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How To Make Sharpie Mugs

It’s always a good time to learn how to make Sharpie mugs. After a summer of iced beverages and refreshing cocktails, it’s nearly time for wrapping your hands around a warm mug to ward off chilly temperatures. Whether you’re drinking coffee, tea, or hot cocoa, you need a mug that makes you smile every morning and brings you joy on the gloomiest winter days. Rather than scouring store shelves for the perfect mug, you can make your very own DIY Sharpie mug in just a few easy steps.

These mugs also make the perfect gifts for the upcoming holiday season. The steps are easy enough for kids to do as well, so you can sit the family down for a fun afternoon of crafting and finish your holiday gift list early or create a custom collection that fits the personality and design of your home. With just 32% of homeowners feeling satisfied with their dining room’s design, even the smallest pieces of dishware can make the space feel more cohesive. Let’s dive into how you can make these unique mugs that can serve a wide variety of purposes.

How to make Sharpie mugs – a tutorial

1. Buy plain mugs

The first thing you’ll need to do is find the right mugs for your DIY project. They should be completely white and ceramic, as that is the material that will take Sharpie the most easily. To help reduce the amount of plastic that the United States produces as the third-largest plastic producer in the world, you could look for thermoses and tumblers to decorate as well as mugs. By using these every day, you can avoid continually using and tossing the plastic cups that come from coffee shops.

2. Choose your Sharpie

Picking the right kind of Sharpie is essential to creating a design that will stand up to frequent uses and washing. Choose oil-based Sharpie paint markers for the results that will last the longest. It’s up to you whether you use one color or multiple, but keep in mind that black always creates a nice contrast to the white background of the mug.

3. Prep your mug

sharpie-mug-diy

Once you have your materials, start craft time by washing and drying your mug. You then need to decide on the design you want. When making this decision, find inspiration from your favorite things and then take into consideration how difficult it will be to draw onto a mug. You can always do a simpler design that captures the essence of your inspiration. For instance, if your child just learned in school that the longest journey by a honeybee to find pollen and nectar was over six miles and they want to depict this bee’s journey, you could encourage them to instead make a mug with bee-colored stripes. All you’ll need for this is masking tape to make straight lines and honeybee-colored markers.

4. Sketch out your design

If you’re doing a design with a drawing or words, practice drawing the design first on a piece of paper. You can also sketch your design onto the mug with pencil first so that you can easily erase any mistakes before its permanent. Remember that this crafty mug doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect or realistic. If you’re drawing a petting zoo scene, you don’t have to make the llamas more than twice the size of the alpacas as they are in real life. Simply draw whatever looks best and what you think the owner of the mug will like the most.

5. Draw with Sharpie

After all this prep, you’re ready to pick up the Sharpie and get to drawing. Go slowly and carefully to avoid any mistakes or smudges. If you do make a mistake, you can use a wet paper towel to wipe the mark off. For designs with multiple colors, start with your main color and then add accent colors afterward. This will keep the colors from blurring together and looking messy. Allow the drawing on your mug to dry out for a few hours or overnight while you get your recommended seven to nine hours of sleep. You can then move onto the last step in creating your cute crafty mug.

NOTE: Keep designs away from where your lips will touch the mug!

6. Bake your mug

To solidify the Sharpie drawing on the ceramic mug, you need to bake it in the oven. Set the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake it for 20 minutes. Avoid cracks in the ceramic by placing the mug in the oven before it heats up and leaving it in until it cools completely. If you’d like, you can bake the mug twice to ensure that the Sharpie drawing really sets in.

Voila! You now have a custom-made ceramic Sharpie mug to use this winter. Remember to handwash these mugs, as the drawings will rub off in the dishwasher. If you’re up for a little more of a crafty challenge, you can create fun designs on plain ceramic mugs with chalkboard paint, dishwasher-safe glitter, or porcelain paints. No matter how you want to decorate your mugs, remember to have fun and create a mug you want to use for years to come.

A Sharpie mug won’t last forever, it will eventually wash off if you use it a lot, but the good thing is you can always easily make another one!

Thanks for checking out my post about how to make Sharpie mugs!

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