The ultimate personalized gift is only a few steps away

Useful, personalized gifts are my absolute favorite to give. These cutting boards work great, look great and you can customize them however you want. They make awesome gifts for Mother’s Day, housewarmings, weddings (new last name anyone?), just because and even for Christmas gifts.

I gave etched cutting boards with family names on them as Christmas neighbor gifts a few years ago and they were a hit! We even put my husband’s logo on some to give to his employees. You name the design, you can probably etch it.

For Mother’s Day this year I etched cutting boards for all of the moms and I can show you how to create the ultimate personalized design. Because I have a Cricut Maker, I will show you how using Cricut Design Space.

If you don’t want to create a new design, I have two you can download for free at the bottom.

If you don't know how to upload designs into Cricut Design Space, go here for a tutorial.

Here's a video tutorial for the whole process:

Supplies for an etched glass cutting board

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etching cream

paper plate

permanent vinyl – Oracal 651 is my favorite

transfer tape

ruler

rubbing alcohol

embossing heat gun

Cricut or Silhouette

standard green cutting mat – I needed to use a 12 x 24 inch mat in order to fit my design

weeding tools

disposable gloves

paint brush for applying the etching cream

dish soap

scissors

Let's create a stencil

Whether you are creating a personalized design or using one of the free ones available at the bottom, this is where you start - by making a stencil for the etching cream.

First you need to determine what size you’re going to make your design.

Because etching removes the top layer from the glass, you want to etch on the bottom of the cutting board so that no food can stain the removed areas.

Measure the space available to you on the bottom of the cutting board but look out for the “feet”. You want to work inside the area next to the feet.

Once you are in a new project in Cricut Design Space, select a rectangle from the Shapes option on the left.

Change the size of the rectangle to match the available space on the cutting board by unlocking the padlock button at the top and typing in your measurements.

Because this is the same size as the area you will be etching, you can now place your design on top of it as you are creating to see where to place things and how space them out.

If you are using a premade design, select all of the design, click Combine and Weld from the right and jump to this step.

Now let's work on the text.

For each section of text I selected a text box, changed the color of the font so I could see it when I placed it over the black rectangle, typed in what I wanted it to say, and then changed the font. All of the fonts I used are available for free at Dafont.com.

For “Grandma Debbie’s Kitchen” and in the block of text with the grandkids’ names I used the font Always in my Heart.

Next I changed the sections of text to be the right size.

You can click on the corner of the text box and drag the text to make it larger or smaller, or you can change both the width and height in the size section at the top of Design Space. Play around with your text size until you like the look of it.

Make sure to leave about an inch of space on all the edges of the rectangle open so your stencil can protect areas of your cutting board that you don’t want to etch.

Once I had it about the size I wanted, I clicked on the curve button at the top and then dragged the button to the right until it was at 20. This curves the text downward.

Once I had each of the text sections looking how I wanted, I selected all of the text in that section and clicked on Combine and Unite on the lower right so that Design Space recognized them as one block instead of a bunch of individual letters. This makes it easier to move around and play with each section.

I repeated this process for the next chunk of text – the part that reads “Where memories are made and grandkids are spoiled."

I clicked on a text box, changed the color of the font so I could see it when I placed it over the black rectangle, typed in what I wanted it to say, and then changed the font.

For this part I used the font Heart Warming. I did not curve this section though.

Then I once again selected all of the text in that section and clicked on Combine and Unite on the lower right.

For the last section of text I inserted a new text box for the first grandkid's name, changed the color, selected my font, and sized it. I used the font Always in my Heart again for this part.

Then I just copy and pasted it for each of the other grandkids’ names so the text would all be the same size and font, and then just edited the name itself.

Then I clicked on Shapes on the left side of the screen and chose a heart which I then shrank to the size I wanted and copy and pasted to put between each grandkid’s name.

Once I had three of the names ready, I once again clicked on Shapes on the left and then selected a line. I rotated the line so it was horizontal, and then spaced the names and hearts onto it so knew they were straight and even.

I repeated this process for the next line of names.

Next I clicked on Images on the left side and searched for a “leafy branch” to put at the top.

Once I found one I liked, I put on my canvas, changed the color so I could see it and changed the size so I liked how it looked.

I duplicated the branch and then selected Flip from the top of the screen and flipped the second branch Horizontally so I had a mirrored copy.

I selected both branches and clicked Combine and then Unite on the lower right just like I did for the text boxes.

To make sure my design was centered, I selected all of the text and the branches and clicked Align and Center Horizontally from the top. This centers all of the elements.

With all of the text and branches still selected I clicked Combine and then Weld to attach everything together.

Then I selected the welded design AND the rectangle and clicked Align and Center from the top so the design would be in the exact middle of the rectangle.

With everything still selected, I clicked Combine on the right and then Exclude. This removes all of the design from the center of the rectangle making it perfect as a stencil.

Next I clicked Make It from the upper right.

This next step is very important – from this screen you want to click on the MIRROR button. Because we are putting the design on the bottom of the cutting board, if the design is not mirrored it will appear backward from the top.

Next click Continue in the lower right, and if you are using Oracal 651 like I did, on the next page select the option for vinyl, and then change the pressure from default to more.

Put the vinyl on the mat, put the mat under the rollers and press the arrow button.

Once it’s in you can press the flashing Cricut button to begin the cutting.

Once your design has been cut out, press the arrow button so the machine will spit the mat back out.

Now for one of my favorite part – weeding. It seems most people either hate this part or find it extremely satisfying – I fall into the latter category.

Use your weeding tool to take out the LETTERS and the leafy branch – remember we are using this as a stencil. Don't forget to leave the centers of the letters such as those in a, b, d, etc. You need those to stay in place.

Now cut a piece of transfer tape large enough to cover your design. Place it sticky side down onto your vinyl.

Use a scraper to get everything to attach to the transfer tape.

Slowly peel up the tape and vinyl making sure all the pieces stick to the tape. If any vinyl doesn’t peel up, replace that small section of backing and press down on it, or scrape it with your scraper.

Center the vinyl and transfer tape over the bottom of your cutting board and press it into place. Those little feet on the bottom can be very useful for lining this up.

Use your scrapper again to get all of the vinyl to adhere to the glass. Do you feel like 95 percent of this project is getting those tiny bits of vinyl to stick on various surfaces?

Peel up the transfer tape making sure the vinyl stays on the glass and use your scrapper to flatten it out and really stick it in place.

You could skip this next step but I wouldn’t. I use a heat embossing tool or blow dryer to heat sections of the vinyl and press them in place, especially the cut edges of the letters.

This is a precautionary step to make sure all of the vinyl is very well secured so etching cream won’t seep under the stencil.

Glop some of the etching cream onto a paper plate and use the paintbrush to paint the cream onto the open areas of your stencil.

I move the cream around for a few minutes to make sure I have everything fully covered with a heavy layer of the cream.

Let the etching cream sit for 5 minutes.

Now it’s time to don your disposable gloves and wash off the cream. Take the cutting board to a sink and use warm water to rub at the cream and wash it off.

Peel off your stencil and all those little bits of vinyl. You can use a scrapper here too to remove the tiny bits.

Use dish soap to wash the area one last time to make sure all the etching cream is off.

Dry off that etched glass cutting board and be amazed at the awesomeness you have created. Don’t you have the urge to make them for everyone you know? I love etching projects and that’s the feeling I always get afterward.

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Happy crafting!