what cricut mat to use with iron on vinyl

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If you lot want to get the best results for your dice cutting craft projects, you demand to use the correct tools and supplies. This Ultimate Guide to Cricut Cutting Mats will exist an invaluable resources for you, especially if y'all're a Cricut beginner. It'due south SO of import to choice the right mat for each craft projection and to maintain your cut mats!

As a Cricut Machine owner, it's important to become familiar with each of the unlike types of cutting mats that are available and what each cutting mat is best suited for.

Ultimate Guide to Cricut Cutting Mats

Be sure to pin this postal service on Pinterest so y'all tin can refer back to it someday you need a refresher.

General Information most Cricut Mats

Cricut machine cutting mats are available in an array of sizes and types.  We'll assistance you figure out which mat to choose when and how to keep your cutting mats clean and in good condition.

Recall about the materials you lot're going to exist cutting and then choose appropriately. Cricut Cutting Mats are specifically fabricated for use with commonly used crafting materials for your cutting motorcar.

Your cut mats are designed to be sticky. This is how your materials are held in identify during the cutting process.

If you utilize a cutting mat with an agglutinative that is too potent, it will agree your material in place while cut, only you lot may have trouble removing information technology from the mat without dissentious it. If you lot use a cutting mat that isn't stiff enough, your fabric may motion around and you lot won't get a precise cut. Information technology tin even crusade some of the material to come loose and jam your Cricut.

And then, yous demand to be certain to choose the mat that has just the correct amount of stickiness to hold your materials in place during cutting but still allow you to easily remove the textile from the mat afterward cutting.

Pro tip: If your mat is too gummy, y'all tin dab it with a clean t-shirt to remove some of the stickiness. Not pasty plenty? A temporary quick set up is to attempt using some painter'south record to hold your material securely in place. But really, if it's not sticky plenty, your cutting mat needs to be cleaned.

Standard Grip Mat

This is the one we use the most. It'southward the basic mat for many different projects and has a medium amount of adhesive on it. Nosotros use the green Standard Grip cutting mat for most any kind of vinyl or iron-on (although nosotros ordinarily find that unless our green Cricut mat is brand new, we need to use a StrongGrip mat for glitter fe-on).

Nosotros also utilise the standard grip mat for other medium-weight materials such equally:

• Cardstock
• Patterned paper
• Embossed cardstock

Sizes available:

• 12 10 12″
• 12 x 24″
• 4.5 ten six.five″ (for Cricut Joy)
• 4.5 x 12″ (for Cricut Joy)

Pro tip: we save our "less sticky" (aka well-loved) Standard Grip cut mats and use them as Light Grip cutting mats. This is a great way to get more use out of them!

Light Grip Mat

The blue Cricut mat is the light grip cut mat. This means it has the least amount of agglutinative on information technology. You might exist wondering why you would desire a mat that isn't very sticky. Well, it actually comes in very handy for some materials.

The first materials that pop to mind are tissue newspaper, calorie-free cardstock, patterned paper, construction paper, and vellum. If y'all use low-cal materials similar these, you lot're going to want to use the bluish Cricut mat because anything stronger than that may rip your material when you lot try to remove it from the mat.

You don't desire to utilize the LightGrip mat with any thicker materials though equally it may slide around and you won't become the perfect cuts you're looking for and information technology may fifty-fifty jam your Cricut car.

The LightGrip Mat is well-suited for a wide range of lightweight materials such as:

• Printer paper
• Thin cardstock
• Washi tape
• Vellum
• Construction paper
• Wrapping paper

Sizes available:

• 12 x 12″
• 12 x 24″
• iv.5 x 12″ (for Cricut Joy)

Pro tip:Subsequently cleaning a light grip mat a few times, we find that it has lost so much of its stickiness that nosotros tin can't really use information technology at all anymore as is. To get some additional uses out of it, we utilize painters' masking tape to tape down our materials to the mat.

Stiff Grip Mat

The Cricut Strong Grip mat tin can as well be used for some of your fabric projects. They are quite similar in the amount of adhesive they have on them. If nosotros don't accept a fabric grip mat available, we have oftentimes used a purple mat in its identify with good results, especially if it has been used a bit already.

The StrongGrip Mat works well for heavyweight materials such equally:

• Thick cardstock
• Glitter cardstock
• Magnet material
• Chipboard
• Poster lath
• Corrugated cardboard
• Cloth with stiffener
• Glitter HTV
• Basswood
• Balsawood

Sizes available:

• 12 x 12″
• 12 ten 24″

Fabric Grip Mat

The Cloth Grip mat is merely every bit it says it is – designed for use with fabric and some textile-like materials.

These materials include:

• Fabric
• Bonded Fabric
• Crepe Newspaper
• Felt

Sizes available:

• 12 x 12″
• 12 10 24″

Pro tip: When working with felt or leather, cover your mat with contact newspaper, sticky side upward. Then, place your textile on top of it. The contact newspaper will help go on your mat make clean of all those little fibers and lint that accumulate when using these materials.

Cricut Joy Card Mat

This is a specialty mat made for the Cricut Joy. It's designed for apply with insert cards. However, we accept been able to use the Cricut Joy menu mat with our Cricut Maker and Explore Air 2.

How to clean and maintain cutting mats

The most important step in caring for your mats is to apply the right mat for your projection. Placing newspaper on a StrongGrip mat means that it will exist very difficult to remove and as you do and so, it will add extra wear and tear to your mat and its adhesive. Using the correct mat helps preserve your cut mats and ensures that they terminal longer.

If you take some bits of material left on your mat after using it, you tin can use your burnishing tool to gently scrape them away. A lint roller is handy for picking upward little pieces of fibers and debris.

We have 3 different methods for cleaning cut mats. One uses LA's Totally Awesome Cleaner, one uses Dawn dishwashing liquid, and the last, our favorite, uses baby wipes.

We reach for the baby wipes almost often. They're easy to use no affair where you are and you don't need access to running water. The other two methods work well and there are times when the baby wipes simply aren't enough and nosotros endeavor one of the other techniques. Merely, nigh of the time, baby wipes do the trick.

Simply fold upwardly a baby wipe a few times and go over your mat, gently rubbing in small circles. Once the wipe gets dirty, fold information technology over in another direction then y'all tin a clean department showing and continue cleaning. Information technology brand accept a few wipes to completely clean your mat.

Allow the mat to dry completely. Once dry, it will be sticky again and you tin can outset using it again.

Pro tip: Keep the protective canvass that comes with your cutting mat and e'er put it back on the mat in between uses.

Do I have to use Cricut brand cut mats?

We get this question a lot and the short answer is No. We have tested Cricut cutting mats against some off-brand cut mats and the results we came up with might surprise you.

Information technology'south important to call up that if yous use an off-make cutting mat in your Cricut machine, you lot could void the warranty on your Cricut. You may desire to look until after your ane-year warranty has expired.

In addition, remember that at that place won't exist equally much research going into these off-brands and there may not be as much customer support for them if something goes wrong, That beingness said, we have never had issues with the non–Cricut brand mats we use.

Can Cricut cut without a mat?

With the use of Cricut Smart Materials, you can do matless cutting on a Cricut Joy, Explore 3, or Maker three. We have even recently tried cutting regular vinyl in a Cricut Maker three without a mat and got proficient results from it.

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Source: https://makersgonnalearn.com/ultimate-guide-to-cricut-cutting-mats/