Mugshots

For Sinterklaas my host family gifted me with a range of different art supplies; including these Edding porcelain brush pens and a few plain white mugs.

 I remember reading a few blogs a while back which gave instructions on drawing on mugs with Sharpie, I never tried it for myself but then I got these super simple markers and it just felt right. 

I bought extra mugs for my friends and the kids and we've been very productive in the whole mug decorating business. I've got 12 mugs sitting on my little craft table in my room waiting to be baked. The great thing about these particular pens is that the instructions are printed on each pen in 5 different languages. It's fairly simple: Bake the drawn on porcelain product for 25 minutes at 160°C and store horizontally. How easy is that?

The hardest part of the whole mug drawing process is deciding what you want to put on there. I love some of my mugs and some I'm pretty 'meh' about.  I decided to just roll with whatever I started doing. None of these designs was planned or even remotely thought about so they lack polish but since they're all reserved for gift giving I'm not too fussed about that. 

I thought I'd snap a couple of pictures of my favourite mugs for you to see and maybe get a few ideas for your own mug decorating adventures. I almost feel like the redheaded girl mug is photobombing all these pictures. Oh dear. I think the most challenging design was the little Dutch houses mug. Trying to get finer details in with a 1-4mm brush pen tip can be challenging enough without adding a smooth, curved surface to the mix, still, it came out just as I imagined. My personal favourite is the "I love coffee" mug though. 

This particular mug shot features the lovely Sarah VD's christmas gift print on the left and a Galaxy haired self portrait on the right. I'm a real fan of Sarah's little collection of doodles in her print so I made her this mug. 

And of course no mug would be complete without a Manatea :) This little fella came in a care package from one of my sweet friends back home. And in perfect time too since I've been drinking more and more tea this last month. 

xoxo,
Lily.