While I happen to be in the "Just Buy a New Mat" camp, I know a lot of you prefer to try to extend the life of your cutting mats by re-sticking them.
Since you all went pretty much crazy over my tip on how to easily clean Silhouette cutting mats I figured why not just give the people what they want...
So here's my standard 12 x 12 Silhouette brand mat that has been severely used and abused. I think at one point I was even taping my cardstock on the mat because it had absolutely no stick left!
For this tutorial on how to restick a Silhouette mat, your supplies will be: Goo Gone, kitchen sponge, dish soap, spray adhesive and tape. This is a two part process - first the cleaning and removal of the original adhesive and then the resticking process.
1. Take the dirty Silhouette cutting mat and lay it on a flat surface, such as a counter or table.
2. Open the bottle of Goo Gone and dribble a little around the mat.
3. Grab your sponge and start-a-scrubbin'. You should be able to see all the nasties coming off your mat.
4. Once I feel fairly certain that the old sticky is gone, grab the dish soap and give your mat a good washing. You can use the same sponge.
5. Drag the Silhouette mat over to the sink for a rinse. If you see that you haven't gotten all the old sticky mess off, just repeat steps 2-4 until it's nice and clean.
6. Once clean, dry with a towel and set to the side. You want to make sure the mat is fully dry before applying the spray adhesive.
1. To restick the Silhouette mat (and another off-brand cutting mat), I used Dritz Basting Spray from my local Wal-Mart for less than $10.00.
2. Tape off the edges of your mats to prevent spraying adhesive on the entire surface. Why? Because you don't want adhesive where your rollers will make contact, it'll just gunk them up.
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