Friends! I’m so pleased to share our first gift DIY of the season. Maude made these fantastic monogrammed mugs over the weekend. Don’t they look terrific? The idea came when we saw these fun initial cups at Anthropologie and remembered our kitchen was lacking in hot cocoa mugs. We decided to create a whole set.
It’s a very doable project. Inexpensive. Eco-friendly. And family-friendly too — these mugs are dishwasher safe. I can’t wait to tell you all about it.
1) We started with a trip to Goodwill, where we collected 8 plain white mugs. Enough for the entire family. There was even a little one without a handle that we thought would be perfect for baby food for June. Mugs were 50 cents each and we had dozens and dozens to choose from.
2) Then we gathered supplies. Scissors, pen, tape, graphite transfer paper, Black Pebeo Porcelaine Pen in Fine Point ($4 at Michaels, also available here) and a print out with the family’s initials.
For the font, I had something very specific in mind. I love the look of this Sketch Block Font and had it mentally filed away as the sort of thing a kid could replicate well — because it’s inherently imperfect. For this project, it worked like a charm! Since we were adding our own sketchiness, I started with a similar, but non-sketchy Rockwell font. Look for any slab-serif font (with names like Egyptian or Glypha) and they should work equally well.
3) Cut out an initial and a piece of transfer paper. Tape the initial and the transfer paper (dark side down) to the mug.
4) Trace the initial. Any pen or pencil will work and you’ll want to experiment with different pressures to see what’s best. You’ll just need a light outline. If you want, you can make your own transfer paper by rubbing a graphite pencil all over a sheet of plain paper.
5) Take your Porcelaine pen and trace over the lines of the initial. Get the edges nice and thick then fill in with diagonal sketchy strokes. A few notes:
– The sketchy strokes look best if they’re all one direction.
– The pen didn’t produce very smooth lines for us — which was fine because of the sketchy nature of the lettering. But later, I tried a red Porcelaine pen and produced very smooth strokes. So, I’m thinking my black pen was an old, dried out one. Who knows? This was my first experience with Porcelaine, so I’m not sure.
– It helped to have a blank paper handy where we could test the paint pen.
– We definitely got better at it as we practiced. So plan on it. Until it’s baked, the paint will scrub right off in soap and water. We redid mugs at least 4 times.
6) Once the lettering is done, let the mugs sit for 24 hours. Then bake them at 300 degrees for 35 minutes. It’s fine to bake them with graphite residue. The graphite will wipe right off even after they’re done baking.
7) And that’s it! Once they’re baked, they’re done. We pulled them from the oven, wiped them up and they were ready to go. For fun, we filled cellophane bags with hot cocoa mix and marshmallows and put them in the mugs.
The project turned out so well that it has my mind spinning with other possibilities. Maybe we’ll make a monogrammed mug for their teachers with a Starbucks card inside. Or a matching 2-cup set for Grandma and Grandpa. Fun for Christmas, but equally fun for other events too.
What do you think? Is this a project your kids would enjoy? Are the mugs cool enough that you would buy one in the store if you saw it for sale?
Need more sibling gift ideas? We made several fun projects this year: Bleached Out Tees, Bottlecap Magnets, Custom Leather Patches and Photo Snowglobes. You can also find a list of projects from past Christmases here.
These are beautiful. I would definitely buy them if I saw them. I love that they are slightly imperfect. I do not have kids, but I know I’ll have fun making a bunch as Christmas presents this year.
This makes me wonder what else I could use that pen with. Toilet art here I come!!!
i want to try this! are these dishwasher/microwave safe?
Very cool. I might use this as a welcome gift for my new roommate. If I can find that kind of pen.
Totally adorable idea!
