Road Test Friday - Ken Oliver Best Ever Craft Mat

Hi everyone! Welcome to another Friday Road Test! We'll be giving our Road Testers new products to try out and reporting back the results and (hopefully) great experiences.

Today I thought I would join in the fun myself and test out a product that a few crafters have asked me about..... the Ken Oliver Best Ever Craft Mat.

The mat measures 16.5 x 15 inches, so it covers a fairly big surface. I THINK it's silicone (??) - feels like it anyway. But it is very soft and bendy, but still has quite a strong heavy duty feel. And it is skid-proof.... if that's a real term.... you put it on your desk and is sits there. No moving and sliding around. I love that!

Up till now I have been using a great big sheet of cardboard as my 'drop sheet' when messy crafting..... so I don't really have any other craft mats to compare it to and say whether or not it's "the best"...... but I thought I would put it through some messy craft torture and see how well it survived.......

So I sponged gesso on it.......

And I sprayed it.........

Then I inked it...... EEK!... with ARCHIVAL ink!

Forgive me only inking a small area of the mat.... I had NO IDEA at this point how well it would clean up.... if at all!!!!!

Then I thought well.... in for a pound and all that....... I'll let it dry. For a COUPLE OF DAYS!!!!!!!
Still not sure if this is going to be a good idea or not!

So after a couple of days of sitting and drying... and drying... and drying some more..... out came the baby wipes (nothing special here folks, just Coles brand)

And oh my goodness! My mess is washing right off!

It took a couple of wipes.......

But wowee.... good as new!!!!!

I then tested out the heat resistance....... with some over zealous heat embossing. Brilliant - no matter how I tried, I just couldn't melt that sucker. Blowing my heat tool directly onto the mat and then touching it...... it barely feels warm. So heat resistance - big tic!

So ok, best ever craft mat? Comes pretty close. The only negative (and I'm nit picking here) would be that I would love it to be slightly bigger. Cause when it comes to sprays, I have the same 'spray the entire world' problem that Amira had with the Fireworks sprays.....lol. 

Otherwise I give it a big Aunty Vera Thumbs Up....... a great surface for multi crafting.

Do you have a favourite craft mat or DIY crafting surface? We'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

Have a brilliant Friday!

Aunty Vera :)