Today I’m happy to share a fun DIY from one of my fellow bloggers in Switzerland, Stacy of Swiss Eats! This mug is the perfect gift for Father’s Day, or an end of the year gift for your kids teacher, filled with goodies of course!
This an easy (and quick!) craft project we did as a end-of-year thank you gift for our teachers! I needed to change the project slightly after reading through a few projects created by other bloggers, as I’m based in Europe and we have slightly different supplies.
What you need:
- 1 white mug, and inexpensive one works fine
- Various colors (or a single color) oil based markers for porcelain or glass
- Pencil
- Tracing paper
- Paper
Instructions:
In most tutorials that I read, you are supposed to buy large letter stickers, meant for scrapbooking. I looked for these and couldn’t find them, so I tried a new (and much cheaper) technique!
The first thing you want to do is go on your word processing program and find a font you love. Type in your intended letter in lower or uppercase in a size large enough to look good on your mug. Each font is sized a bit differently but you are probably looking at something in the 120-150 point range. Print out your letter.
Using your tracing paper, trace the letter carefully using a fine point permanent marker.
On a square of paper that is slightly larger than your letter, use pencil to thickly cover the entire paper. This will be your “carbon paper” to trace your design onto the mug. (If you happen to own carbon paper, that may work as well)
Tape the pencil “carbon paper” pencil side down to your mug in the spot where you want your letter. Tape your traced letter on top. Then using a ballpoint pen, carefully trace over your letter, pressing firmly. Go over it a couple of times.
Carefully remove the tracing paper and pencil “carbon paper” and your design will be in pencil on your mug!
Being careful not to smudge the outline, use your porcelain/glass markers to make dots all around your design, until it looks the way you like it. You can cover the whole mug, or just an area like I did.
Let the design dry for a few hours. Place the mug in a cold oven and heat to 250F/120C. Bake in oven for 2 hours, then turn off oven and let mug cool for several hours.
When mug is completely cooled, you can erase any remaining pencil markets with a soft white eraser.
Mug should be dishwasher safe, but you can hand wash to be extra sure!
Stacy is the blogger behind Swiss Eats where she shares recipes and writes about cooking and eating healthy in Switzerland. You can also find her on Pinterest where she pins fun crafts, recipes, and home DIY!