I just found your blog via Happenstance and then I saw this project…oh my gosh, I absolutely love it. These will be perfect for my daughter (17) to make for all her friends. I love all your step-by-step directions, answering my questions as I read each one…and the beautiful photos to go along with the directions. And yes, I would buy one of these. I love your even more than the ones at Anthropologie…for some reason–and maybe they are supposed to remind you of this, but they look like shaving mugs. I love how you made them for your family and even the sweet little one for the baby. So happy to have found your beautiful blog today!
annie
Oh…my…gosh! I can’t even tell you how awesome I think this is. I am so excited for Christmas morning. I’m gonna have a custom mug for each of my family members…surprise!
Lu Purcell
made these today…wound up with brand new ink pens that were all dried up, but bought the little thing of the same thing as paint+brushes instead, and it worked great! such a cute, fun, homemade gift for the holidays…thanks!
I love this! My daughter is always drinking hot cocoa from one of my mugs, which I collect mugs, so she’s not really allowed to use any of them. This is going to have to be one of her birthday or Christmas gifts (they’re 7 days apart) this year. Thank you for sharing.
This is on my list of gifts to make this year. Great idea, thanks for the inspiration! I’m wondering if you could share the cocoa mix recipe you used. Of course I’ve given it a Google search but I’m curious about something tried and true.
My family also makes gifts for one another. We started 15 years ago and I get stumped sometimes trying to think of something. Thank you for your post. I am going to do the mugs for my brother in law that is a huge fan of hot cocoa!
Thanks for this great tutorial.
I have included it in a list of great tutorials for men on my blog.
You can see it here….
http://allysonadeney.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/22-handmade-gifts-for-men-or-anyone-really-with-tutorials/
…if you like.
Thanks for taking the time to put it together and post it so that everyone can have a go.
Ally on harrysdesk
oh LOVE it ;) so cute
I love these! You did a great job on them :) I just wanted to let you know that I’ve included these in our gifts for guys roundup on the FaveCrafts Blog: http://www.favecraftsblog.com/link-love-the-manliest-of-gifts/
Please let me know if you’re ever interested in publishing your tutorials/patterns with FaveCrafts!
Cool idea, but I have a question:
Will plain old permanent markers work, like a fine-tip Sharpie? Limited resources over here, so I would appreciate the advice.
They look super awesome!
Could this work with the “Painters” pens that you can get from Wal-Mart & JoAnn’s? I couldn’t find the porcelaine pens at Michael’s. :/
I love this. What a great gift idea! I’d love for you to link up & share: http://tutusandteaparties.blogspot.com/2011/12/pinteresting-link-party-week-sixteen.html?m=1
Hello! Great gift idea! I too am living in France and would love to be able to do this here. Could you tell me if the things to make the cups can be found here?
What a wonderfully, creative idea! My mind is reeling as I think of all the possibilities! Friends, family, businesses that you deal with but just don’t know what to get for them, and neighbors. Then as you said, teachers, as well. The list could go on and on. I’m wondering if this would work on glasses. I have a group of girls that I would love to do this for but would like to do it on drinking glasses. Hmmm…may have to research that idea. Thank you for sharing :)
I love this – great idea with the graphite paper!
I’ve made something similar that some of you may also enjoy:
http://www.lifeologia.com/a-cup-filled-with-love/
Thanks for the wonderful idea! I’m in the middle of making a bunch for my team at work.
I love this! Where do you get transfer paper? Would that be at Michael’s as well?
where did you find the outlined rockwell font?
So cute! I’ve used porcelaine pens before, and the black ones are always a piece of crap! The other colours are fine, but I really struggle (just as you did) with the black ones – I have no idea why this is.
Just came across these on Pinterest. What a fabulous idea! Will definitely be making several for some last minute gifts!
I just came across these via pinterest. My best friend will be getting a monogrammed travel mug for Christmas!!
Love your idea!! Easy, inexpensive, and great impact…win-win project!!
Thanks so much for this post! My daughter and I are making these for family this year and they are so much fun. We strayed a little from the monogram and did a cat for the cat lover in the family and we are gong to try a few other designs today..You can see a photo on my blog.
What a great idea!
