With the holiday season just around the corner, thoughts of gifts for others keep creeping into my mind. Like many others, money is tight for us this Christmas. We love getting into the spirit, decorating the home, and making sure we eat lots of yummy holiday-inspired treats, but we do try to go easy in the actual gift department. It’s so easy to go overboard with spending and we are trying to curb that this year, focusing more on the experience of Christmas. With all of that being said, I have turned to Pinterest for some inexpensive DIY gifts. There are so many ideas but what that caught my eye in particular was the DIY SHARPIE MUG. There are so many adorable ways to complete this craft, and not only was it a piece of cake, it took me all of twenty minutes to make three of them (perfect nap time craft!). I am going to get a few more mugs to try out different designs though. This being my first attempt I definitely see room for improvement and wouldn’t mind putting a bit more effort into the fonts. I just free-handed these puppies and quite frankly, you can tell! Either way though, loads of fun and super simple. They would make great gifts with a miniature Baileys bottle tucked inside with some coffee grinds, or perhaps a nice tea selection. I know a few people on my gift list who are going to be receiving one of these, perfectly tailored to them.

Supplies:

Sharpie – a nice new one with a sharp tip

Plain Mug – needs to be oven proof. Many mugs will indicate this on the bottom. Ceramic is what I chose to try and it worked out well.

Make sure your mugs are wiped clean and dry. Make your design on the mug with your Sharpie. Depending on the color of the mug, you may want to use different coloured Sharpies (images of silver and gold are now dancing in my head!)

Place mugs into the over and set to 350 degrees. You want to place the mugs in before it heats up so that they warm up with the oven and this will prevent cracking. Heat in the oven for 30 minutes. At the end of 30 minutes, turn the oven off but leaves your mugs in there to cool down with the oven, again prevent cracking. This will set your design so that you can wash your mug after use and it won’t effect the design. My research indicates this should make the mug safe to wash in the dishwasher, however I will not encourage that until I have actually done it myself. For gifting, tie a cute homemade tag with twine to the handle and indicate care instructions. CHEERS!