Laminated luggage tags... and getting jammed paper out of the Your Story machine

I have been using my Cricut machine and the SCAL program to cut out vinyl and make signs to sell  - who knew that a personal craft machine had so much potential?   Because I was working with low quality images that had to be cleaned up, saved as .bmp files, transferred to .svg files, cut out of multiple colors of vinyl, and transferred to chloroplast sign boards; it took forever!  I spent the better part of three days working on the signs, and I am so glad to be finished!

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I haven't made a ton of money with the signs, but I did make enough to upgrade to the Cricut Expression - yay!  We found a great deal that came with the Your Story (which is a thermal binder and lamination machine,)  that I didn't actually need, but who can resist next to free equipment?  I was very excited to try out both machines and tried to come up with a project to laminate that would actually be useful.

A few weeks ago I found thermal laminating pouches on the clearance isle, and picked them up intending on ironing them.    I decided that luggage tags would be both practical and fun to make, so I quickly designed one using a book page scrap and stickers.  I read the short directions for using the machine, and tried to run it through.  It got jammed in the machine.  The *very first* time that I ever used it, and it didn't work.

I did a quick search online, and apparently no one else has jammed anything in their Your Story.   I couldn't tell how it was stuck, so I ran a piece of card stock through, hoping to dislodge the luggage tag.  It also got stuck.  I tried to knock it out of place with a bamboo skewer, but I couldn't get enough leverage, and the skewer snapped.  Anything stronger was too thick to slide into the slot, so I flipped over my new machine.



The machine is very simple, and quite easy to open up.  Obviously, I have no idea what I am doing, so follow these directions at your own risk.  The rubber padding on the bottom covers up two screws on each side.  I slid a craft knife under the edge to lift it up, and removed the screws with a long Phillips screwdriver (the kind that looks like a plus sign.)



I lifted the blue cover off, and saw that the machine is really quite simple.  A rubber roller, a heating element and chute, and a few wires.  Turning it sideways, the jammed luggage tag and paper were quite visible, although very hard to photograph.



I used a hook tool to catch the jammed paper, and ease it out.  Long tweezers would work nicely, if you have them (I don't.)



After I had the edge of the paper, I pulled it out by hand.  I figure that the hole in my luggage tag caught on the edge of the chute, since it went through first, and caused everything else to stop behind it.  I put the cover back on the machine, and turned it on again.  I sent another luggage tag through, with the hole (on the connected side of the pouch) going through last.  It worked beautifully.

In case you are in need of a cute floral luggage tag, here is the one I designed to fit the 3M name tag / ID laminating pouches (enjoy for your personal use only:)