DIY Mugs! - From July 2013. I guess I never posted!

How many of you have tried to make a mug using Sharpies and baking it in the oven???
I know I have (twice) and it didn't work either time :(
However, I was on Pinterest (where else?), and saw that if Sharpie Oil-based Paint Markers were used, that it would not wear off!
So I tried it, and guess what it worked!!!!

So here is a list of things you will need:
A mug, plate or piece of glassware you would like to decorate (make sure to wash it prior to decorating it). You can find these at garage sales, the dollar store, on clearance, wherever, I found mine at Big Lots for 80 cents! :)
Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers in whatever colors you would like to use. There are fine point and medium, so be mindful of that when you select your markers.
Having a couple q-tips and paper towels around, as well as a cup of water may be beneficial!

Mine is a gift for my Best Friends Birthday! Since I go to school almost three hours from home, it is why I chose to do the shape of MI and a heart where each of us is. Because I wanted it to look as much like Michigan as possible, I printed off a small map of Michigan and cut it out to give me the general shape of it.  So if you are doing something difficult, you may want to do that!

I also found a quote to put on the opposite side. Just Google a quote you like and place it on there.

I made a couple of mistakes along the way, but it was fairly easy to fix, I just got a q-tip wet and used some elbow grease to get of the spots where I messed up.

Also you want to make sure that the marker is fully dry before you touch it against anything, it can smear very easily, but you can also clean it up with a q-tip and water.

 So here are some pictures to show it off!

So here are the markers I used. The Black is a Medium Tip and the Lime and Aqua are Fine Tip. I picked these up at Hobby Lobby. There were $3.79 a piece. I also had a 40% Coupon, so one of them was 40% off. 

So here is the handle. I wanted to do alternating colored hearts with a black dot in between. However, the Black dot does not look like a dot, more like I heart!

So I took a q-tip that was wet and started rubbing to remove the black. 

Here is the mug after I have removed the black dot. Can't even tell it was there!!!

Here is the finished handle.

Here is the side with a quote on it, however you can do whatever you want. I will warn you, you may want to have a couple extra mugs and one as a practice to get a feel for the Paint Marker. They write differently than a regular Sharpie.

And her is my map! Some of the spots are completely perfect, so I did a little more touching up with a q-tip, water, and a paper towel.

After I was completely finished with the mug, I had to let it sit for 24 hours for the marker to fully dry.

After that, heat your oven up to 400 degrees. Place the mug in the oven as soon as you turn it on, that way it can heat up with the oven. Then let it cook in the oven for 40 minutes. Once it has cooked for 40 minutes, shut the oven off, and let the mug cool off. This helps the mug to seal!!

I would also recommend that you wash your mug, especially if it is a gift. That way you can make sure that it will not wash off, even though this is supposed to be a more permanent method of making the mugs.

Happy DIYing! :)