Surely you've seen this craze going around Pinterest? I honestly can't count the number of links I came across before I finally decided to give this project a go. And once I started looking into the technique, I was amazed at how many people have tried it. Then I also was a little worried about the number of people that had poor results!
Most of the tutorials will tell you to draw your design on the mug with a regular Sharpie marker, then bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I read other suggestions that said to bake it longer or at a higher temperature. Some recommended a special type of Sharpie. Some just said it wasn't worth the time because it won't work. Well I'm brave so I decided to give it a go and see what happened.
Initially, I picked up 8 coffee mugs. They are off white ceramic mugs and more curved than the standard coffee mug shape. After we finished the first batch, I went back to the store and bought about 20 more. Everyone got a mug from us this Christmas! And we had so much fun doing them!
To get started, remove any stickers and wash and dry the mugs completely.
Then gather up all the supplies and choose a design. Since we were planning on giving these away as Christmas gifts, I wanted the kids to be involved in making them as well. All of the mugs have the kids' thumbprints incorporated into the design. My favorite are these little reindeer inspired from a project found here.
The thumbprints are all done using acrylic paint. I used the end of a paintbrush dipped in paint to make the nose, although this could also have been done with a red Sharpie. The rest of the drawing, the eyes and antlers, and sayings, are all done with the regular Sharpies. It's a little trickier than you'd think to write across the mug with a Sharpie. My cursive wasn't the greatest, but that just makes it more personalized!
I let them dry on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes while also preheating the oven. I decided to up the temp to 375 degrees to make sure it worked! I put the whole thing in the oven for 35 minutes just to be safe!
Pull them out of the oven carefully and leave them on the baking sheet until they are cooled completely. After that they got another wash and dry and were ready to be gifted! I wouldn't recommend putting these in the dishwasher, but the paint and marker shows no signs of coming off after hand washing.
This design was inspired by a DIY Christmas card found here. We also did a version using a silver Sharpie for the cord and pastel colored lights. Don't forget to add the date!
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