Mrs. Claus's Bakery Cutting Board Sign

I am Christmas-obsessed and love to decorate everywhere I can; I don’t stop until about two weeks before Christmas. There is at least one decoration per room. The one room I don’t have a lot of decorations for is the kitchen, other than kitchen towels and that type of stuff. While I was looking around on Pinterest, I kept seeing cute Christmas signs on tiered platters on the kitchen counter. The idea hit me to make a sign in the shape of a cutting board. 

It turned out so much better than I thought it would. This was my first big project, working with basswood. The colours look so great against the white paint. I let a little of the basswood show through the white and sanded it down a bit so it’s not stark white. The sign is such a great Christmas decoration for the kitchen. 

Materials:

How to make:

Make sure the paint is nice and dry, and areas are smoothed out with no significant rough spots. I find that vinyl doesn’t stick well when the wood is too rough. 

Getting your image:

1. Open up Design Space and make sure your fine-point blade is in the clamp.
2. Add a square the same size as the area of the cutting board you are adding the image to. This will give you an idea of placement and sizing.
3. Go to images and search “Mrs. Claus’s Gingerbread” #M4080CABF or search for an image you want.
4. Add the image to the canvas.
5. Place the image over the square and adjust the image to the desired size. 
6. Click and drag a box over the images. Go to the top, and go to "align" and center the image.

Cutting vinyl:

1. Turn on the Cricut machine and ensure the premium fine point blade is loaded. 
2. Put vinyl onto the mat(s), depending on how many images you have. The machine wants you to keep feeding it. 
3. Take a brayer or scraper and run it over the vinyl to help adhere the vinyl to the mat
4. Go to “Make” when you are ready to cut.
5. Click mat for "all materials" and click "continue".
6. Set the material to premium vinyl, or for fine or thin images, use the washi sheet.
7. Load the mat with the matching vinyl colour into the machine when prompted, and the arrow will start flashing.
8. Click the flashing “C” when ready
9. Repeat as needed and follow the prompts

Removing & weeding the vinyl

1. Unload the machine when prompted.
2. Flip the mat over and pull the mat off the vinyl to help keep the vinyl from curling. 
3. Take the weeding tool and remove all the unwanted vinyl. Keep scissors nearby just in case there is a piece you want to cut away. 
4. Repeat as needed.

Applying vinyl to wood: 

1. Cut a piece of transfer tape to match the size of the image you are working with. I suggest doing the piece that would need to be centred the most, and then build around it. You can always refer back to the image to see how everything is placed. I do it all the time.
2. Put the cutting board on the self-healing mat. The lines will help with placement. If you want to place some painter's tape on the back to help hold it down and keep it from moving.
3. Peel the backing off the transfer tape.
4. Place the transfer tape on top of the vinyl, then take the scrapper and run it over to help adhere the tape and remove bubbles.
5. Then flip it over and peel the backing off the vinyl so it’s just the vinyl on the tape. 
6. Place the vinyl where you want it to go, and then take the scraper and run it over to help it adhere and remove some bubbles.
7. Peel the transfer tape off slowly (take your time). Sometimes I run my fingers over the vinyl to help adhere, but not necessary once the tape is off.
8. Repeat as needed for each layer.

Once all the layers are done you have you cute new Christmas decor for your kitchen!

If you have any questions or comments pop them in the box below I would love to hear form you!