Archive for September, 2009

I’ve had my Cricut cutting mats for over a year and I’m just now experiencing them losing some of their tackiness to hold on to  the paper or card stock.

I decided to see if the Zip glue worked to make them tacky again.  I first scrapped off anything that might have been left behind from the last time I use the mat.

I then took a baby wipe and scrubbed the mat, and to my surprise the mat was dirty.  I don’t know why I didn’t expect it to be dirty but I didn’t expect to get black off of it!

I took it to the kitchen sink and used Dawn (the degreaser) and some warm water to finish the cleaning process.  I dried it off and proceeded to cover the cutting mat with the Zig glue.  I used the big chisel Zig glue so I could cover area more quickly. 

I started by running the Zig pen around the outer edge of the mat, paying close attention to where the glue was originally on the mat.  Once that was complete I started going up and down across the grid in the same direction, putting a thin layer of glue down on the mat.  Once I had finished that I held the mat up so I could look across it and see if there were any places I missed.  If I found any I ran the glue back across only those areas I missed.

At this point I haven’t tried the mats.  I’m letting them dry so the glue will act as a repositionable glue rather than a permanent glue.  I plan on using them tonight so I’ll let you know how this process worked out.  I also understand you can us spray adhesive but I haven’t tried that yet and it seemed to be messier than just running a glue pen across the mat.  However; if you have used that method or another method, let me know.  I would like to know how you make your tack-less mats tacky again.

Good morning everyone!  I haven’t forgotten to post today.  I’m actually going to post a little later.  We went to the minor league ball game, Rough Riders, last night and I was too tired to post.  So, look for a new posting a little later today.

Thanks for keeping up with me and visiting my website, I really do appreciate it.

First, let me say this is not my idea and unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the person or website I was on that showed how to do this.  I was so excited to try this because I’m always in need of Pop Dots.

Fun foam comes in an array of colors and for this project you need to get the one with a sticky back.  M’s was running a sale on this and I got 30 sheets that are 6″ x 9″ for $2.99. 

It was on sale down from $7.99  to $4.99.  I had a 40% coupon that I was using for another item but the young girl put the coupon against the sale item.  I told her I thought it was incorrect but she insisted that it was automatic.  Unfortunately, for me she was wrong.  She had manually put the 40% off coupon against the $4.99 sale item instead of the $6.99 item. 

I cut the 6″ x 9″ fun foam down so it would be able to run through the Xyron.  I placed the side with the protective sheet side up so the adhesive from the Xyron will be laid on the opposite side.  The side that does not have the sticky back.

I pressed down the adhesive to be sure it is distributed over the fun foam.

I couldn’t wait to see if I could use my hole punch to make a pop dot and sure enough it was effortless to punch right through the protective adhesive sheets and the fun foam.

I trimmed off the excess Xyron adhesive sheet (which by the way I save to use on other items)  and you can see there is a protective sheet on both the front and back of the purple fun foam.

You can use a hole punch or you can cut a strip or what ever shape you need from this fun foam to use as pop dots or add dimension.  If you need squares use a square punch, or a heart or just free hand it.

The other nice thing about these pop dots are they are various colors to match your project, not just white. 

I get a very small sheet of pop dots for $2.99 and usually one size. If there are multiple sizes one of the sizes is not large enough to use.  This fun foam gives me 30 pieces, 6″ x 9″ in multiple colors for the same price ($2.99).  The fun foam is the same thickness as the pop dots you buy, I have had the same cartridge of Xyron adhesive for years so I was excited to use an old supply that has just been sitting dormant. 

I will not put Xyron adhesive on all the fun foam at once, instead I’ll see what colors I need and do smaller pieces as I need them.  This will keep the use of the Xyron adhesive to a minimum and not wasted on colors I might never use.  I also have the little “X” Xyron and it doesn’t seem to waste as much adhesive when you send items through it.  In other words, just think before you Xyron 30 sheets of fun foam all at once….that can be expensive.

I’m wondering would you call these “Designer” pop dots, because they come in colors?  Whatever you call them, I’ll not be buying Pop Dots for a long time!

I’m really into the alcohol inks and distressed pads from Ranger products.  But as you know when you get more than one or two of these bottles they begin to all look alike.

Tim Holtz, in several of his Youtube videos, makes reference to putting a dot of the color on top of the bottle.  That way you can easily see the color you need.

I took my regular hole punch and cut some holes from scraps that were white.  I placed them on the craft mat and dropped a drop of ink from the various bottles on them and let them dry.

Once dry, I used a piercing tool and picked up the colored dot and glued it onto the top of the appropriate bottle.

I used Glossy Accents to glue the paper onto the plastic cap.

Here is the finish product.  This is a perfect solution, especially when you store these inks in a drawer.  When you open up that drawer there are their pretty little heads with their pretty little color dots telling you what color is sitting under that cap.

It reminds me of a childhood game we used to play called “rotten egg”.  One of you would be the grocery person, one would be the person buying eggs and all the rest would be assigned a color (the grocery person would whisper it in their ear).  You would say, “Do you have any yellow eggs today?”  If yes, that person would come to the front and you would have them swing in a chair that you and the grocery person’s arms would make.  If the arms broke……pew whew! They were a rotten egg.  Hmm, sounds so silly now, but then we had more fun making fun of each other and no one got their feelings hurt.  It was a simpler time back then, when we played outside all day and our parents didn’t worry about where we were.  If you were in the neighborhood you were safe.