Hack for Using a Cricut Mat with Silhouette CAMEO

Lots of Silhouette crafters have tried, or at least have thought about trying, Cricut cutting mats with their Silhouette CAMEO.

I don't honestly recommend it - but since the Cricut mats are less expensive and are slightly more rigid than the Silhouette mats - a lot of crafters at least want to give them a try.

While both the Silhouette mats and Cricut mats both include a 12 x 12" grid of 1" squares, the mats themselves are not exactly the same size. This means if you put a piece of material within the sticky, gridded area on a Cricut mat and cut it with the Silhouette you may end up cutting off your material.

For this reason you need to account for the difference in the mat and margin size when placing the material on a Cricut mat.  We need to mark the Cricut mat so we know where to place the material every time.

So grab a piece of paper and a relatively unsticky Silhouette cutting mat. Place the paper on your Silhouette cutting mat on the OPPOSITE side of where it will actually cut. 

Most of us place our designs in the upper left corner which means you'd want to place your paper on the upper right. Be sure the corner and sides of the paper align with the corner and top and left edge of the grid.

Now flip the Silhouette cutting mat over onto the Cricut cutting mat.

Be sure you line up the top left corners of the mats, not the grids. When they're perfectly aligned press down so the paper sticks to the Cricut cutting mat.

Peel up the Silhouette cutting mat, leaving the paper on the Cricut cutting mat.



Grab a pen or marker and mark off the corner (or go for the full left and top edge).

This mark now indicates where your material needs to go on the Cricut mat to perfectly cut on the Silhouette cutting machine. You can see why it's important to mark where the corner should be, because the area to place your material is slightly outside the grid area of the Cricut mat.

Be Aware...

Now I can't leave you without this warning...using a Cricut cutting mat may void your 1 year manufacturer warranty.  Also, if you decide to go the way of Cricut mats with your Silhouette CAMEO, please be aware because of their thickness, they can cause cutting issues. If you experience any cutting issues I would highly recommend you purchase a new Silhouette cutting mat and use it instead.


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