How to Repair Your ScanNCut Mat With a Cheaper (and Stickier) Cricut Mat

[@orlandogonzalez9310]

Hello Mimi. Thanks for your post. These money saving hacks are very important for crafters. I'd like to share that this hack does work on the Sdx autoblade machines. The hack mat needs to placed just below the mats registration marks. The blade that comes down to measure the depth will be touching the surface of the hack mat. The autoblade will be tricked into reading the hack mat as if it were the original mat and not mess up auto function. I have been using this method for two years and it works. The point is to get the hack mat placed right under the registration marks. Thanks for your Scan n cut passion.

[@Mimismarketva]

Thanks for the info! I love a good hack!

[@Schatzie301]

This is genius. I just got 2 generic mats from Hobby Lobby and I’m going to try this. I’ve had a CM 350 for years and I’ve tried just about everything. I love Brother but why they can’t make a decent mat when every other machine can is a mystery. By now they should have figured it out.

[@janetduran7756]

@@Schatzie301 Did you ever try it because I just got a CM350 and needing a mat so not sure where I can get a cheap one at?

[@patsmith9736]

I do the same thing - been doing it for years. But I just cut my Cricut mat at 12 X 12 and glue it to the SnC mat with Zig glue…no problem removing it when I need to. I also buy the 2 pack of 24” mats and I get four mats at a GREAT price.

[@squigglove]

Is there a reason why you can't just use the Cricut mat by itself?

[@juvenilemrcia2664]

@@squigglove Brother put little squares on their mats at the top and bottom as registration marks. If you try to use an unmodified cricut mat the scan-n-cut won’t recognize it, and therefore won’t perform the cut. A cynical person would say Brother does this so that they can jack up the prices on their mats. I am indeed a cynical person.

[@harrietward2990]

I came across this video and after reading this comment I decided to give it a try. It worked beautifully and I am so grateful! 2 Cricut mats are still about half the cost of one brother mat and work so well. Thanks for sharing!

[@andreajones7412]

@@harrietward2990 I have put a Cricut mat within the centre of my Scanncut DX1000 as in the video... I also use the regular blade and holder so I can have control of settings etc..... it works beautifully ☺️

[@harrietward2990]

@@andreajones7412 That is good information. Thank you!

[@MarjoriePope-w2u]

I don't know how I got this on my phone, but THANK YOU for the information. I got frustrated trying to cut an image and gave up. Now, I'm going to give it another try. Again, Thanks!❤❤❤❤

[@JoanneSag]

Thank you I have an 550 DX machine I bought years ago and had difficulty with the stick issue. It is not an auto blade so I think this method should work. I am hoping 3 years later the Circut mats have not changed much! Thank you!

[@tinathecrafter]

Thank you for trying this and sharing your results!

[@dianewilliams7866]

I have been using my SNC mat with a cricut mat for years. Works a treat

[@auzzygirl8175]

I was thinking of doing this very thing only earlier today and tonight I came across this. Thank you.

[@zaprodk]

Thank you for that useful tip. Such a simple and effective way to do it!

[@suzanneellis3919]

I thank you so much for this wonderful video. I bought the Cricut Fabric Mat today and am so happy now that I don't have to use the Brother High Tack sheet to cut fabric! I had a cricut before and remembered that the fabric mat was really great for fabric and didn't have to add a separate tack sheet in order for my fabric to remain in place to cut so that is why I bought it. Now I will purchase the standard mat of cricut because it is much cheaper than the brother brand that do not work like the cricut. Thanks again!

[@brittanileach6402]

I appreciate your help with this video! I was given this same model and learned that the mats are now discontinued! I have one mat... And now I don't feel such a panic.

[@DesWorld910]

Not discontinued. Amazon has them listed as Brother Standard Mat 12 x 12, CAMATSTD12, 12 x 12, white - standard tack and low tack are available. I ordered one last week. I have always re-tacked my original mat with Arlene’s glue but it’s a little too beat up and my CM350 isn’t wanted to read it.

[@jehnabush16]

Thanks for posting this video/experiment and tips! This is so interesting to me as a year ago I simultaneously got a Cricut Maker and a Brother Scanncut SDX125 and I quickly discovered the Brother is for me and will re-home the Cricut. I've found the standard tack Brother mats to be too sticky and I ordered and use the low tack mat more than any other and I've had the same 2 Brother mats for over a year and had to replace the cricut mats several times. I primarily use baby wipes to clean them but I have dawn and so I'll be trying that. My concern for doing this with my machine is it has auto-blade and before it cuts it goes down and senses material thickness so I think it would want to automatically cut through my paper/vinyl etc assuming it's as thick as the new mat plus the material itself. This would definitely take some experimenting with custom settings on my machine! Also I've tested some off brand mats for the cricut and found them to be just as sticky and read/fed in no problem and they're cheaper most times (I believe I got the brand Nicapa last). Anyway thanks for posting it gave me a lot to think about and I greatly appreciate the thrifty aspect!

[@narindraseebaran4711]

Hi, have you figured out how to set the auto blade? I tired to cut a sample item and it cut right through the new mat.

[@woolybear2369]

I think it’s a great way to save money. Too bad it won’t work with my scan n cut. I think you’re very kind to show something that could help someone else. People like you; putting yourself out in cyberspace a gracious thank you. Love and light to you. 😃🤩

[@KIP_KnowledgeIsPower]

My partner just introduced me to this channel/video. He sometimes looks through YT for crafting videos I might find useful & I just got my 1st ever machine (SDX1200) & I also work with polymer Clay too. He watched & sent this to me cause he thought I’d find your channel useful & said “watch this Channel, this lady is really good & she’s so cute!! Can we keep her?” 😂😍

[@elainesutherland6903]

Gail, I have used Dawn dish soap to clean my light tack Cricut mat. After it dried completely, it was good again. Just be gentle while the mat is wet , the running water is enough to remove most of the grime. I got the Cricut Air 2and i love it. You do have to connect to your computer, but that is easy.

[@Mimismarketva]

Thanks for your tip Elaine. I have a Brother ScanNCut2 and have cleaned my SNC mats with Dawn also. I've even "re-stuck" the mat with ZIG Glue. I just got tired of the constant cleaning and resticking - until I tried the Cricut mat! It's SOOOOO much better than the SNC mat - and much cheaper!

[@ramonalee1]

The mats are now $25.00 on Amazon! Thanks for the video. I just got mine and am trying to learn all I can first. I saw a video where the lady said not to even bother buying new mats or trying to restock them. She always just tapes her paper down with Scotch Magic Tape.

[@Mimismarketva]

WOW! I got rid of my Scan N Cut and bought a Cricut. That's a ridiculous price!

[@sgs194]

@@Mimismarketva I was gifted the Scan N Cut from my mother in law who didn't use it (she had bought a Cricut). She now no longer uses the Cricut, and is trying to sell it. I wish she had given me the cricut instead! Though I am naturally very grateful she gave me the scan n cut in the first place. But the fact that there are no compatible mats, and that the original ones are so expensive is ridiculous! Also I find there are loads more tutorials for cricut than the brother machine... Thanks for the tip though. I've stuck cheap mats I bought on Shein, and it seems to do the trick, though it's a bit of a faff, and obviously you can't swap different stickiness ones at will, because it takes time!

[@Mimismarketva]

@@sgs194 Thanks for your info. I love my Cricut Maker and it does so much more than the SNC except it doesn't SCAN. But the Cricut does have the Print Then Cut feature. So it works well with any digital image I want cut out. The main reason I left the SNC was the mats.

[@sgs194]

@@Mimismarketva I'm curious, how does the print then cut work? does the cricut work as a printer? I currently have an HP printer with the Instank Ink program which I am very happy with, so not sure if that would work? I am a teacher, and a lot of the cutting I need is work I create on canva, then print, then laminate/cut, or cut then laminate. Thanks for taking the time to answer, I hope you can shed some more info into cricut (no point begging for the cricut if it's not going to suit my needs, I'll continue with my patching job of the mats hahahahha)

[@Mimismarketva]

@@sgs194 You create or upload on the Cricut then send to your printer. There will be registration marks on each corner. Then put back into your Cricut and it reads the registration marks and cuts your design.

[@juliealgar1604]

Oh brilliant Flare, I'm now going to order some , I need to keep my fingers crossed because I don't have much success, thank you lots.😊

[@alisonk.2953]

Thank you for posting this. I just wrecked my fabric mat that I’ve only had used once before to see if it would cut felt. Well the second time I thought I’d test a piece of paper with a pattern I drew. 🤦🏻‍♀️ A bad decision. I couldn’t get the paper off, I cleaned it off as best as I could, and then the pattern that I made darker with a permanent marker stained the mat. What a waste of $$$. But this is genius!

[@darleneroach2848]

Hi Gayle, I have the snc CM350. I bought my CM350 just before we bought our home 3 years ago. We quickly learned there wasn’t a major internet provider here even though we were told there was before buying. So in the beginning we had NO Internet /Wi-Fi at all for several months I think it was close to a year. Well I couldn’t update my machine etc for quite sometime. When I was finally able to I had finally getting the worst Wi-Fi provider I believe there is lol. I contact support machine nearing the end of warranty that person gave me the wrong steps to take for my machine with me telling her “but my machine is the CM350.” Needless to say that caused my machine not to communicate with my computer. I called support was told to send or take my machine in. We took it in. They thought I had lost my mind because they had the correct settings on their computer so my snc worked without issues for them. Well I called brother support back the person I spoke with that time knew what she was doing and wow my machine worked with my computer wonderfully. In the meantime family going through losses due to Covid and life events in general so I wasn’t able to use my scan n cut for quite some time. Then finally I had time and heart to turn my beloved snc on and use it. Oh forget to include I had pc os reinstalled so lost correct information for snc and other things. Anyway I went to brother on line support typed all correct information for my machine and brother software for my snc. Updated all that popped up for my needs. Well same problem as before when the brother support tech gave me the wrong items to click on. And of course the correct option to select was no longer listed to choose that the support person that knew what steps to follow for my machine told me to select. Well way out of warranty now, and no money to pay support if they still give support for my machine. I love my CM350. Don’t like the newer snc machines, eats up mats that are far too expensive to replace very often. All this to ask after updating all after os wipe etc and such. Do you happen to know the correct link(s) to help me resolve so my brother snc CM350 will communicate with my windows 10 computer or MacBook Air via usb. I never setup Wi-Fi when new due to no internet provider. We have bit better provider now but have no idea where my Wi-Fi activation card is or even if I still have it, I’ve looked for it. The same USB used before is NOT RECOGNIZED when connected to snc CM350.

[@Mimismarketva]

Wow! I'm sorry you have had so many problems with your Internet. I understand completely. I live in a rural area and there is no Internet offered here. So I ended up getting an AT&T wireless Internet which is better than nothing but still is a challenge. I call it my 'country internet'. It was just much easier to use my USB to transfer my files from my laptop to my SNC. I seem to remember having the same problem when I first got my SNC but I don't remember how I fixed it. Have you tried a different USB? It could be that the one you have been using has become corrupted. If you plug it into your pc or laptop can you see the files on it? If you can then the USB should be ok. If not you can try another USB and see if that works. I'm assuming that in Canvas you are Exporting to your USB? I also always saved the FCM files to my laptop so I would still have them if anything happened to my USB. If you have them saved you could try putting 1 of the files on another USB and see if that works. Another thing I remember is that the USB had to be formatted to a FAT format but I'm assuming that yours is since you've used it before. I'm so sorry that I can't help more. I've bought a Cricut Maker now and only use my SNC for a few digi files that I need cut out. I do everything on my Cricut. I hope you get this resolved soon.

[@Mimismarketva]

Another thing I might suggest is to join a couple of the SNC user groups on Facebook. They have so many experienced users that are so helpful. Here's one of them facebook.com/groups/2057173534301247/

[@darleneroach2848]

Thank you so much for your quick reply. I’ve tried everything you listed. Just wish brother had left the link that had 4 choices to select from in place. I sure could it. I doesn’t use Facebook. Even so thank you…

[@Mimismarketva]

Here's something I found on one of the forums: Usb ports do wear out. This is why it is recommended you use a usb extension cable. It saves wear and tear on your port. My machine was occasionally giving me this error. I started using the extension cable and never have errors anymore. www.amazon.com/.../ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glc_fabc...

[@rozzieblueyes]

Think your fabulous thank you xxx

[@marybailey6602]

thank you for sharing have a blessed day

[@patrau9728]

What I have done is taken the CM350 model old scan n cut mat and on each end where the registration marks are take an xacto knife and cut those out precisely. Just cut out the triangle and the squares and rectangles. Where the little dots are take a 1/16 punch and punch them out exactly. ( I found out later I did not have to use these dots when making my new mat). What I then did is went to Lowes and in the sign department they have these bright green blank signs for less than $2.50. Any thin sign will work. You would just turn it over and use the white side, but I like the green ones. What I do is take my scan n cut mat and lay it over this green sign and trace it and then cut it out so it is exactly the same size as my scan n cut mat. This is important because you will then take a fine point black sharpie and color in the registration marks areas that you cut away from the scan n cut mat. This will then make the registration marks on the green mat where they need to be so that the new green mat will load. Before you continue go and see if the mat will load! Then mark your 12x12 area on the green mat just like it is on the scan n cut mat. After you get this done I take the jumbo zig two way glue stick and run it over the 12x2 area of the green mat to get the sticky. Let this completely dry before you use it You can also use a baby wipe and clean this mat lots of times before you would need to re-stick it again. I have been doing this a couple years now.

[@نقاءانثي-ب3غ]

thank you vrry mach🥰😍😍🌷🌷🌷

[@hazelann63]

Excellent advice, thank you x

[@sadiamahmood3742]

@Mimismarketva Hi Gayle, thank you for sharing this wonderful idea. I am also curious about one thing; why do you say the autoblade will get messed up if using these diy mats? Is it something to do with the mat being double, I can't figure out what could possibly go wrong....?

[@Mimismarketva]

I'm sorry but this video is really old and I upgraded to a Cricut Maker. I really don't remember why I said that. Sorry!

[@sandyratter1688]

Wonderful idea. Wonder if it would work on a DX model. Trust me the mat was expensive.

[@archibaldy1929]

Have you tried it yet?

[@mimikhan9546]

Thanks 🎉.

[@emmajohnson3775]

Will this work for the DX machine?

[@Venuszenith]

I put cute stickers on my mat covers 1. because there easy to find and 2. so I know which way to replace them right side up. all my mats get hung up on a hook.

[@Mimismarketva]

Great idea. I'm sure your stickers look much nicer than my Sharpie marker that says TOP.

[@harrietward2990]

Worked great!

[@sandreawhite7534]

I’d say it was a success. I have issues with my mats too. I’ve had it with Brother. My mat won’t load 98% of the time.

[@alisonk.2953]

Wait can you explain what you mean by only on the CM machine and not auto blade? Help! I have a sdx125

[@Mimismarketva]

To be honest, it's been so long since I've used a ScanNCut I don't remember - but I can guess. It's probably because when you place the Cricut mat over the Brother mat it will be too thick for the auto blade machines. I had a CM350. I believe there were others that commented about it. Sorry I can't help further. I use only a Cricut now.

[@darleneroach2848]

I have the cm 350. Had to have pc os wiped then clean install. Well I lost my scan n cut everything so in the process to reinstall everything to get my snc running somehow now and o d once years ago encountered the same problem: of my snc not able to read the usb or the flash plug thingy. I never used the Wi-Fi card that came with my cm350, we moved and did not have Wi-Fi. Guess I threw away the card with code to use Wi-Fi. I preferred to use usb anyway. By chance do you have the link(s) to use that will allow my machine to recognize the usb? BTW love the idea to use the Cricut mat on top the snc mat. Thanks

[@dr.cathrynchellis2405]

Yes, nothing but problems with Brother mats! Going in crooked (and then ruining the mat) and NOT sticking well.

[@charlenebyington3006]

Have they worked without ruining your machine after using for a month or two?

[@Mimismarketva]

I have been using it for quite a while with no issues. Just remember it is not recommended for autoblade machines.

[@PHamm54]

Great idea! If u roll & pull back the MAT away from the cut piece ur cuts won’t curl.

[@rhondawelsh2632]

Thank you for the video. I think I will try this. I do have one question and that is does it work okay with the scanning mechanism? I just wasn't sure if the shiny tape or covering up the markings on the side would still allow scanning. Thank you

[@Mimismarketva]

I've had no problem and I use mine often.

[@PHamm54]

If u roll the mat back the cardstock won’t url

[@wendycampana9089]

I have tried this and the cricut mat was significantly smaller even tho it was labeled 12 by 12. But I can't get my scan and cut to work anyway so that was $250 waste

[@jadeshraghunath7300]

It doesn't half cut

[@ozegirl44]

$Aus40!! for each scan n cut mat in Australia! About $USA27!

[@mariaflies]

I've got to guess from your accent your in America. If you think $17 dollars is expensive for a scan and cut mat - don't ever think about emigrating to Australia. We have to pay almost $40 for our mats. 😢

[@dib3385]

well, thats one way to throw off the depth calibration of your autoblade on an SDX (the most expensive machine in the whole range). no thanks and I think this is bad practice to encourage others to overlay another mat on an autoblade machine....possibly resulting in their machine malfunctioning and taking it out of warranty so its not even covered for faults following use of another mat.

[@Mimismarketva]

I apologize. I think I specified that I was using a CM350 machine but maybe not. This would only work on manual blade machines. I'll make a note in the description. Again I am sorry.

[@wspxenondesign8046]

tout dépend si vous mettez la même épaisseur à l'endroit de l'étalonnage. ca va fonctionner

[@tammyclarke8446]

All she is doing is sharing what she does, she isn’t encouraging anybody to do anything. You watch a video and then decide for yourself if you want to do something. Get over yourself lady.

[@pattyh2410]

If you don’t like her content, just scroll on by. No need to try and shame her. People who watch these type videos are smart individuals and can choose to try it or not. Geez

[@diannatroutt5967]

I have done this successfully for my dx machine. However, I’m not advising anybody else to do it. I’m just sharing my own experience. My only problem was that some sticky material got on the scanner area and I had to clean it more often but that was no big deal to me so again, maybe everybody needs to just make their own decision here.