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Cutting mats have come a long way from the stinky pieces of plastic that seemed to trap moisture between the mat and your desk. Anyone else old enough to remember those? Not fun!
And if you didn’t have one of the lightweight mats, you probably had a nice looking acrylic cutting mat….that is “nice” until you made your first cut and scratched the surface.
Enter….today’s cutting mats and the curiously named “self-healing” cutting mats by Cricut!
So What is a Self Healing Mat?
Self-healing mats are used when making cuts using rotary (wheeled) blades, precision hobby knives, and similar. Simply lay your paper or fabric on top of the mat and make the cuts. The self-healing refers to the way the mat material will fill to expand any minor surface cuts that were caused during the cutting process.
Best of all, they are high quality (which you can expect from Cricut), they come in different sizes, and they are extremely affordable and often go on sale. Check Cricut for Sale Pricing (link)
How Does The Mat Heal Itself?
I’m no engineer, but it looks like the material is highly compressed and when you accidentally cut the surface, the material kind of expands to fill the crack.
It doesn’t repair it perfectly smooth all the time, but it heals enough so that your knife doesn’t trip or skip the next time you cut near the scratch. It’s such a great concept that actually works quite well.
What is a Cricut Self Healing Mat Used For?
Aside from being an incredible cutting surface, the Cricut self healig mats can be used for
- Cutting Surface for Blades
- Measuring to the inch, half inch, 1/4 inch and 1/8
- Cutting Angles (Degrees)
- Desk Cover for Smooth Workspace
Are Cricut Self-Healing Mats for the Cricut Machine?
NO! The self-healing mats are for your workspace environment Use them to cut on top of, or for any reason you like except inside your machine.
Self-healing mats are not the same kind of mat that goes into your Cricut machine. Those are called Machine Mats and come in different “grips” or stickiness. If you need Machine Mats, they also go on sale frequently on the Cricut website (link).
Are Self Healing Mats Double Sided?
Most self healing cutting mats are double sided, and at the time of this writing, Cricut offered all double sided, which means if one side finally gets ruined, you should be able to flip it and start all over.
What’s great is that you can usually choose between have a double sided mat with guides on both sides, or one of the sides could be decorative.
Many people like to have one side with the guides and the other side as “decorative”. Cricut offers both double sided with guides and decorative self-healing mats and you can check supplies here.
If you are just an occasional user of hobby knives, a self healing mat with a decorative side might be nicer in your workspace. But if you cut several times a day, multiple times per week, definitely go for the double sided mats that have the cutting guide on both sides.
This will help you extend your mat life because you’ll have 2 cutting sides.
How do You Clean a Self-Healing Mat
We have always used whatever wipes we had on hand and that has included lysol wipes, baby wipes and windex wipes. We’ve also used just a damp cloth.
The surface is super easy to clean and dry!
However, do know that the surface can be stained with sublimation inks. I accidentally spilled ink on one and it was hard to remove and didn’t completely come off. So, like most materials, they are not Ink Proof…. but what is?
Summary
Hopfully this has helped you understand what a self-healing mat is used for. They are not expensive and they are well worth having around the shop. They come in different sizes for different projects and are not just for cutting.
Though cutting is a great thing to do on them.
Happy Sublimating!
