IKEA gift ideas

So I made it up to Phoenix/Mesa this past weekend for the Rubberstamp/card-making show ( see some pics in papercut card thread 3D papercut holiday cards ) and stopped at IKEA on the way home. Found some (I think) neat items that I could possibly Glowforge (I like using that work as a verb).


These are a bamboo bath brush (front and back), A bamboo hand mirror and small cutting board.They were all only a few dollars each, but think of some kewl personalization you could add to these !! And the cutting board (they have several different ones that are relatively inexpensive compared to buying elsewhere) could be either functional or a good size for a decorative (even has the hole in handle) hanging ! IKEA also carries a bottle of clear conditioner or finisher or sealer type liquid to apply to cutting boards every so often to “condition” them. I will have to look into that more (may be some type of oil), but it may help with the idea of “…what if you laser the food prep side…” question ( by helping “seal” it).
Some other items and ideas I picked up…

The pics don’t do justice to the glass/crystal heart ornaments (flat), But they just beg to be engraved , the wooden spatula as well - A nice kitchen gift or again, engrave, add a ribbon or mount it and could be a displayable gift(after lasering). The glass baking plate was only a couple dollars and I had to get it for my sand blasting/engraving ( you mirror and engrave the bottom). The cork hot plates are a pack of four, again, a nice personalizationalble item that is inexpensive but functional.
Last , in the “scratch and dent” area I picked up this door for $5 only for the wood

Maybe pine? Not exotic or anything but I can cut it up for some nice pieces of wood - the inside panels are actually 1/4 or less, so they may actually be laser-cutable? for $5 worth a try.
Hope this gives you some ideas ( did pick up some other things, but these were my favorite Glowforeable items. I think the glass hearts were the most expensive, so overall some great gift ideas for less than the price of a hallmark card !! Happy Holidays to all !!

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Looks almost like cedar.

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Nice piece of wood for $5. It does look almost like cedar (Northwest boy here). The other items could be easily engraved and made to be more valuable in seconds with your GF. - Rich

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Nothing but mineral oil at a HIGHLY inflated price. Just get a bottle of mineral oil for $2 at the drugstore. (I’ve used both.)

Cool finds! :smiley:

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Glad I didn’t pick one up ( okay I did “pick one up”) but glad I didn’t buy one (I put it back down). :cold_sweat: :grin:

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For 5 bucks that’s a killer find. Nice job. Once you use it for something, please share the results :slight_smile:

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nice haul those should all give you some instant value and customizations

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Those look great! Looks like I need to visit Ikea. :wink: Thanks for sharing!

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My Home Depot had a set of 3 bamboo cutting boards for $7 this weekend. (Small/med/lg) I picked a few up for making gifts.

My daughter went off to college this year and loves mom’s fettucine alfredo. So I lasered the recipe onto one of the boards (looking for other recipes for the other two). My wife loved it. Then she says, “it’ll make a nice decoration but too bad she can’t use it as a cutting board since it’ll be so hard to clean out the etched area from food getting in it.”

I looked at her and said, “she’s supposed to turn it over when using it to cut.”

My wife got that stare, shook her head and then sighed & walked away :grinning: (later she told me I might want to include a note because the girl is her daughter after all :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:).

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How deep did you go with the etching? You could mix food coloring with food-grade epoxy and fill the etched areas. Then just sand it smooth and throw a food-grade finish on it.

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Or leave it as the back :slightly_smiling_face:

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which begs the question, how can she read the recipe if the food she is cutting is on the top?

“is it 1 cup or 2?”

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either the recipe doesn’t require cutting or she can use one of the other cutting boards (which have their own recipes or decorative accents).

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I just realized that you could turn a cutting board ( not the little paddle one- but a decent sized rectangle or round one) into a serving tray by adding drawer handles to the top. Then you could laser-design it to your hearts content w/o worrying about the food/cutting board issue in the lines! :fork_and_knife:

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Cool idea. Nice. And there are lots of funky styled drawer handles available out there (our kitchen has pewter lizards :grinning:).

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