What should you do if your paper gets stuck to a Cricut mat?
Fix an overly sticky Cricut mat by conditioning the mat, dabbing it with a cotton shirt. You can also use your clean hand to reduce the stickiness. In some cases, you may be using the wrong Cricut mat for the job.
Using a Cricut mat is a Goldilocks and the Three Bears situation. You want it to be just sticky enough to use without being too sticky so that you can easily peel your projects off the mat.
The good news is that you can quickly fix a mat that is too sticky with just a few things around your home.
Luckily for you, I’ll show you how to know if your mat is too sticky. I’ll even show you how to reduce the stickiness to the right level. You’ll be able to get back to crafting in no time!
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How do I know if my Cricut mat is too sticky?
The easiest way to tell if your Cricut mat is too sticky is if you find that your cutting material keeps staying attached to your mat even when you try to remove it. Your mat is likely too sticky if you see your design coming apart in small pieces all over your mat.
This can be frustrating to deal with because it has the potential to ruin your beautiful designs and spend hours pulling tiny pieces of material off your mat before the subsequent use.
Ideally, your designs should peel off the mat in one piece and allow you to place it on transfer paper to weed and prepare for final transfer to your design. If that isn’t happening, you may want to try some of these tricks to get rid of some of the stickiness of your mat.
How to make a Cricut mat less sticky
Make your Cricut mat less sticky by conditioning the mat. Sticky mats should be ‘conditioned’ by dabbing the mat with a cotton shirt. Alternatively, you can use your hand on the mat to slightly reduce the stickiness. In some cases, you may need to change your Cricut mat as they come in four different options and tackiness levels.
Once you know that your Cricut mat is too sticky, you might be wondering what you can do about it. There are a few different strategies to help you fix this issue and get back to crafting with your Cricut in no time.
Here are the best things to do to help make your Cricut mat less sticky.
1. Condition Your Mat
“Conditioning” your mat is the most popular method in the Cricut crafting community for removing extra stickiness from your mat. Before you grab your bottle of hair conditioner from the shower, keep reading for instructions on how to condition your mat properly.
This is the best method if you feel like your Cricut mat is far too sticky as it can make a big difference, especially if repeated.
How to properly condition your Cricut mat:
- Ensure your Cricut mat is clean of any extra material or debris and completely dry.
- Grab a soft, clean cotton tee-shirt and ball it up in your hands. Ensure that it’s free of pet hair, dirt, or dust.
- Dab the sticky surface of your Cricut mat with the balled-up tee-shirt until you notice a fine, even layer of lint coating the mat.
- Using your hand (making sure that it’s clean), test the mat’s stickiness to see if it’s less sticky.
- If the mat is still too sticky, repeat the process repeatedly until it has reached the desired level of stickiness.
2. Pat the Mat Down with Your Hands
If your Cricut mat is only a little bit too sticky and you don’t feel like attempting the tried and true conditioning method, you can always use your hands. This method can work to take a little bit of the stickiness out of a Cricut mat that needs a little TLC.
All you need to do is lay your clean Cricut mat on a flat surface and pat the mat with clean, dry hands. The great thing about this method is that you can feel the stickiness as you go to make sure you don’t do too much.
Repeat as many times as needed until you feel the stickiness start to give way. Once you’ve reached the desired level of stickiness, you are ready to get to work with your next Cricut project or store your mat away for your subsequent use.
3. Choose a Different Mat
You may just have the wrong Cricut mat for your project in rare cases. There are four types of Cricut mats with varying grip levels or stickiness. Each mat is intended to work with different materials ranging from the most delicate paper-like translucent vellum to balsa wood.
If you are using a mat designed with more grip than your chosen cutting material needs, you may need to rethink your mat strategy. Regular Cricut crafters who use multiple different types of material may want to invest in a few different mats to make sure you always have the right one.
Here is a quick breakdown of the four different types of Cricut mats and when you might need each.
LightGrip Mat
The blue LightGrip mat is the least sticky mat out of all Cricut mats. It is made to be used with thin paper products ranging from vellum to construction paper. The best thing about this mat is it makes it very easy to remove these delicate projects without ripping them, but it is likely too light for most other types of projects.
StandardGrip Mat
The StandardGrip mat is the green mat that comes with your Cricut. It is versatile and popular and can be used with most middle-weight materials like vinyl or cardstock. While it’s tackier than the LightGrip mat, the StandardGrip mat is not overly sticky either.
StrongGrip Mat
You only need a purple StrongGrip mat if you will be working with heavy-duty materials like leather, cardboard, or thin wood like balsa wood.
A StrongGrip mat should be conditioned if you intend to use a lighter weight material. However, conditioning a StrongGrip mat is not recommended.
FabricGrip Mat
It’s unlikely that you’ll have issues with the pink FabricGrip mat. The mat won’t be too sticky because it has a very light adhesive that is made for use with delicate fabrics. Therefore, it’s not the right choice for any materials thicker than fabric.
Summary: Paper stuck to Cricut Mat
As you can see, there are three ways to fix your Cricut mat. You can dab the mat with a cotton shirt or with your hand. Each dab will help reduce the stickiness of your Cricut Mat.
You may be using the wrong Cricut mat for your project. Cricut makes four different mats including LightGrip, StandardGrip, StrongGrip, and FabricGrip. The mat gets increasingly stickier from LightGrip to StrongGrip, while FabricGrip should be used for fabric.