Fun Things on a Friday - Cutting Out the Laminated Stuff

I am stuck at home for another day because of the treatment protocol that I am doing right now for my mystery gut stuff that's going on, so I am on the lookout for things to do to fill the hours. So, today's fun thing to do is to cut out all the things I've laminated lately. Doesn't that sound like fun?

I enjoy making visual aids, but I have never liked laminating them and cutting them out. In my intern days, my internship director gave me all sorts of laminating projects to complete to get some hours for the program. In those days, laminating machines were huge, expensive, and beyond the reach of the private school not-for-profit organization that I volunteered at for my internship. I had to use contact paper.

If you don't know what contact paper is, well, count your blessings! I still have nightmares about the projects that I had to re-do because the contact paper did not perform the way it was supposed to. So...many...wrinkles!

One of the first things that I purchased for myself (once the tuition payments stopped) was a personal laminator. I now have four of my own. Best purchases I EVER made for my well-being! No more contact paper that sticks to itself and everything else in the world as I try to cover one small visual. Why do I have so many? Well - one for my church job, one for small items, and two for file folder sized visuals - one I keep at home and one at work. I love them all!


This post, however, is not supposed to be all about the laminators. This post is supposed to be about what I am going to be doing today. I'll be cutting out lots of things that I have already laminated. I laminated them all during my Fall Break, but I stopped cutting things out because my hands got really tired. It is time to tackle the pile again.

There are many different things included in this stack of visual aids. I have four sets of emotion cards to cut out. My current sets of cards are wearing out rapidly, so these new ones are desperately needed. Along with those, I have some new color identification cards, and some snowman sticker emotion cards. I also have some large emotion cards for me to use during large group TMEs while my clients use the smaller cards. There are also some sea animal visual aids in there. I picked those up at the Dollar Tree, and I don't have much to do with them yet, but there is some inspiration there. Time to think about sea animal TMEs!!

So, if you are a music therapist who likes to make your own visual aids (like me!), or if you are a music therapy student who is just starting out, here are my recommendations for the types of things to look for. Just so you know, I do not get any sort of money, mention, or benefit from recommending any sort of product or company. Please know that I only recommend the things that I like and that I use on a regular basis. If I mention it, it's because I like it! Anyway, here are the things that I recommend:

• A large laminator - I recommend that you get a laminator with a 13 inch bed. This is large enough to accommodate an entire file folder. I have two - one is an Amazon Basic one and my favorite is a Fellowes older model. This size of laminating bed allows me to laminate almost everything that I use during sessions. The only thing that I can't laminate with these machines is large posters, and that's fine with me!
• Laminating pouches - I buy mine in bulk from Lamination Depot. I wait until they have sales, and then I buy 200 pouches at a time.
• Laminating only scissors - These aren't any sort of fancy scissors, but I do have a couple of pairs of scissors that I only use on lamination. If you use your scissors for other things, then they do not remain very sharp. Lamination cutting dulls blades pretty quickly, so when you use those same scissors on paper, the paper doesn't cut as well. Yes, I am a scissor snob. I freely admit it. Fortunately, you can sharpen your scissors by cutting into aluminum foil, so keep those blades sharp! 
• Velcro dots - remember how I am a scissors snob? Here's one of the reasons why. If you have to cut sticky Velcro into small pieces for your visuals, then you end up with scissors that stick together. I used to feel that purchasing the long strips of Velcro was less expensive, but that really isn't true. I buy my 500 Velcro sets on Amazon - also when they go on sale, and I buy them in bulk! Dots don't go bad!!
• Colored pencils - I like these better than any other form of coloring material because they don't streak, they aren't wax based, and there are so many different colors available. I splurged and got the 72 color Crayola pack! Crayons are not a good idea because you want the laminate to stick. It will not stick if the layer in between the laminate and the paper is wax. I don't like how coloring with markers leaves streaks in the color, so I use colored pencils.
• Cardstock - this is paper that is very thick. I like to print things directly on cardstock to make my laminated visual aids a bit sturdier than when I use copy weight paper. I have a rainbow of cardstock colors, and I use them all the time!

I am going to crawl to the couch and start to cut things out. I'll put them into small baggies for easy transport to work next week, and I'll get some binder sheets (laminate covered cardstock pieces for my 3-ring binders) ready for storage. I'll keep cutting until my blades get dull or my fingers hurt. I'll also keep my bullet journal nearby to jot down TME ideas as I am focusing on the materials that I have available.

Time to cut out the laminated stuff! Happy Friday!