I sat down this morning to make some more permanent templates for my Sunny Joy quilt. After starting out using the Foundation Paper Piecing method for the suns rays, I then tried using templates and much preferred that method. 

After a few uses, my templates are now a little bit worse for wear (possibly even missing bits of seam allowance with my dodgy cutting). I started looking in the pantry for almost empty cereal containers to glue on to the cardboard but then remembered this other method for creating quick templates at home.

A long time ago, I saw this method on a video (possibly on Craftsy or BluPrint?). It was for creating stronger templates to use and re-use for applique pieces - I can't remember who the instructor was, but hopefully it'll come to me and I'll edit the post with the details.

In case anyone hasn't heard of this method and would like to give it a try, I thought I'd share the steps here. 

Start with a packed of quick laminate which can be purchased from an office supply store. Mine is from Officeworks - a chain of stores in Australia. This quick laminate is self adhesive and doesn't require a laminating machine.

You just cut out your templates, peel back the sticky film layer, place the templates down on the backing sheet, stick down the film layer and press is nicely so there are no air bubbles. Then cut out the pieces and discard the backing. The quick laminate is thicker than using contact paper - remember the stuff used to cover school books? 

I'm going to punch a hole in the centre so I can pin them down to my fabric when cutting. 

And that's that. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. Hope this has helped someone today :)