I pinned this tutorial way back in June last year to my Gift Ideas Board. I finally got around to doing this yesterday for Tom and Beth (two of my best friend’s) Christmas presents. Time got away from me a bit this Christmas, I’m aware it’s quite late in January!

You will need:

• Mugs (I got mine from Amazon but I think Asda or Wilkinsons would have been cheaper!)
• Oil Based Paint Pen (I used a gold, oil based paint Sharpie)
• I didn’t have scrapbook stickers like Stacey did so I thought I’d just use ordinary address labels. As I discovered later, these aren’t really thick enough but I couldn’t find any proper stickers to use and I preferred being able to choose the font of the letters.
• Oven

I typed the letters I wanted to use into Word and then played with the fonts until I had the ones I wanted. I printed these onto address labels and then cut them out. I held the letter against the mug to decide where I would position it before I peeled the back off and then stuck it on firmly.

I dotted all around the letter, I concentrated on the edges of the sticker to start with and then randomly dotted away in a rough circle:

I left the mug to dry for 20 minutes or so and then I peeled the sticker off. That’s when I discovered that the paint pen had bled through the sticker a bit. It wasn’t horrific but it wasn’t perfect either. Since I’m a perfectionist I spent 5 minutes just scratching the excess paint off (I didn’t have any rubbing alcohol to clean up with, anyone know where to get that in the UK?!)

I then baked the mugs for 30 minutes at 170° C. When the time was up, I switched the oven off and left the mugs to cool for another couple of hours.

I’m so pleased with the final present (even if it is basically a month late!):

I’ve asked my friends to let me know how they get on with washing these in the dishwasher if they decide to risk it!

I’m also planning to make a geometric shapes one using masking tape, I’ll post it when I find five minutes.

I enjoyed this project because it didn’t take forever and looked really great as a finished product. The actually painting probably only took 20 minutes per mug plus 5 minutes for cleaning up around the edges. Once the mugs were in the oven I could go off and do whatever else I needed to and just come back when the timer went to switch the oven off.