new mats unbelievable!

[4children]

I received my 24" Silver Bullet a couple of weeks ago now. I immediately opened it and put it in the place I had set up for it. Got out a piece of linen bazzil cardstock, brayered it on the mat, loaded the mat...and then in a fit of insanity decided to to reorganize my craft room so the cutter could be next to the computer so I would be able to make small adjustments easier. I LEFT THE CARDSTOCK ON THE MAT!!! So I finally finished moving things around and decided maybe I should take the cardstock off. On the c****t or even my silhouette sd if you leave the card stock on after even cutting for a short period it's hard to get it off without tearing. TONIGHT I PULLED IT OFF (after two weeks), IT WAS STILL FIRMLY ON THE MAT BUT PULLED OFF WITHOUT ANY SHREDDING AT ALL. HOW AWESOME IS THAT. Ofcourse I was a complete dork for leaving it on!!!

[Angel135612]

Isn't it awesome?!?!?!? I love the new mats, and just ordered some extra ones, so I don't always have to use my 24 inch mat when I'm cutting something small. And I don't know that I have left something on for 2 weeks, but even over night I was worried about the paper sticking like it does on the Cricut mats... but it came right off.

[PennyDuncan]

What a GREAT Testimony to the mats....They are AMAZING aren't they!! I absolutely LOVE them!!!

[Tyler]

They are the best on the market by leaps and bounds! You will be amazed because the base plastic will last forever too and won't crack over time. They also hold the ReNu sheets better IMO.

[4children]

I am still amazed. I had to pull on it and expected half a layer of paper to be stuck to the mat, which has been my experience with other mats. I could reuse this paper if I wanted to. AWESOME!!!

Pam

[CeCeCreates]

Ok, I am convinced. Something else to add to my wishlist.

[Gigi]

You will LOVE them CeCe- you really will. I loved my Cougar mats, but dont want to use them after using the SB mats.......

[LisaH]

They are absolutely worth every penny and then some...light years beyond any others I have used, even the BC ones.

[4children]

As a side note. I went back and used the same piece of bazzil cardstock I left on the mat and cut out some sample shapes. They came out great! But, I have a lot to learn about how to load the mat in relation to where it ends up after you put it back on line and where the design actually is in the wysiwyg vs. knife point. We (the royal we, me and my machine) tried to cut the design out of sherri's mat a couple of times. But these awesome mats remained intact!

[Tyler]

As a side note. I went back and used the same piece of bazzil cardstock I left on the mat and cut out some sample shapes. They came out great! But, I have a lot to learn about how to load the mat in relation to where it ends up after you put it back on line and where the design actually is in the wysiwyg vs. knife point. We (the royal we, me and my machine) tried to cut the design out of sherri's mat a couple of times. But these awesome mats remained intact!

If you are using SCAL, there is a whole tutorial on that in the LC if it helps.

http://learn.silverbulletcutters.com/sc ... l-cut-out/

[Gigi]

And in addition to what Tyler said, I think you will have a much easier time cutting with origin point vs WYSIWYG; then you know it will cut in that area.

[Angel135612]

What I did to figure out where it is going to cut when I was first learning was to put some scrap paper on the mat, and use the pen tool to see where it was going to draw. I did this for hours (days) until I was comfortable with myself knowing where to set the blade and where my paper needed to be in order to cut where I wanted it. Now, it has become second nature, and I don't have to think about it too much. I still have to stop and think if I haven't used my cutter for awhile, just to make sure I am doing it right. Now the only time it starts to cut on the mat and not the paper is if I forget to set the origin before I send my design to the machine.

[4children]

Thanks a lot everyone!!!

[pmamaweav48]

The pen is such a great idea, I think I finally got the blade correct, I am working on the cutting and you are sooooooooooooooooo right about the mats, I love them and I have only used them for 1 day. I went to use one from my other machine because my sister asked if I could. It didn't take long to figure out
that the mats for the Black Cat machines are superior, love it!!!!!!!!!!