Mat won't load? Edge curled? I may have a tip to fix this!

It drives crazy when I try to load a mat and it just won't get grabbed by the Cricut,.  Or it grabs one edge and pulls it in crooked.  I have fought with this, tried to gently un-curl the edge, push it in, tilt it when loading, clean the rollers, clean the mat - nothing seemed to work. Until now.

The mat was real smooth in that area and it seemed like the Cricut wasn't able to grab on to the mat.  So I thought I would give it something to grab on to - something just a little rough that would make the mat just a bit thickrer there. I grabbed some blue painter's tape and applied it to the edge. It works great!

Since I also do Print-n-Cut, I am thinking of using this to help mark where to place my paper for the best alignment.