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.
oh my gosh… what a wonderful idea!!! my homemade christmas list for everyone is getting longer and longer! ;) and i couldn’t be happier!!
Oh hooray. I always love seeing your family’s fantastically creative holiday DIYs. So impressive every year. This is definitely something fun you could do have all sorts of experimental fun with. Thanks for sharing!
easy peasy, simple, fun and quick!I like that very much… I still have some white cups lying around, thank you!
I love this idea and can’t wait to use it with my kids. This will make a great Christmas gift for Grandparents. Thanks!
Love, love these homemade-Christmas-gifts posts. Does baby June get her own cup, too? :)
Did a more thorough reading and answered that myself. Clever, clever. I love that you riffed off of Anthropologie. Lots of pretty things, but also for pretty prices. Goodwill, though? That’s my speed.
Brilliant! Maybe I can get my son to help me with this one…
We also have the tradition of homemade sibling gifts, and mugs have been on my list for a few years. I have had a few ideas: pictures of each person on the mug, the inside painted a different color for each person, etc. Your monograms are a terrific idea and look great.
LOVE IT!
Perfect!! I was just thinking my kids really needed their own special hot cocoa mugs (i.e., not my favorite pottery ones ;)!)…this is a GREAT idea!
Awesome, Gabby! My hubby and I have the monogrammed mugs from Anthropology but the kids don’t have them. I think I just found a gift to make them. Thank you, thank you!
Awesome Project. Kids and I will have tons of fun making these for their teachers! Oooh what about Mustache mugs?
So fabulous! I can see so many variations on this project, too – maybe holiday mugs with scribbled-in stockings, trees, gingerbread men, etc. What fun!
Thanks for the step-by-step info…. :)
I think this is my favorite post ever. Good job Maud, and thanks for sharing your beautiful idea. I am definetly making these for Christmas. Question, is the pen totally safe? Could I have my son draw on a plate and then we eat from the plate?
What a nice idea! Thank you for sharing – I love this. :)
Wow – I love that! The fact that the cups are all different makes it even better. I think these would make great stocking stuffers, too!
This is such a great idea. I have TONS of cocoa mix leftover from a recent baby shower. I see these as teacher gifts, for sure, with the mugs designed by the kids. I’ll probably have to pick up a couple extra mugs, because I’m sure the kids will want to make one for themselves, too!
I loved this idea! We’ve been trying to come up with creative, fun and relatively inexpensive gift ideas for Christmas, and this definitely fits the bill. Thanks!
I love this idea! TY
These are fantastic! I might just have to add some homemade peppermint marshmallows for adults… Wonderful idea!
Love the mugs! Love the mismatched ensemble! Great idea.
Do you think that you could use stencils and the pens and avoid the transfer paper all together? These are really cool and I have a lot of ideas for presents now, so thank you!
The cutest and coolest DIY ever! Great job Maude!:)
I love the effortless DIY projects you have. The cocoa in the mugs makes this present so perfect. Bravo!
Wow, these look store-bought! Can’t wait to see all the sibling gifts, esp. the ones for Flora June! :)
awesome idea!!!
I love this! I am definitely making mugs for all my friends for Christmas and Hanukkah this year!
Dang, girl. I love this idea. But then again, I love many of the ideas you have. My favorite element is that all the mugs are different shapes and sizes, but all white.
I’m going to bookmark this using Del.icio.us. Which you also introduced me to. Yup; you’re my go-to girl for happiness and tingling in the brain.
Brilliant! Maude obviously inherited your creative & design streak. I’ve been wanting to use the Sketch Block font for something for ages. Love it. Thanks
And to answer your question: No, I wouldn’t buy it if I found it in a store. They’re cool enough to buy in the store, and I’m sure I could find things like this, but part of the coolness is that each mug is a different size and shape. I highly doubt any supplier in a brick-and-mortar store would go through the trouble of making every letter of the alphabet in many different sizes and shapes.
Nothing made in a factory, anyway.
Love these, can’t wait to make them for christmas presents this year!
totally awesome and very cute! good job, maude! (and mom!)
what a fun idea…i LOVE it! thank you, thank you for sharing! will definitely be attempting…possibly later this week? :)
WOW! Brilliant idea! I am bookmarking this one!
AMAZING! And on so many levels, my favorite being that Maude was involved and every time she sees her family use a mug, will be so happy knowing she helped make them.
Just wonderful.
love this idea these are great. FYI I used to do a lot of gift making with those porcelaine pens and I always found that different colors had different levels of tackiness. The darker colors always tended to be stickier for some reason that the lighter ones. That could be why your red pen was different. I might have to dust off my box of those paints!
This is a great idea, I’m totally going to use it for gifts this Christmas. Thanks!
I love this! Thanks so much for the tutorial!
Great job, Maude! Your sibs will love this gift. I want one, too! I am adding this to my list. My Anthropologie was out of my letter. Now I can makey own!
I can’t wait to try this! I love the different sized mugs, too. Great idea!
I love this project!! I know my almost 9 year old would enjoy doing something like this. We may give it a try. Thanks for sharing!!
Oh how lovely!! I can’t wait to make with my kids! I may even try to do their handprints on a plate using this technique! So fun! Thanks for your wonderful DYI!
These are fabulous! I would be thrilled if you would link this to my Thrifty Christmas Challenge. It is sure to be quite an inspiration to many bloggers. Thanks for sharing! :)
Larri at Seams Inspired
Great idea and I love that you filled them with hot cocoa and mashmallows
That’s a great idea! Tanks for sharing!!!
love these. i want to do these with my kids and nieces. maybe after a big turkey dinner?
This is SO cool! I absolutely love this idea and would love to do this for all of our daughter’s PT/OT’s as thank you gifts for Christmas. Thank you for sharing all the pic’s – that’s a big help!
My son made me a mug for Mother’s Day last year! It is my favorite favorite cup!!!!
And… just like that, with your innovative magic the mugs are waaaaay prettier and more heart-warming than the Anthropologie ones. Beautiful.
I love this idea! I was thinking of taking the kids to a pottery place to paint a mug with their handprints, but now I’m thinking that this technique will work!
I love the idea of going to the Goodwill for the mugs. You save money and repurpose items that others gave away. Love it, love it, love it!