How to Make a Sublimation Cutting Board with an Heirloom Recipe!

My friend asked me how to make a sublimation cutting board with an heirloom recipe that she had and I must say this is the most beautiful and meaningful Mother’s Day gift EVER!

recipe on a cutting board with sublimation
This awesome Mother’s Day gift idea was a perfect reason to figure out how to make a sublimation cutting board with an heirloom recipe on it!

Sublimation Cutting Board

Here at Ruffles and Rain Boots, we love helping friends. Gifting is my love language and it’s even better when I can help a friend make a gift for someone else. Like gifting vicariously, it’s super fun. So, when my friend asked me to help her figure out how to make a sublimation cutting board with an heirloom recipe for her Mother’s Day gift to her mom, I couldn’t wait to try!

RELATED READING: AWESOME MOM SUBLIMATION MUG CRAFT

With just a handful of supplies, a few minutes of computer work and literally 4 minutes under the heat press and this Mother’s Day cutting board with an heirloom recipe was done! So grab your heat press and let’s get started.

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diy recipe printed onto a cutting board
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photo collage of diy cutting board with an heirloom recipe with sublimation with text which reads make this easy sublimation heirloom recipe cutting board

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Tips to Make a Cutting Board with an Heirloom Recipe

  • First, let’s talk about that sublimation file. This was an heirloom recipe a friend asked me to use, so it’s in her mom’s handwriting and it’s the recipe that her grandmother loved to make with her mom for the holidays. Needless to say, this is a very personal file and although I embellished it with the little jam picture, I don’t think you want to use my friend’s mom’s recipe for this – you want to use your mother’s or grandmother’s or whatever, right?! So, don’t look for a file here, read the tutorial in detail below to get your heirloom recipe to a printable level.
  • My friend asked me to help her with this project and brought me the supplies, too because this was a gift for her mom. But, good news, I found the same quality, sublimation-ready cutting board she gave me here. This board was really a great piece to work with, looking just like a little recipe card and perfect for small cutting board needs like fruit or whatnot.
  • If you love this sublimation project but it’s your first and you’re not sure where to start, I have a fun secret: you DO NOT need to be all set up to do sublimation 100% on your own. You can skip setting up the special printer and getting the ink and all that by ordering a pre-printed sublimation design, just to test out sublimation for yourself with very little investment on the front end. That’s honestly what I did, because I was afraid I was going to hate it (which I love it, but I had to find out). I ordered a few prints here, then just grabbed my heat-press to apply them to my first blank – after that I was hooked!
  • Look. I know that I was a long-time hold-out on getting the big Easy Press. It seems just so big and it’s expensive and blah blah blah. But, if you’re going to be doing larger sublimation projects, or just similar projects to this in size, sublimation or not, you really need the bigger heat press. Frankly, I have decided I LOVE my big Easy Press. Break it out for this for a super consistent ink-saturation that will make your project look top-notch professional.
sublimation cutting board with an heirloom recipe

How Do I Make this Sublimation Cutting Board?

I’m so glad you asked. Below is our written tutorial.

Yield: 1 Sublimation Cutting Board with an Heirloom Recipe

Sublimation Cutting Board with an Heirloom Recipe

sublimation cutting board with an heirloom recipe

This sublimation cutting board with an heirloom recipe makes the perfect Mother's Day gift or a birthday gift - a Christmas gift even. I love how simple and straight-forward the craft itself is and SO FUN TOO!

Active Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Difficulty Easy
Estimated Cost $5

Tools

  • Heat-Safe Tape
  • Scissors
  • Parchment Paper
  • Easy Press
  • Heat Press Mat
  • Printer/Scanner

Instructions

  1. Scan the heirloom recipe using your printer/scanner and bring it into your photo editing software. I used Adobe Illustrator and you can see, in the video tutorial, exactly what I do to make this file workable for myself. However, you do not have to follow these exact steps - you can simply copy your recipe on the printer/scanner that you have set up for sublimation, if preferred. You do not have to go through the digital clean-up that I did. That being said, after I brought the scanned recipe into Adobe Illustrator, I used the "Trace Image" tool, erased the white background, edited a few of the lines out that were extraneous to my design and cleaned up some of the text lines. Additionally, I felt there was a nice place for an image of blackberry jam so I fit a small design of a blackberry jam jar in the center of the recipe and sized my design to fit on my cutting board.
  2. In the toolbar, I selected Edit, then Transform, then Flip Horizontal. This will mirror the image.
  3. In the toolbar, select Print, then set up your print to 100% to print ready to fit the cutting board. Select your sublimation-ready printer and send the file to print.
  4. Preheat your Easy Press to 400-degrees.
  5. Once the file has printed, take a moment to wipe your cutting board down, so there is no dust on it to get in the way of your design.
  6. Place the print face-down on the cutting board on the white opaque side, positioning it where you want the design to appear. Tape the paper in place with the heat-safe tape at each corner to ensure that the design will not wiggle if you accidentally bump it while putting the heat press on it.
  7. Place a sheet of parchment paper over the sublimation paper and the cutting board on a heat press mat to protect your table.
  8. Place your heat press onto the cutting board and set the timer for 4 minutes.
  9. Remove the heat press from the cutting board when the timer expires and allow it to cool to the touch. When cooled, remove the parchment paper and peel the heat-safe tape from the cutting board, removing the sublimation paper at the same time.
  10. Then enjoy wrapping it to gift because you're done! photo collage tutorial of how to make a sublimation cutting board with an heirloom recipe

    Notes

    For more fun sublimation crafts, visit Ruffles and Rain Boots!

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    Did you make this?

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    • Farmhouse Bee Pillow – I LOVE this pillow so much – it’s seriously beautiful and captures a little squee of delight every time I see it on my couch.
    • Easter Kids-Shirt Sublimation DIY – Thinking that the kiddo may start wearing ONLY sublimated t-shirts from mom (me) because, frankly, they’re easy and way cuter when they reflect the kiddo inside the shirt.
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    cutting board with an sublimation recipe with text which reads make this easy sublimation heirloom recipe cutting board

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    One Comment

    1. I have not made the cutting board as of yet. I want to make them as a Christmas gift for my girls. I love this idea and have recipe’s from my grandmother I want to use. My question is what is a sublimation cutting board? What do I look for to find the correct type of board to use.