I’ve been attempting to make a shadow box for Halloween.
The part I’ve had most trouble with is a very intricate spiderweb. However, the problem is purely down to how thin the lines are and the fact that my cardstock and paper is not strong enough to hold together with such fine detail. When I used high quality colour laser printer paper, my Crafter managed to cut the pattern very well.
As you can see from the photos, the Crafter easily managed to cut lines that seem to be significantly thinner than 0.25mm. The web was complete and perfectly formed until I tried to remove it from the cutting mat. My paper simply wasn’t strong enough to hold together, no matter how gently I tried to remove it.
It’s clear that the Crafter can indeed cut extremely intricate designs with great accuracy.
BTW, I forgot to change to a new blade before this was made. The blade I did use is months old, and was even used to cut several metres of gold chrome vinyl recently. Imagine what the Crafter can achieve with a new blade!
It is amazing, and you’re right, the problem is removing it from the mat. Maybe if it could be sticked to another compact material, I don’t know… to sticker paper, acetate with spray glue, a carrier, adhesive book cover… something giving it consistency from the back. Maybe interlacing… it is complicating it, but you may you feel like
Or just make it on printable vinyl or regular adhesive vinyl, regular printed sticker paper.
I think the blades can go on if sharped until there’s no metal
The only thing I can think is, did you flip the mat over and peel the design off the mat. When I cut this web out for this card, I started peeling it off the mat on a diagonal and when it wouldn’t come a swapped to another side and started there. It was a bit finicky to get it off. I also have found really tiny cuts like that I use the heaviest card stock I own. 330 GSM which tends to be sturdy enough that it doesn’t rip when it comes off the mat. Also having the boarder around this webbing helped get off the mat. Maybe you could add a thick boarder around the corner part of the web, so the web has something sturdy to hold on to.
When I’m creating projects with intricate cuts, I always use a used mat or a low-grip mat because the cut isn’t usually the problem; sometimes, it’s the mat’s grip.
You’re all right, the mat… specially what Belle says, flip and peel the mat off the design and not the design off the mat helps quite a lot. And even that, carefully and peeling off switching little steps of paralel and diagonal.
I should have used my low tack transfer tape stuck to the mat, then put the paper on that. In future, I would definitely make anything this delicate with vinyl or some other plastic material.
Even though it is old, the blade still look and feels very sharp, and the facets are still clear with no chips or scratch visible.
I think I just need better quality cardstock to be honest. I’m going to order some heavyweight card from Amazon UK, after I’ve read a lot of the reviews.
Hopefully I’ll remember to put a new blade in as well!
It definitely was the mat’s stickiness, combined with the lack of paper strength.
Just shows how sticky the LOKLiK mats are though. This is my original blue ‘low’ tack mat from when I got the Crafter almost 2 years ago. It is the only mat I ever use, and has never even needed washed yet. The most I ever do to it is remove debris. Even LOKLiK’s standard grip green mat seems to be coated in construction adhesive!
But a huge Thank You to you all for the advice, which is all great.
