Extend the Life of Your Cricut Cutting Mat

I'm not that great at replacing the protective layer of plastic on my Cricut cutting mat when I'm done using it. And, after I used my Cricut for LOTS of cutting in preparing for Taylor's birthday party, my cutting mat had lost it's stickiness. Rather than buying a new pack of cutting mats regularly (at $10 for a 2 pack, the cost can add up!), I figured there's got to be an alternative. I discovered this handy tip and thought I'd share it with all of you!

You need the supplies shown above:

Cricut Cutting Mat (obviously ;) )
Aleen's Tack it Over & Over
Scraper (from your Cricut tool kit. If you don't have the tool kit, you can use anything that will scrape the coating away without damaging the cutting surface - a plastic ruler would probably work just as well)
a Foam brush
a small amount of water
a small container and popsicle stick for mixing

Note: Teflon Spray or WD40 will also be helpful.


Step 1 - Use your scraper to scrape your cutting mat completely clean. This task is made easier but spraying a light coat of Teflon spray onto the cutting mat to prep it for scraping. The spray helps break down the adhesive on the mat.


Next, grab your Aleene's Tack it Over & Over. This is a temporary adhesive and I actually had it in my stash because I un-mounted all my rubber stamps awhile ago to use them on acrylic blocks. I coated the back of the stamps with the Tack it Over & Over adhesive.


Pour a very small amount of Tack it Over & Over into your mixing container.



Pour a little water into your mixing container (it should probably be about 3 parts adhesive to 1 part water). You can adjust it as you go along.


Use your foam brush to coat your cutting mat with your glue/water mixture. The mixture will bead up but just reapply. Once the mat is thoroughly coated, let dry for several minutes until it's dry to the touch but tacky.

Your mat is ready to use! And here's one final picture to show you how perfectly the paper sticks to the mat, but lifts off easily, too!

I like to store the unused glue/water mixture in a small container for future use.

I hope you find this helpful!!! And the best part of this is: the money you save by not buying new mats, you can use to buy more Cricut Cartridges! :)