Pumpkin Patch Cutie and a Welcome Fall Giveaway!

Fall is here and I've got a new project idea to share with you and an awesome giveaway to celebrate this fun season! I made this little guy to go along with our October pumpkin unit! My class will be studying the life cycle of a pumpkin so I made several signs for the pumpkin patch kid! One of them is a mini-book for the kids to illustrate. Click on the first picture to see it at my store!

I'm looking to add some new fun to my pumpkin unit this year. Leave me a comment with your favorite pumpkin themed activity for the classroom or a link to your blog post about it! I'd love to get some new ideas for my second graders!

And for the giveaway....

I don't know about you, but there are so many fantastic giveaways going on out there that I find that I just don't even have time to enter them all! But then I saw one giveaway item that really inspired me to leave a heartfelt comment and sappy plea to win! :)

Imagine my excitement when I was asked to do a review on the item I so hoped to win but did not. The best part is that I got my item after all as a thank you for reviewing it. Let me tell you it was my pleasure!!!

My package arrived at work one afternoon and the custodian delivered it to the classroom! It was a happy day!

 I rushed to leave school and get home to open it up, take some pictures and try it out! What is in the mystery box? A PAPERMONSTER LAMINATOR! :) Yes!!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened it because I only saw a few photos on another blog. That just made it even more exciting! The box was was very light and everything in it so nicely wrapped and packaged.

The cord wraps around inside a slot in the back for easy storage. The laminator is about a foot long and super light! It has rubber feet so it won't scratch your desk or table.

Also in the box were two huge packages of laminating pouches! One of the pouches is for a standard size document and the other pouch size is large enough for a small poster or for two standard size papers side by side.

Everything I needed was all there! I couldn't wait to read the directions and get started! The really fun part was that I got to decorate my Papermonster with STICKERS! They were in the package too!

The directions are only a page long and so simple, I didn't really even need them. I plugged in the cord, slid the power button over to the on position and waited for only FIVE MINUTES for the laminator to get hot. I worried a little that the laminator was going to stink up the house, but there was absolutely no smell at all!

The ready light indicator on top changes from red when waiting to warm to blue when ready to laminate!

The lever is an anti-jam device in case a pouch gets stuck for some reason.

I couldn't believe how fast it was ready! The next step was to place my items to laminate inside the pouch and cover with the top layer of film.

This is the small pouch.

This is the larger size where two can fit inside one pouch.

I put a great deal of trust in this laminator never used before. I was secretly worried about my book basket labels and signs coming out wrinkly or with bubbles as they sometimes do when I laminate at school. I closed the pouch, and fed it gently into the slot. The laminator grabbed the item and slowly fed it through! My fingers were crossed!

The pouches are a little cloudy looking but when heat is applied in the process, you can see how clear the items are. It really made the colors pop for my neon labels!

Here is the result! Fantastic! Not a bubble or wrinkle to be found! 

What surprised me the most was the high quality of the laminating pouches. The film is much thicker and stiffer than any I have ever used before. These labels are truly laminated to last!

Overall, I was incredibly impressed with how easy this small and mighty laminator was to use and the wonderful quality of the machine and pouches! I love my Papermonster!

One lucky winner can get their very own from mybinding.com! How handy it would be to have a laminator for a home office or classroom!

Use the Rafflecopter below to enter the giveaway! Enter once if you're in a hurry like I usually am or as often as you like!The winner will be announced on October 5th! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway