Home > Consumer Reviews > Xyron 900 9-Inch Creative Station, Colors May Vary

This is the best item I've EVER purchased for scrapbooking. I purchased it at a scrapbooking convention in San Diego and immediately felt guilty about the $75 price tag. Once I sat down to scrapbook using it, though, the guilt was gone!

It's so easy to use. You can make ANYTHING a sticker with ease. Pictures, die cuts, memorabilia, etc. If it's flat, it can be slid through the Xyron 900 and turned into a sticker. No more messy glue! It is mechanical, but not electric. You slide a cartridge in, place your picture (or whatever you want to make sticky) on one side, turn the crank and it comes out the other side as a sticker. SIMPLE! No mess, no fuss, no little removable parts to lose.

The only downside at all is that the cartridges can be pricey. I buy mine from my local Michaels ALWAYS using a 40%-50% off coupon. So, that really helps, otherwise you are looking at $30-$35 each. BUT, other adhesives can be expensive, too. I haven't attempted to see which costs more over the long run.

The other amazing thing is that you have a myriad of cartridges to choose from. You can use permanent adhesive, repositionable adhesive, MAGNET back, you can laminate, etc.

This is a MUST have for scrapbookers. You will save a great deal of time and not have sticky fingers! If you KNOW a scrapbooker and they don't have this machine... BUY IT FOR THEM. They will love you forever.

If I could, I would change my rating to 3 stars instead of 5.
I've owned this item for over three years now.

Pros:
The variety of things you can do with this machine are amazing. Make magnets, make stickers, and laminate with no heat! Simple design means no batteries, no need to plug in, just grab it and go. This has been great for craft projects with kids, scrapbooking, and protecting keepsakes. As long as you are working with flat, smooth items, it works consistently well.

Cons;
Cartridges are expensive, so use a coupon when possible.
Fabric appliques didn't work, in that fabric items didn't stick well, and the thickness of the fabric caused material to wrinkle.

The magnet cartridge laminates the front of the item, and puts sticky thin magnetic material on the back of the item as it goes through the roller. When making magnets, I found the magnetic material too thin- and sometimes because it is so thin, it isn't powerful enough to hold things up. It also is so thin it makes it very difficult to get the magnet off a surface if you have made a sticker out of something thin (like a photo.) Don't try to make a magnet out of anything too thick though, or it will wrinkle the laminate on the front and be ruined. I have been able to remove the front laminate, but it took parts of the project with it because it is very sticky.

It claims you can trim magnets right up to the edge, but I have found this is not a good idea with slightly thicker items (like about the thickness of a credit card without the numbers on it.) The slight "height" of the item creates a small gap between where the laminate and magnetic material come together around the outside of the object.

2-sided laminate cartridge; good as long as you are laminating flat, smooth objects. Watch out if you get a bad cartridge, or try to laminate something a little thick or uneven. It will form wrinkles as it laminates, and that will ruin your project permanently. It's impossible to get the laminate apart unless there are air pockets.

We used it to laminate autumn leaves we collected as souvenirs from a trip to Vermont. The stems of the leaves proved to be "too thick" and caused the laminate to wrinkle. We tried laminating fresh flower petals to preserve their color, and won't ever try it again! Next time we will use dried, pressed flower petals. The fresh flower petals are too "thick" and get scraped off or moved around by the cartridge frame that nearly comes in contact with the item being laminated. Flower petals we did manage to laminate had small air pockets around them and began to rot within a week, turning brown and moldy inside the laminate. We even tried laminating the fresh flower petals between two pieces of clear protective sheets, only to have the air pockets again, which allow petals to move around, and again, rot.

Haven't tried the temporary adhesive cartridge.

This machine really cuts down on the time it takes to scrapbook. I take the pictures and the backing papers and run them through the machine before I even cut them to size. Then all I have to do is cut and paste onto the page. It really saves time and mess. The adhesive is great quality and really holds up over time.
If you buy the special cartridges, this machine can also produce magnets, iron on decals, and re-positionable stickers (which is nice when you place the sticker down crooked).
The machine is lightweight, easy to use, and portable. No plugging in or batteries.
Definitely worth the money

I got the Xyron 900 as a gift from my boyfriend and I absolutely love it! It's so quick and easy to use, the cartridges are easy to replace, and you can take it almost anywhere. It saves me so much time from applying glue or rubber cement to large items, and there's no mess whatsoever. You don't have to plug it in and it doesn't use heat; all you do is put your paper in one end, crank the handle, and it comes out the other end (it even has a trimming blade). I use the permanent adhesive cartridge for scrapbooking, cardmaking, and mounting my school projects. The adhesive is very evenly distributed (no trapped air bubbles) and sticks really well (no curling corners). I also love the magnet/laminating cartridge because it's a fun way to turn almost anything I make into a magnet! I would highly recommend this product to anyone who is tired of using glue sticks and rubber cement, or to anyone who just loves scrapbooking or making arts/crafts.

I love this laminator! I have a special needs son and I make many of my own learning materials and want the ones I buy to last. This laminator allows me to preserve my printouts along with many other uses. I laminate a picture of a shapes and then my son can trace with dry erase markers over and over. I use it to make his visual schedules. I use it for his folder activities, making games, visual instruction sheets, making durable books/social stories and so much more. It has been a lifesaver and is so incredibly easy to use. I can easily find replacement cartridges and it costs significantly less than having it done elsewhere. I didn't purchase the book that sometimes comes packaged with the laminator, but I didn't need any help coming up with ways to use it! Also, the double sided laminating is much better quality than other laminating products I have seen. When my son's early childhood education team works with him they oooo and ahhhhh over everything I make. The ones at the school are terrible by comparison and a waste of time & money. Unlike this laminator, the things they laminate simply don't last. Definitely worth the money and then some!