Christmas gift – DIY cheese board

Christmas prep is in full swing around here and I must admit getting ready this early is one of the happy accidents of being a blogger! I’ve made my first Christmas gift this year, a DIY cheese board!

Yes, this gift is for myself but that doesn’t matter really, this simple little gift in any shape or any size I think would be a huge hit this holiday season! I know that I would LOVE to get something so thoughtful and personally made.

I have to start at the beginning of how this little piggy came to be… when I was growing up, my Mom had a cutting board that was in the shape of a pig. It was a laminated cutting board and was very well used…  This little pig has so many memories attached to him, all of the treasured times in the kitchen cooking with Mom, the fact that my Mother is no longer with us makes those memories that much sweeter. My Brother now lives in Mom and Dad’s home and when we were cleaning up, it didn’t seem right to take that little piggy out of “Mom’s kitchen”. Fast forward to this year… I asked my Brother to snap a photo for me, I wanted my very own piggy for my kitchen and thought what a wonderful gift this would make.

Photo via : my brother, Johnny <3

 The things you will need to make your own cutting board/cheese board.

• An old cutting board (I got mine at a yard sale for $2)
• Tracing – tissue pager
• Soft tipped felt maker
• Wax free chalk tracing paper (or chalk)
• Jig saw/scroll saw/band saw (what ever one you happen to have in your tool chest)
• Sander and sandpaper (150 grit and 220 grit)
• Butcher block sealing oil

Once I had the photo, Johnny sent me, I very simply traced the pig out…

I wanted the exact shape of Mr. Pig and fiddling with printing it out and tracing, well that might include some math business and that just isn’t my thing. I wanted easy and fast so I just enlarged the photo on our computer (by dragging the corner of the photo until I had the desired size on my screen) taped some tracing paper over the screen and used a very soft tipped felt maker ( I didn’t want to leave an impression of the pig – even though I love him, on my computer forever).

Once your image is traced onto a piece of tracing paper it’s time to prep your surface… in this case I used an old cutting board I bought for $2 at a yard sale. I made sure the cutting board was disinfected and very clean by following some of these instructions.

 Cleaned and ready for tracing.

I happened to have some of this vintage tracing paper kicking around from my sewing basket… it worked perfectly for tracing Mr. Pig onto the cutting board.

I taped the pig’s tracing onto the top of the board and used some non-waxed chalk tracing paper sandwiched between the cutting board and the tracing paper, chalk side down. Then I  re-traced the pig with a harder pencil and a firm hand, just to make sure the image was transferred onto the board.

And it’s ready to cut out… just make sure before you start cutting you can clearly see your image and of course always wear your safety goggles.

Mr. Mans ended up cutting Mr. Pig out of the board… he has so much more practice with precise cutting than I do and I was way too nervous to ruin the board. I was not nervous of the tool, she goes pretty slowly, but I didn’t want to miss-cut and ruin the board. Yikes! He did an amazing job and I’m so glad he did that for me, yah TEAM! 😉

Once he was all cut out I sanded him with 150 grit paper to start, this removed all of the old knife marks in the old board, then I finished it off with a 220 grit paper. I used a grippy pad under Mr. Pig, that just helps keep him still while sanding. Once he was all sanded and wiped down (to remove all of the sanding dust) I sealed the board with Watco butcher block oil, it’s a food safe oil that won’t change the colour of the wood but will deepen the tone and really bring out the grain, exactly what I wanted.

This gift can be given exactly as shown or it can be included in a gift basket filled with all of your favourite cheeses, crackers and yummy homemade goodies…

I’m pretty proud of this little pig… for the way he turned out and now, I have one just like Mom’s. I know she’d get a huge kick out of that. I hope I’ve inspired a little nugget of an idea for someone special on your Christmas list, even if it’s just for yourself.

Thank-you so much for stopping in for a visit, until next time.

I’m pretty thrilled to be joining these talented Canadian bloggers, we are sharing 10 awesome handmade Christmas gift ideas with you… please be sure to stop by and check out all of them, the unique ideas will surely inspire. I know they are inspiring me to make some more handmade Christmas presents for under the Christmas tree.

 From the top, they are:

DIY Cheeseboard from Vin’yet Etc.

Christmas Ornament
from PMQ For Two

Sponge Toffee from Life Is A Party

Christmas Dog Bandana
& Reindeer Treat Pouch from DIY Passion

DIY Christmas Sachets from New House New Home

Easy Sew Christmas
Plaid Wine Gift Bag from Time With Thea

Movie Night in from The Inspired Home

Easy Infinity Scarf from The DIY Mommy

Homemade Orange Cream Milk Bath from Personally Andrea

Fabric Ball Christmas Decoration from Fresh Crush