Meta: Looking for activities that will keep adults entertained while utilizing your laminating machine? We rounded up the top ten laminated arts and crafts ideas for adults to help you out.
Owning a laminating machine is practical for many reasons, but it’s also great for arts and crafts projects. There are plenty of laminated arts and crafts ideas for kids, but can adults utilize these machines for their craft projects as well? They sure can! We rounded up ten great laminated arts and crafts ideas for adults to enjoy on a rainy day.
Laminated Arts and Crafts FAQs
Although we often think of laminated arts and crafts as a kid’s activity or something for teachers to create for their classrooms, there are plenty of ideas out there for every day adults as well. Before you get started on these projects, there are a few questions we’d like to address.
- Do I need to own a laminating machine to do these arts and crafts?
You don’t need to own a machine to do laminated arts and crafts. All you need is laminating paper and an iron. A laminating machine can help, but it can also restrict you regarding the size of your project, so don’t be afraid to try some of these out with the simpler laminating paper and clothing iron route.
- Why should I bother with laminated arts and crafts ideas?
You can spend as much or as little time on these types of crafts as you like. There are also quite a few that require little or no additional materials beyond the laminating paper and either a laminating machine or an iron, which makes them ideal for simplicity. These crafts can also help you to organize your home or life, and can even make great gifts around the holidays.
10 Best Laminated Arts and Crafts Ideas for Adults
Now that you know a little bit more about them, let’s look at our top ten laminated arts and craft ideas for grown ups.
Laminated Leaf Fall Garland
Thinking outside of the box is ideal when it comes to laminating for the sake of art. We love the idea of gathering beautifully colored fall leaves and preserving them in lamination to use as fall décor for years to come. This project will give you a chance to get out in nature and then fuel your creative fire back inside where it’s cozy and warm.
Necessary Materials:
- Twine or similarly strong string
- Laminating Pouches (laminating paper or wax paper will work as well)
- Newly gathered leaves
- Hole punch
- Scissors
Laminated Flower Spring Garland
Similar to the fall leaf project, laminating spring flowers can be an enjoyable way to bring nature indoors to celebrate the season. This project will take you a bit longer because you’ll need to dry the flowers before laminating them to avoid a mess, so plan to start early in the season or to not have this garland completed until the Spring after you begin.
Necessary Materials:
- Wax paper
- Twine or strong string
- Flowers (only the actual flower, no stems necessary)
- Scissors
- Heavy books for flattening flowers
- Brown paper bags for drying
- Hole punch
Laminated Photo Christmas Ornaments
Another fun way to use lamination is on photos to create fun and personalized Christmas ornaments. You can use a single photo or multiple in whatever size and shape you choose. Make them into a snow globe shape and add a special quote to the bottom if you’d like, or keep it simple and laminate a single photo with a special message written on the back.
Necessary Materials:
- Photo(s)
- Laminating paper
- Hole punch
- Ornament hook(s)
- Markers or paints
- Scrapbooking paper
Laminated Bookmarks from Children’s Book Pages
If you’re an avid reader, or you have friends or family that fit that description, a bookmark can be a fun craft to personalize for yourself or a gift. We love this project that takes pages of old children’s stories (preferably with your favorite quotes or illustrations) and turns them into personalized bookmarks for all of your reading needs.
Necessary Materials:
- Laminating paper
- Children’s books
- Scissors or straight-edge paper cutter
- Hole punch
- Colorful yarn
Storage Tags for the Pantry
Let’s face it, adulting often requires organizing, so why not make that process a little bit more fun through a crafty element? We love the idea of creating tags for baskets that can help you keep your pantry or closet organized. You can use calligraphy, a word processing application, or stencils to draw out the names of your tags, and then laminate them to keep them crisp longer.
Necessary Materials:
- Regular and/or scrapbooking paper
- Markers, paints, pens, or a computer with word processing application
- Laminating paper
- Paper cutter or scissors
- Hole punch
- String or yarn
Weekly Food Menu Magnet
Whether you’re looking for a way to help keep track of food prepping for a healthier lifestyle or trying to organize a family meal plan to keep you sane, having a laminated weekly menu on the fridge is a great idea. It can help with grocery shopping or just day-to-day organization, and it can look as fun and creative as you’d like using a little DIY magic and some laminating skills.
Necessary Materials:
- Plain or scrapbooking paper
- Lined paper
- Markers, pens, or paints
- Ruler
- Magnet stickers
- Laminating Paper
Recipes on a Ring
Laminating recipe cards and putting them on a ring can be a real space saver. Recipe cards are great to keep around the house if you fancy yourself a semi-professional chef or if you’re always looking to replicate your grandmother’s recipes, and laminating those cards to add to a simple ring can help keep you organized.
Necessary Materials:
- Laminating paper
- Locking key ring
- Recipe cards
- Hole punch
Lamination Pouch Stencils
Sometimes it takes one arts and craft project to help with another, and that is the case with these DIY stencils that you can make from lamination pouches. You’ll simply draw out a design, cut it out with an exact-o knife, and then get ready to stencil with personalized designs that only you will have.
Necessary Materials:
- Laminating pouches
- Pencil
- Exact-O knife
DIY Photo Scrapbook
If you’ve always liked the idea of scrapbooking, but hate when the photos or other pieces fall off of the pages over time, then this is the project for you. You’ll simply create a scrapbook page as you normally would, and then run that page through a laminator or use the DIY iron lamination process, and you have a permanent scrapbook page without the worry of glue failure over time.
Necessary Materials:
- Scrapbooking paper
- Stickers
- Markers, pens, or paints
- Lamination sheets
- Photos
Laminated Paper Hand Fan
Creating a paper fan is a fun activity in and of itself, but they typically don’t last long if they remain just paper. If you choose to laminate the paper before fanning it, however, this can be a fun project that can last you a long time to come.
Necessary Materials:
- Square sheets of laminated scrapbook paper (newspaper or book pages work as well)
- Clothes pins
- Strong glue
- String or yarn
Final Verdict
All of these laminated arts and crafts ideas are great ways for adults to do projects that are fun, simple, and will last a long time. For most of the projects all you’ll need to buy is laminating paper or pouches, since the other necessary materials are mostly household staples. We love all of these ideas, and hope you found one or two you’d like to try on a rainy day.
