Monogrammed Mugs

On our recent trip to the US, we saw these amazing mugs at  Anthropologie.  We decided that yes, we  were going to purchase them until we realised that there was no "P" for sale.  Now, if we couldn't buy a complete family set - a 'M', a 'G', a 'P' and a 'J' there was no way we would purchase them, so we left the store empty handed and sad of heart.

Since we have arrived home, these mugs have been playing on my mind.  I LOVED them and I love family traditions.  How good would a family treat of delicious hot chocolate be in these adorable mugs?

Well, last week I did a computer search and stumbled across this amazing project from Design Mom and I knew that we had to make them.

Have a look at how they turned out...

Adorable?

They were fun to make and the kids LOVED creating their own mug.  

This is how we did it.

*I purchased 4 mugs from Spotlight - $1.99 each

*While I was at Spotlight, I also purchased a Black Pebeo Porcelaine Pen in Fine Point - $8.45 

*Using Sketch Block Font I enlarged the selected initials (M,J,P and G) to size 250 and printed them out on my home printer.

*The kids cut out their individual initial

*We rubbed the back of the printed initials with a lead pencil so we could transfer them to the mug (I didn't have any carbon paper at home)

*We stuck the initials onto the mug in the correct position using sticky tape.

*We transferred the initial onto the mug by rubbing over the letter.

*We took the initial paper off the mug but realised that the lead pencil was light (so faint that we could hardly see it)  so we went over it again with a lead pencil so the line was visible.

 *Using the Porcelain Pen we traced over the initials of the letter.  We made the outline as dark as possible.
*Then we filled in the initial with diagonal strokes (I encouraged the kids to keep the lines in the one direction - Grace decided to get crafty and hers went a bit swirly - very 'Gracie')
*We had a few pen strokes that weren't right but we were able to wipe them off with a tissue
*We went over all lines on the mug about 3-4 times
*When we were happy with the results we left them to dry for 24 hours.

*Then we baked them in the oven at 150'C for 30 minutes to set the ink.

*When the mugs were cool we wiped off any left over pencil marks.

*That is it!  

*Now they are sitting on our kitchen bench ready for the perfect night for a movie and hot chocolate.  Tonight is looking good!