“Nooooooooo! Uhgggggg!” I let out an exasperated sigh that I swear my neighbors could hear. My plan was brilliant. My plan was a big fat fail. I wanted to surprise my friend with a monogramed wood cutting board. I had never seen one before and was so excited to create a fun and useful craft. This is going to be so cool, I thought, patting myself on the back.
Gleefully I purchased a very nice wood cutting board, came home and began to design the monogram on the computer with a beautiful scrolly font. I cut the letter out using a Silhouette machine and carefully applied the vinyl to the cutting board, smoothing out the air bubbles. “This will be fabulous!”, I said in a sing-song voice.
Giggling, I ran to the garage to get my dark walnut stain and carefully painted it on with a small paintbrush. I am such an impatient person and was eager to see the results so with a napkin I wiped a bit of stain away. Nope, more time was needed. After a few emails, another cup of coffee and the constant checking of the clock, it was ready to remove the stain and reveal my amazing masterpiece.
Let’s remove the excess stain and peel off the vinyl. Ta-da!!! Too awesome. It came out so nice! She is going to just LOVE this gift!
Time to add the mineral oil and seal in the stain. I poured the oil onto my napkin and gently stroked the monogra…………
WHAT THE??????
“Noooooooo!”
Gone.
Vanished.
Smudged into an ugly brown oblivion, to forever live its life in the fibers of that napkin.
Mega Craft Fail
They say pride cometh before the fall. Well, I tripped over my arrogance and fell flat on my face.
Did I bother to do any research beforehand?
Ummm, NO.
Did I really even know if staining a cutting board was possible?
Of course not.
Did I later discover that the stain I was using would make that cutting board toxic?!
Ooops. Oh yes. Great. How brilliant do ya feel now Kim?
Hmmm….
So today I’m eating humble pie for lunch and then heading out to the store to BUY a gift….
that won’t poison my best friend.
(p.s.- if anyone DOES know how to do this safely and effectively please let me know!)
Happy Friday everyone!
Kim
For the latest updates, join me on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, PINTEREST, G+ or SUBSCRIBE
Oh, Kim, wow, I was reading and thinking “Wow, that looks so cool!” Didn’t you couldn’t stain a cutting board. Great idea though.
So what was the fail-culprit? Is the cutting board like butcherblock & sealed too much for the stain to penetrate? I don’t think it’s a total fail. It would still make for great kitchen wall art. Why not sand it up, restain and add hardware so it can go on her wall? I’d much rather have something like that displayed for fawning over than tucked away (full of knife marks) in my drawer. 🙂 ~ Dee @deeconstructed.com
You are definitely being too hard on yourself. The gift idea was unique and fun and I am sure your friend knows that. It is definitely something you will laugh at (eventually ) 🙂
Oh, my sweet friend, you are WAY to hard on yourself. If I ever made a list of my #fails, well . . . it’d be more of a book. But that’s how I learned too. Unfortunately a lot of my #fails were at a client’s home. Oh yes. However, I’m happy to say because it’s paint, it was all fixed even if not-so-easily.
Kudos to you for sharing. You’ll help more people than you know. 🙂
Oh no! I’m worried my current project will turn into a big fat fail…
Ooops! But craft fails aren’t a bad thing – you learned from the experience, which is a good thing for you and for all the people who were going to receive monogrammed cutting boards 😉 There’s probably a finish on the cutting board that blocked the stain from absorbing into the wood. If you try again, try sanding the board first. And maybe use food colouring for the monogram, and then seal the whole thing with an oil.
I did sand it lightly, but maybe not enough. Anyhoo, it wasn’t a food safe stain, so back to the drawing board… or should I say cutting board. 😉
This has happened to me before with a stain when the wood was already sealed. It was basically like putting it on a window and wiping it off like yours. I think Kelly’s tip above using food coloring is a great idea! 🙂
It happens! At least you can laugh at yourself 🙂
HAHAHA you crack me up. Sounds like my staining disaster in the kitchen, but yours was on a much smaller scale thankfully. 🙂
Oh no Emily, you didn’t!!! I missed that post! Yes, I am grateful it was such a small piece for sure.
Maybe monogram the left hand corner with a tool like which was used for the indention around the whole thing, or use a wood burning technique, but to be able to use for meat or vegetables, would have to remain clean.
Those are both great ideas!
Sorry about your opps! No recomendations here. I probably would have done the same darn thing.
I was going to say use a wood burning tool, but I see someone else was already on top of things and wrote it. 🙂 Oh girlfriend, I have had so many craft fails it’s not funny. Just do what I do and chalk it up to experience and now you know what NOT to do to a cutting board. 😉
Now go shop for a non-toxic gift! lol
Love ya!
Haha! Thanks! Oh yes, she will be getting something from Homegoods I think! 😉
It was looking Fabulous…bummer! But, um..”Your friend” is very grateful for the effort and the fail at this point ..(sigh of relief) I’m thinking humble pie is better than toxic cheese. Besides, after all my crafting and beauty tip fails we have laughed at it’s good to be on the other side of the “chopping block”. . Or in this
instance cutting board. Love you!
