Happy National Coffee Day! In order to get in the coffee mood I thought that it would be fun to do some experimenting with hand-painting coffee mugs.

To make your own design on a mug you need a plain mug and ceramic markers. I got the Painted By Me brand from AMAZON just to see how well it worked so that I can make more in the future, and am very happy with the end result!

Apply your design using the pens on a clean surface. The cool thing with these pens as opposed to using a sharpie was that I was able to wipe away things I wasn’t happy with as I went (which if you know me, you’ll know this was my twentieth attempt.) I did notice though that if you try to go over a certain area multiple times it will get a little bit goopy so be careful about that.

When I got the hand-written type and dots aligned the way I liked it, it was time to bake the piece. I followed the instructions for baking from the back of the marker packaging and that worked nicely. Place the mug into a non preheated oven and bake at 375 for 40 minutes. Then turn the oven off and leave the mug inside to slowly cool. This is to prevent any cracking.

It did take a while for the piece to cool down, but now my design is permanently baked onto the mug!

I love the mug so much even though my handwriting isn’t always my favorite. Overall, these markers work well and I will most likely be using them again to make more in the future.

Of course, Once it was finished and washed I had to enjoy a nice cup of coffee in it…

Because let’s be honest, who can honestly function without it? >>