Cricut Tuesday! 2/06/18

Cleaning your cutting mat

The first step to restoring your cutting mat is to clean it. Cleaning may be all that you need to do. Once your cutting mat has been cleaned, it may be sticky again.

There are a few different ways to clean your mat. Here are some of those ways:

• Wash with soapy water using a scrubby or a magic eraser. Afterwards, air dry the mat.
• Use alcohol and bleach free baby wipes.
• Scotch tape or lint rollers

To really get rid of tough build up, try Goo Gone. Drizzle a little bit of Goo Gone on your cutting mat and spread it around with a paper towel. Wait 15 minutes to let the goo settle. Afterwards, user a scraper (an old credit card works well) to get all the junk off. Wash it after to make sure all the goo is gone.

Once your mat has been cleaned and dried, check the stickiness. If your mat is not sticky after it has been cleaned and dried, then you may want to re stick your cutting mat.

Restick your cutting mat

Before you restick you Cricut or Silhouette cutting mat, it’s important to tape around the all the edges. This is to prevent any adhesive that is added from getting onto the edges, which may interfere with your machines rollers.

Once the edges of the mat are taped, use a spray adhesive or glue stick. Start with 1 coat. If the mat isn’t sticky enough after drying, apply another coat.

Here are some adhesives:

• 3M spray adhesive
• Krylon Easy Tack
• Quilt basting spray
• Bonding Memories Glue
• Elmer’s Repositionable glue stick
• Zigs Two Way Glue – wide tip

It’s important to let the glue dry first. If you don’t, and apply material to your cutting mat, your material may become stuck to the mat.

After the adhesive has dried, test the stickiness on a small area of the cutting with some material. If you find the cutting mat too sticky, pat your hands or a t-shirt on the mat to make it less sticky.