Have you ever looked at all kinds of Cricut mats and wondered how fascinating they are? But cleaning Cricut mats can be a task for anyone. If you do not know how to clean mats easily and effectively with less effort and time consumption, then we are here to help you. In this blog, we will discuss the methods to clean different mats and guide you so you will no longer be confused and choose the best way that best suits your mats and fulfills your requirements. Hopefully, by the end of this blog, all your confusion will go away, and you can decide.
What are Cricut Mats and Different Cricut Mats?
A Cricut mat is a surface used to cut projects on a Cricut; to create a project with the machine. These mats are sticky, and the stickiness of the mats decides how firm the grip is; the more substantial the grip, the heavier the material is, and the lighter the grip, the lighter the material is.
Different Cricut Mats
There are mainly four different types of mats- green, purple, blue, and pink. These mats differ in the grip that they provide. What kind of mat you require for your project depends on the materials you want to work with; you will need a different mat for different projects. Unfortunately, the Cricut Design Space does not tell you which mat you should use with your project, so you need to take care of that.
Blue Mat
This mat is a light-grip mat designed to use with the lightweight project; to cut lightweight materials. The standard material with light grip mats is traditional paper, thin cardstock paper, regular vinyl, and construction paper.
Green Mat
This standard-grip mat is designed to work with medium-weight materials; and is the most common and affordable mat. This mat typically comes with the purchase of every Cricut machine. The common material with standard grip mats is heat transfer vinyl, permanent or removable vinyl, and cardstock.
Purple Mat
This mat is a strong-grip mat designed to work with strong-weight materials; to hold strong materials in place. Sometimes with heavy materials, like balsawood, the strength of the grip is not enough, so, in such cases, you can use the Painters tape to secure the material to the mat. The standard material with strong grip mats is chipboard, thick and glitter cardstock, leather, balsa and balsa wood, and posterboard.
Pink Mat
This mat is a fabric-grip mat designed to work with fabric materials. It can be bonded with any of the Cricut Explore machines, Cricut Maker, and the Rotatory blade. The standard material with fabric grip mats is bonded fabric, any fabric with Cricut Maker, and a rotatory blade.
Steps to Make a Cricut Mat Sticky Again
Cricut mats are sticky cutting mats that hold the material in its place. However, they can lose their stickiness slowly with time. To make them sticky again, you should follow the basic steps.
- Keep them clean. Most of the mats needed to be cleaned after 2-4 times usage; however, you can clean them whenever you feel that material does not stick as it used to. And if you work with materials like glitter vinyl, denim, or leather, you should clean your mats more often because these materials leave a lot of debris, especially when working with wood.
- But how to clean a mat in the right way? There are different ways to clean mats, and you should choose the proper method for specific mats. However, some standard cleaning methods are as follows.
- Always put the plastic cover back. Cricut mats come with a protective plastic cover, and you should cover them back after every use to protect them from dust and debris.
- Clean the mats with a lint roller or scraper on a regular basis.
- Use the right material according to your mat.
- You can use a scraper tool, baby wipes, lint rollers, dish shop, and cleaning spray to clean your blue, green, and purple mat. The pink fabric is more delicate than others, so you can use the tweezer tool and baby wipes to clean it.
- Tape off the edges to apply the new adhesive.
- Use the painter or masking tape to cover.
- Apply the new adhesive. Use adhesive spray following the instructions written on the can,
- Let it dry for 10-15 minutes, and after it, remove your tape.
Conclusion
Cricut mats have been customized to match commonly used crafting materials; each has just the right level of grip not only to hold your material firmly in place during cutting but also to allow you to remove the material from the adhesive surface easily. As a result, the standard-grip mat is a multi-purpose mat. It is perfect for a wide range of medium-weight materials, including a wide range of medium-weight materials, like patterned paper, iron-on, vinyl, and cardstock.
FAQs
Question- Can you spray adhesive spray on Cricut mats?
Answer- Yes! You can use an adhesive spray on your mat to make it adhesive again. Many people recommend using adhesive sprays, like Loctite, Krylon, Tacky glue, ZIg adhesive, and Aleene’s tack. However, an adhesive spray does not suit all kinds of mats, and all adhesive sprays do not work with the mats. Using the wrong adhesive spray can ruin your mat to the worst. So, using an adhesive spray or not is totally your choice.
Question- Which is the best adhesive spray for the mats?
Answer- There are many different adhesive sprays in the market, and you can choose one that best suits your requirements. However, the Spray n Bond Basting Adhesive is a spray that most people use for their crafting work, and temporarily it can make your Cricut mats feel like new again. But you should be careful while using an adhesive spray; do not ruin your mat while making it sticky.
Question- How many times can you use a Cricut mat?
Answer- Mats are sticky cutting mats used to hold material in its place when they go through the cutting machine for the cutting process. Four different types of mats differ in their level of adhesiveness. A Cricut mat does not last forever; it will lose its stickiness and wear out with time and usage. Although you can extend the durability of your mats by different methods and, on average, before losing stickiness and wearing out, a Cricut mat lasts for 40-50 uses.
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Source :- https://cricut-cut.com/how-to-make-a-cricut-mat-sticky-again/
