My New Obsession: Laminating
June 01, 2021
I have fallen down a laminating rabbit hole and I want to laminate everything I see!
It started innocently enough. I wanted to create some custom picture books for my son. I happen to own a laminator because I did a segment years ago for Make It Artsy on heat lamination for foiling.
But I didn't own any lamination pouches because, as I said, I had only used the laminator for foiling. When I decided to buy some laminating pouches, I discovered that there are both glossy AND matte lamination pouches. Of course, I had to buy both. In the name of science.
Both of the samples below are painted deli paper.
As you can see in the photo above, the glossy pouches are shiny and reflective of light. The matte pouches blew me away. You can barely tell that there's a sheet of plastic covering the artwork. The deli paper is now hard and durable, but it still looks like paper.
And then I discovered that you don't have to laminate paper or fabric. You can stamp inside of a lamination pouch and then run it through the laminator to seal the stamping inside.
I tried it with a glossy pouch and a matte one. I used acrylic paint and a foam stamp. Here's the difference between the two types of pouches:
The glossy pouch is 100% crystal clear once laminated. The matte pouch is a milky translucent white.
You could do this with stenciling or painting or drawing. I'm thinking crayons (which are heat reactive) might be very interesting inside the lamination pouches. (Or very dangerous and ruin my laminator?) I'm also happily exploring single-sided vs. double-sided lamination. I'm even starting to make things from these laminated art pieces. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it all together for another lamination-themed blog post next week!
Let me know your lamination tips and tricks!