{Straight Muggin'}

You like my post title?  It's my attempt at humor.  I have more fun than most people with plays on words, and I find it hilarious when people use the wrong/misspelled words.  I don't mean that I "make fun" of those who use the wrong words.  I just think the words themselves are funny.  For example, one day I saw on Twitter that someone watched a movie on "Nertflix," and I thought that was the funniest thing ever.  I guess that's like the knock-off version of Netflix.  ;)  Yeah, I guess it's just my weird sense of humor.   After that digression session, back to the point.  I've seen some cute personalized mugs on Pinterest, and I wanted to personalize some mugs of my own.  Here's what I came up with:

First of all, I bought a mug from the dollar store.

I liked this mug a lot because I knew I could put soup in it.  (I am always scrounging around trying to find a microwave-safe bowl or mug to heat up canned soup during the colder months.)  I cleaned the outside of the mug with alcohol.

 The alcohol removes any residue on the mug that would keep paint from sticking to the mug.  I cut out a houndstooth pattern stencil from contact paper with my Silhouette.

I carefully adhered the stencil to the mug and then taped off the top and the bottom of the mug to keep those areas free from paint.  Then I started stenciling.

I used a small pouncer with a little bit of paint to stencil in my design.   I used Martha Stewart craft paint because it will adhere to glass and porcelain--surfaces that regular paint would not stick to.   It's better to apply several thin coats than one thick coat because a thick coat could seep under the stencil and ruin the design.

Before the paint was completely dry, I removed the stencil.  I used Martha Stewart's glitter paint to fill in the negative space around the stencil.  Then it's time to bake!  Yep, unless you want to wait 21 days for the paint to completely dry, let it dry for an hour.  Then put the mug in a cool oven.  Set the oven temperature to 350 degrees and set a timer for 30 minutes.  After the 30 minutes is up, turn the oven off and let the piece cool completely in the oven.  (I did the same thing with my dollar store cupcake stand.)  When my piece was cool, I thought, "Why not add a monogram?"

I used my Silhouette to cut out a monogram, and then I stenciled and baked the mug again just like before.  After the mug cooled, I had a personalized mug!

The houndstooth background is not my favorite because of the glitter I added.  I think the glitter makes it a bit too busy, but I LOVE the monogram.  

I liked this process so much, I made another mug inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

I used the same process for this mug.

I really like both mugs, but I think the monogrammed one is my favorite because of the PINK.  :)  If you were to make a mug, what would yours say?  Maybe I should make one that says, "It's a MUG life!"  Okay, that's enough craziness for one post...  ;)