Dirty cards

[estamps]

A curious thought.


i never realized how dirty our plates and equipment gets. While making a card, I saw dark lines on my card stock and it took a while to realize they came from the plates on my big shot. I had been cutting multiple pilgrim hats in brown card stock and the residue came off on my next card.. on closer look I saw washi tape bits and other glue stuck especially from new dies that have the super glue on them that is near impossible to remove. I am forever cleaning my mats and sissdors but never thought about the big shot and score board.
How often and how do you other crafters clean these tools?

[Cook22]

I often cut with a clean sheet of copy paper in between my card surface and the cutting platform... especially if I am cutting something which I have just stamped on, because the pressure can cause the stamped image to transfer to the plate if the ink isn't totally dry. And then to the next project... I clean my scoreboard on a fairly regular basis, also my cutting mat. And my scissors and acrylic blocks, though the latter two are for performance rather than contamination issues.

[shazsilverwolf]

Funnily enough, I was watching a Gina K video the other night, and she recommended the exact tip Cook22 gives to avoid this happening- a sheet of copy paper between the plates & your cardstock. The really amusing part was that when she cut it out, she'd put the die upside down, so cut a circle from the copy paper- proving, she said, that even she makes mistakes sometimes!

[jukie]

what does it say when my brain was no where near thinking you were talking about those kind of dirty cards.....

I do not clean them as often as I should, and normally get cross with myself when I manage to do something that puts a mark on my card when it is nearly finished.

[bjeans]

I remove leftovers from the Cuttlebug plate after each die cut, if necessary rubbing with a very small microfiber towel. (I use them for scads of stuff, including cleaning stamps.)

If there's static electricity, I use a small piece of Swiffer duster. (In an old video, Jennifer McGuire used a small piece of Swiffer duster to wipe fine glitter residue from her craft mat, and talked about cutting them up into sixths.)

Like Jukie, I was curious about the R- or X-rated cards...

[Rachelrose]

I clean mine immediately after I've ruined something. Then I quickly forget I've done it, and go back to my wayward ways. I guess there's some room for personal growth here.

[TexasGrammy]

I totally agree with using a pice of white printer paper. I sometimes do this to eliminate those little impressions from too many prior cuts on well-loved plates, too.

Another thing I do with dirtied cut plates is run them under hot water & scrub with a toothbrush or scratchy scrubber & dish soap.to remove colored card stock particles. I use those puppies until the practically crumble. lol

[wavejumper]

Good question!

LOL That is how I often do stuff too-after the fact.

I clean my mind less often than I should given what I thought this was about too...I thought we were going to go past snarky...perked up a Thursday morning for a minute there. LOL

tip: I use goo gone to get the sticky off dies. And then a quick swipe with simple green/water. I cant stand things being sticky. Personal peeve. My hands can be 14 colors from ink but never sticky.

Gee I dont know if I have ever cleaned my plates. I guess I must have?...When they get super duper opaque from a bazillion cuts and little bits are coming off both sides, I switch em out to new. But I tend to be cutting images, not into the CS face if that makes sense-like leaves and not openings to look through.

I like the paper idea I want to try that and see if I can sqeeze more life out of the plates.

[cobby]

I somehow managed to get ink or paint or a combo of adhesive and ink on the underside of the finger guard on my Tonic guillotine paper cutter. It took me ruining three or four pieces of paper before I realized where the mark was coming from! Okay, not ruined, but now need to be used carefully or cut into smaller pieces to work around the smudge. I had to unscrew the guard and wash with Dawn and warm water.


I regularly use an old toothbrush on my Big Shot cutting plates just to remove imbedded pieces of paper but I need to start adding the copy paper to prevent the cut lines from transferring onto my die cuts.

[Cook22]

I just remembered something else that I clean regularly - the piece of plastic for the Stamp-a-ma-Jig. I do, lesson learned the hard way, try to clean it with a damp cloth each time but it's more than once been the source of smudges.

[JBgreendawn]

another thing that I notice is sometimes if I cut red cardstock it stains the dies so the next time you use that die on white cardstock the edge could be red.. so, I just grab a baby wipe and wipe off dies when I use them on red now.

[gregzgurl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jukie

what does it say when my brain was no where near thinking you were talking about those kind of dirty cards.....

I do not clean them as often as I should, and normally get cross with myself when I manage to do something that puts a mark on my card when it is nearly finished.

I was right there with you, lol...

[Covington Crafter]

I was right there too and looking for some afternoon entertainment Instead, I got some terrific ideas. I use a dry toothbrush on my Cuttlebug plates. I will definitely adopt the copy sheet trick. I've go something stuck on the guard for my paper cutter and am having a heck of a time getting it off.