With the Holidays nearly upon us, a Charcuterie board is a wonderful way to make a beautiful food display. Also, this would make a perfect gift!

Last time I shared with you about building a Charcuterie or Meat and Cheese Tray. Today, I am going to share with you how I put the pretty designs on the board.

Sand

Whenever you are doing a wood burning project, you should always sand your board to a smooth finish first. I used 80 grit and then 150 grit sandpaper. Wipe your board off.

If you are artistic, you could freehand a design. Or you could make your design on the computer using Word or PowerPoint. Then print it off.

This is what I did for the board, then I just freehanded the designs on the leather straps. Transferring a design onto the leather would have been difficult.

This is super easy. Just use a pencil or a charcoal pencil and color all over the back of the paper. Then lay the paper down on the board and tape it in place.

Using heavy pressure trace over the design, making sure to go over each area carefully.

When you lift up the paper you should be able to see. your image on the board.

For this project I used the Worx Maker X. It is a brand new tool that just hit the stores! It is perfect for crafty people!

What is the Maker X?It is an expandable/portable 20-volt creative tool system. The battery is compatible with all Worx power tools.

I got the 54 piece Kit which included a rotary tool, an angle grinder, an air brush, a mini heat gun, and the wood and metal crafter that I used for this project.

The wood and metal crafter came with different tips for woodburning. Some are even little design shapes that you can just press into the wood.

For this project I just used the soldering tip.

For burning into the butcher block, I found that the maximum heat setting was necessary. This was 900 degrees. It heats up super quickly.If you need to change the bit before the tool is cooled down, use a pair of pliers to pull the bit out so that you don't burn yourself.Also, you will definitely want to use the provided silicone sleeve to keep your hand comfortable, as the tool does get hot.

When burning into the leather you can set the heat lower. I set it at around 700 degrees for the leather straps. The design shows up better on lighter colored leather, but I liked the look of the dark straps against the lighter wood.

I went into the details of building the cheeseboard in this post. If you missed that, a good food-safe butcher block oil is a great choice. I used Watco Butcher Block Oil. I sanded in between coats with 400 grit sandpaper. It takes 3-4 coats for a nice hard finish. The sanding in between gives the most amazing smooth finish!

Let the board cure for 72 hours before serving food on it. Then follow the tips below for making a beautiful display of food for your table!

By definition, a Charcuterie has to do with prepared meats. Of course, we pretty much just use the term as a fancy way of saying a meat and cheese tray. However, you can put anything you want on your board! Since I made three boards, I did one for crackers, one for the meats, cheeses, and fruits and one as a dessert board.There really are no "rules" with this, but there are things you can do to make it look impressive. The nice thing about this is you don't have to be a good cook to put out an impressive spread! Of course you could make a bunch of homemade appetizers and little cookies, but storebought treats are just fine too.

The main thing is to vary the way you put things out. Start with your main things, the meats, the cheese ball, the sliced cheeses. Then using glass dishes put out some dips and veggie sticks. This gives variation and height in different locations.

Color: Also, try to keep the colors in mind. I tried to balance out the colors, so if guacamole is on the front right, I then put some green cucumbers sticks in the back left, and again some round cucumbers front and center. The same way with the meat and the strawberries and grapes.

Enjoy your timeless and beautiful charcuterie board!