Okay, I got all the supplies but my pens won’t work. Has anyone had the same problem? I have pushed them for 30 minutes and nothing! I will bring them back this week but wondered if there were brands or kinds that worked better. Thank you. I love the idea and was going to give these out at our Christmas Dinner that we have the weekend before Christmas. I thought they would make the kiddos feel special.
So awesome! Am making some right now! I love finding the mugs in thrift shops! Just a question– the porcelain pen says that after hours it’s dishwasher
safe— so why bake it?? Should I still? Will the mugs crack if they don’t say “oven safe” am worried about that.
Dishwasher safe
I love this idea and just did six of them for my kids’ teachers! My son (who is 5) wrote his name on the other side and I wrote the date. This is a wonderful idea, I love it!! Thank you for sharing.
Absolutely love all the sibling gift ideas! I can’t wait to start some with the kiddos :-) May be after the Christmas ;-) Thank you!
I saw those same mugs and thought they were great. Now, I know on one of my Goodwill trips, I need to start collecting white mugs. These look great. I’ve never used the transfer paper or that pen, but I can think of all kinds of things to do with it. We have bought each of the kids mugs with their photos all over it, but the initials are oh so cute.
Wow this is AWESOME!! Thanks so much. I’ve been trying to come up with cool, cheap, and easy gifts for Christmas and this is perfect! I’m going to try several different colors, with a more girly monogram and a cool design around the rest of the cup. <3
I found these on pinterest and made them a couple days ago. I had everything but the porcelaine pen. My local craft stores didn’t carry them. But Hobby Lobby suggested I try a shapie paint pen. So far so good!
I made these too but must have done something wrong since after baking the letters are coming off when I wash the mugs. Oh dear. I baked for 35 mins at 300 degrees. Should I try longer?
Love the idea! Going to try it out asap..
Is it really necessary to let the mugs sit for 24 hours?
These are such a good idea and super easy! I actually used your tutorial to make two cocoa mugs to include in cocoa gift baskets this Christmas. You can check them out here if you’d like:
http://craftanyway.blogspot.com/2011/12/homemade-cocoa-basket-and-sprial.html
OMG! I have so many coffee, cocoa and soup drinkers in my family and this will be such a great idea for individualized Christmas gifts maybe next year. Or if I can’t wait, for their birthday’s throughout the year! Thank you SO SO SO much for sharing this wonderful idea!
I just love it, the idea as well as the gift. Thanks for sharing
These are such a great idea! I will definitely be trying this soon!
Thanks for sharing such a great tutorial!
-Anna
shinelikeglitter.blogspot.com
So glad I found you via Soulemama!!! Thanks for the awesome monogram mug idea!!! We made two for holiday gifts!! And would love an excuse to make more :) http://buzzmills.typepad.com/blog/2012/01/little-things-with-letters.html
Happy New Year!!!!
So the cups will not bust if baked? How will you do glass to make it stay on?
Great Idea! Thank you so much for sharing. I want to try this myself, and give them out as party favours!
Hello,
I love this tutorial!
I featured it on my blog;
http://creativebalorina.com/monogram-mugs/
:]
Love this! I can’t wait to try it! Don’t know where I can get my hands on the pen here in Italy, but will do my best to hunt it down. Gratzie!
Hi!
Can you “clean up” the extra markings after you put them in the oven? If so, how is this possible without messing up the initial itself?
Please share- can’t wait to do this for the holidays! I purchased mugs today. =)
i was just curious what kind of mugs to use i bought ceramic mugs with glaze/clear coat already applied i just wanted to make sure the porecelaine pens will stick and be able to be baked on that type a mug?
please someone heeelp lol
thanks,
amanda
Instead of a porcelain pen can I use an edding marker, do u know which one? Tks
This is such a wonderful idea! We don’t spend a lot of money on gifts…we have four children and eight grandchildren…but I love to give them all presents. Making gifts is rewarding in so many ways…I love to do it and everyone seems to love receiving them. This project is definitely on my list this year! Thank you!