Exactly! She is a bit of a health nut(love her!… I know she’s reading this)& organic- no chemical purist too, so yah… toxic stain wouldn’t have been the best choice overall. 😉
Do you know I actually stained an entire cutting board once? Not good at all…it looked horrible, and thank goodness, I didn’t know it could actually poison my family. I bet you could burn a monogram onto the wood…just wouldn’t work with vinyl lettering 😉
Now that is funny!
I’m thankful you were willing to share this lesson with us. Reading this I was thinking, “what a great idea! and so much less expensive than the ones in the gourmet kitchen stores.” There must be a way to turn it into a nice piece of personalized kitchen art. I can see that monogram on there hanging on a wall. You could also present it as a large trivet, not for food use or chopping purposes. I know there’s a way to at least make it great wall art. I wonder if the oil used to seal the board initially isn’t too absorbed in the wood to sand “enough” for stain to now absorb. Or maybe the oil in the wood is repelling the stain. hmmm… please keep us posted on what you try next on this board!
Well, it made a great story!!
It’ll make a great surface protector. ie. under a coffee machine or plant pot. Nothing’s wasted ;O)
Tania xx
Oh Kim, this made me giggle so much my eyes were watering! Thank you for letting us know you are human 🙂 Also if this decorating thing falls through, you would make a great comedy writer! Thanks for the laugh 🙂
:-/ It happens sweetie. Glad you figured it out before giving it as a gift to your friend. I am sure she’ll luv what you get her and you will both laugh at this.
Cheers, Gee
I don’t know if you permanently ruined it or not, but you could try for a small monogram or decoration of some sort along a bottom edge with CeCe Caldwell paints sealed with oil. They are reported to be non-toxic, but I’m still not sure if it would be considered food safe. Probably seems obvious now, but those cool cutting boards with different colored woods are not stained that way, they are actually different woods. It did look awesome!
I just had to laugh. This is so something that would happen to me! Thanks for letting us in on the fail and letting me know that I am not the only one:)
What a great and very sweet idea. Oh I hate that this didn’t turn out the way you had planed, but I love that you shared this for us all to see that things do go wrong, we learn a lesson, or two, and we try something else. Not every craft or decorating idea is an instant masterpiece.
Happy (non toxic) shopping for your friend 🙂
Lol — it’s the thought that counts, Kim!! I would totally have done the same thing… :-).
xo Heidi
I would have done the exact same thing! I get an idea in my head that is brilliant and it doesn’t occur to me that it won’t work. Thank you for sharing your “fail” with us. Although it should be considered a learning and teaching opportunity. Think of the countless best friends who are now saved from unintentional poisoning! LOL
What if you painted the monogram instead and added handles on both sides to create a serving tray? 😉
Confessions of A Plate Addict blog has a good tutorial on how to make a monogrammed serving tray – check it out to see if there are any instructions you might use in the future; or make the serving tray as instructed.
Here’s the link: http://confessionsofaplateaddict.blogspot.com/2012/11/pottery-barn-inspired-monogrammed.html
Judy/Texas
Kim thanks for visiting my blog and checking out my wood burned cutting board. I think that an inkjet transfer would probably “stay” better than a stain, but if you want it to be food safe it’s better to use a wood burning tool. My cutting board will probably only be used as a decorative item by my mom, but I transferred the image very lightly in ink first, then used that as a guide to burn the wood. You could easily used carbon paper instead.
Cheers! Kathryn at http://www.uglyducklingtransformations.wordpress.com
Kim, your post was so cute and funny. Nice to know that you also have fails. Mine, to many to count. I do have a thought, in my home we have a lot of mahogany and cherry furniture. When one pieces gets a stain, I rub with a walnut, The bare exposed wood turns dark, hiding the mark. i wonder if sanded enough, this would work? Please do a follow up once you find “the answer”. I know your friend will appreciate your efforts and will love any present such a thoughtful friend would give.
oh dear! I am glad I’m not the only one who has craft fails and you did succeed in making me laugh! How about pyrography instead?
Can you put the monogram on the bottom for decorative purposes? Here is a good website to look at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TaylorCraftsEngraved
On no disaster! Lovely of you to go to all the effort though and it’s a good job it didn’t work out in the end then considering it would have been toxic ha!
Dear Kim – Thank you ever so much for your blog and this particular post. Clearly this was written months ago and I’m sure you’ve moved on to more crafting adventures I found this purely by accident while giving myself a “timeout” after over a month of outright failures , near misses and just plain making do when I want to do the best with everything I put effort into. This particular post just hit me, like the cutting board you so thoughtfully worked on hit me square in the forehead!! The footlights merged with the spotlights and the focus became oh so very clear. You got a do over!!! If for no other reason than food safety issue or your friend’s insistence on only organic. Please give yourself the break(even at this late date) and I’m going to do the same. I deserve it! Thank you for all you do.