Oh Look - Sharpie Mugs!

Yep, it's the eleventythousandth variation of sharpie mugs! Each year I always try to give something handmade to the members of my family. In the past I have done this with varying degrees of success (last year I learned too late that glass etching + me = failure!). December has totally kicked my buns this year - I've had some super secret projects in the works that can't be revealed until after the holidays. My lack of holiday time management had me extra excited to knock out these easy and cute projects in an afternoon.

I scored a zillion white mugs in varying shapes from Home Goods. To decorate I used oil based sharpies in extra fine and medium widths. I stuck with simple black because I didn't want the colors mutating in the oven.

I gave each mug a wipe-down with rubbing alcohol prior to writing on them, and I used blue painters tape to keep my writing semi straight. If you make a truly terrible mistake, you can quickly wipe it off with a cotton ball doused in rubbing alcohol, but I found this was only worth it for really awful mistakes because it tended to smear and require you to wipe off a large area.

I let the writing cure overnight prior to baking the mugs. I'm not sure if this had any real effect or not - it was mostly a product of laziness! I started the mugs in a cold oven and then baked them at 425 degrees for 30 minutes (start the timer after the oven has come up to temperature). Starting them in a cold oven helps keep the mugs from cracking, although most of my mugs claimed to be oven safe already.

I plan to pair each mug with a bag of home made hot cocoa mix for gifting. These also made great daycare thank you gifts, and at around $4 a piece I was able to make sure that every single daycare worker got a holiday thank you from our family.

I know sharpie mugs are old news in internet land, but I'm super pleased with how these turned out, especially given how quick they were to make. Definitely my favorite kind of holiday craft - cute, budget friendly, and fast!