Cricut Mat - Not That Fuzzy

What's that all over your Explore mat?

As I said in yesterday's post the sticky standard mat from Cricut for your Explore is too, too, too sticky unless you condition it.

So as part of the getting started you go to a "free" card in Projects with black card stock provided by Cricut.

I'm pretty sure you shouldn't start with the provided stock as you'll end up with black all over your mat even if you conditioned the mat. Which I didn't cause I'm a Newbie.I almost think this is why I had a 3 hour journey to get Print & Cut to complete Calibration.(we'll talk about this next week.)

On your first project use a cream or white card stock instead. But let's backup.

How do I condition a standard mat BEFORE I do my first project?

1. You have to play paddy cake with the mat - palms down all over the mat. yes I am dead serious. It takes the oil from your hands to create a barrier for the glue to the paper on the mat.

2, Take some cream or white card stock and lay it down (do not press it down) pull it up immediately, Repeat for 9 to 12 times.

OR buy light grip mats.

Cricut Explore Cutting Device - Day 1

So Santa brought you one of those fancy electronic cutting machines. Mine is the Cricut Explore released in April of 2014. Just remember the Cricut Explore is cloud based - without a high speed internet connection it is a boat anchor. So if you don't have a reliable internet supplier like Coast Cable or Telus Optik TV this machine will not work for you.

I thought I'd give you a few pointers so you don't make the same newbie mistakes I made. My laptop operating system is Windows 7 Professional. I have two internet browsers Microsoft IE 11 and Google Chrome. Chrome is setup up as my primary browser as it is much faster. BTW it is highly recommended you use Chrome on your Microsoft laptop or PC.

You'll need to load Adobe Flash for the installation of the Cricut Explore. I loaded the plugin right after I ordered the machine.

Mistake ONE If you want to buy the wireless option for Cricut Explore it uses Bluetooth. I ordered the Cricut adapter BUT after ordering er my laptop doesn't have a Bluetooth card. I was sure it did but that's between me and Dell. There is a work around we'll discuss later.

Mistake TWO This is a Cricut oversight IMHO. The installation is easy when I logged into Design Space login box I unticked "RECOVER Password" as I don't like having passwords stored in my browser cache. But if you do this the very first time you visit Cricut your password isn't stored in the cloud. It took me a day to figure out that I had to go to the main page & click "Sign In" as the desktop shortcut bypasses where you can reset your password.

Mistake THREE You must condition your mat BEFORE you do your first project. Cricut does not tell you this but the standard mat is so sticky you'll end up with card stock glued to the mat.. Grr it took an hour to scrape it off. I'll talk about mats tomorrow.