There has been a lot written on the internet about the scanncut mats some people seem to think they are to sticky, some think not sticky enough and many comments about how quickly they loose there stickiness!
So these are just my thoughts on the subject. I haven’t found any problem with them and I have owned two electronic cutting machines previously so have them to compare against.
What I will say though is it depends on what you are cutting with your mat, if you are using material that can be fibrous and will take the sticky off your mat quicker than using paper.
Also some types of card can be fibrous too as is chipboard all these things have to be considered when using the mats. You should always put the protective plastic cover back on the mat once you have finished cutting to keep fluff etc off it too.
Ive had my machine about three weeks now and my mat was still ok, yes it was loosing a bit of stickiness but providing I rubbed my media down firmly with either the handle of the spatula tool or brayer etc it was fine.
I also rotate my mat when doing cuts and place the media in different parts of the mat, the scan feature really helps with this as you can get accurate positioning you can also feed the regular mat into the machine from either the top or bottom this helps as you are not using the same spot all the time to place your media.
You can also spray the back of your media with a reposition-able spray adhesive something like Crafters Companion to aid things to stick, but please do not spray the mat, Brother mats have black dots on them which are registration markers for scanning I think and if they get covered in adhesive it could affect how the mat operates also it could get into the workings of the machine.
I have just cleaned my mat with Johnson baby wipes, the ones in the pink packet according to the details on the back they are alcohol free.
The regular 12×12 mat is gridded and divided into 4 sections, so i did one section at a time. I rubbed firmly both vertically and horizontally in each section to remove dirt and grime.
I let the mat dry in the open for about 15 minutes and then replaced the plastic protective cover.
I have to say apart from being nice and clean it has refreshed the stickiness of the mat. I do have spare mats but want to see how long I can keep using my original mat for.
I just thought I would add a note. I’ve bought a Zig two way glue pen with a 15mm tip and re ticked my mat.
Here’s how it looked half way through. You can see the wet blue glue on the bottom half of the mat, I applied the glue in even strokes a section at a time.
This glue is permanent whilst it’s blue so it’s important that if you use it on your scan n cut mats that you let it completely dry before you apply any card to it.
Here’s how it looks now all clear and dry and very sticky.
Hope that helps.
This is the glue I bought
