. Being able to hit the release lever and reposition the bookmarks would be a real godsend.
This looks like a much better laminator than the one you get at Walmart for like $9!
I love the compact design and also the cost is very resonable.
I love that it heats up so quickly and I love that you said you could cut things after they were laminated. I’m used to the old laminating style that you had to cut everything out, then laminated it and then cut it out again.
Wow. That would be really tedious!
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I never thought of using a laminator for flash cards! With the amount of flash cards we use for all the kids, this is a great idea! Thank you!
Great review, we could really use a laminator. They are neat little machines that help us keep important papers and memories.
This would be so nice to have for all of my recipe collection so that they can stay clean and last forever.
Something I’d love to have, but couldn’t afford, thanks!
After reading this I realize if I had been using a laminator I could have saved so much time and money. It seems easy enough to use and would be great for kid’s projects, home office and crafting. Well worth the purchase price.
I agree! I think it’s one of those things that you don’t realize how useful it is until you have one (or see how others are using them).
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I would love to do flashcards with this… It would save me a ton of money…
At first glance this looks like the answer to my problems! Along the coming months I would love to have this for my family, youth group and boy scout troop – I am disabled so I dont have a company, help other’s raise money for charitable events and have to raise funds to pay medical bills resulting from an accident that was the other drivers fault though she had no insurance. In addition to medical bills, I have school funds and future bills to pay though I admire everyone equally I just would love to win an item like this and share it with family and friends! You have come up with great ideas to which I hope to make similar in attributes especially a scrapbook for my 2 nieces; I havent been able to afford to get them a gift since the accident. Thanks so very, very much the giveaway! I hope that the winner realizes that this is more then a prize, it’s a gift to remember!
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I like how small and easy this is to use. I like that I can use this to preserve my daughter’s art work.
Seems like a nice laminator and I like that it is not so expensive!
I really enjoyed reading about the L80-95 Fellowes Laminator that you have! It seems like the perfect thing for a Homeschooling Mother! It sounds like you love this laminator for all that it can do to help you! That’s wonderful! Thanks for sharing your need and then what you use your laminator for! It seems like a really Terrific product! Thanks again, Michele 🙂
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