Several week ago, my brother, sister, and both of their spouses all celebrated their birthdays and anniversaries. We weren’t able to drive to see them for any of those but they came up our direction after they’d all passed. I’m terrible about gifts (knowing what to get, remembering I need to go get something in advance, you know the drill), and one of the reasons we bought a was because we knew it would help fix my problem by allowing us to create one-of-a-kind, thoughtful gifts.
We tossed around a few ideas but finally settled on some decorative cutting boards we bought from Michael’s when they were on sale for $1 (don’t tell my siblings!).
The cutting boards were almost exactly half an inch which is just a little too tall to engrave with the crumb tray so it gave me my first experience engraving without it (MASSIVE thank you to @henryhbk for the tutorial! I don’t know that I ever would’ve been able to figure it all out without this).
I removed the tray and stacked a few cutting boards to get the surface back up to where it needed to be without the crumb tray. We also covered the ones we were cutting with masking tape. After burning nearly all the way through my first board—thanks to a small mathematical error—I was quickly reminded that once again I need to remember to buy at least one or two extra of anything I get just to be able to test cuts on before ruining the good pieces. It took some trial and error, but in the end, I was incredibly pleased with the result.
Everyone seemed to like their gifts, and of course I think my parents who were present when I gave them got a little jealous (Guess I know what they’re getting for their anniversary in a couple months).
Hope you don’t mind too much, @jamingaroutte…me hijacking this perfect category post. I just made a bamboo cutting board, too. A very small one for some friends who are moving up to Harstene Island in Puget Sound. The map came out pretty faintly, but the idea is there. A good example of how important having a good image to begin with, really is.
I don’t mind at all! That cutting board map is a wonderful idea and I’m sure they love it! Whatever program you’re using, There’s probably an easy way to thicken up those lines a little and it won’t come out so faint. It might take a few extra steps but what you have looks great so it probably wouldn’t take much.
Before removing a project from the GF, check to see if another pass on one of the operations is needed to get the color & depth you want. As long as you don’t move the material the second (or even third) pass will lay right on top of the previous one. That’s another good reason to use multiple colors in your design so you can resend just one part if needed.
@jamingaroutte, @Xabbess
Very nice work to both of you!
I think Michael’s has great sales on things just to make ya go there like all the time to see what’s on sale today and then ya just buy something just because you’re there. Genius.
was because we knew it would help fix my problem by allowing us to create one-of-a-kind, thoughtful gifts.
Genius.