I like trees

The last mug I made for the collection is a birch tree mug. I freaking love it. It definitely took some time to do, but it was worth it.

Now my collection is complete! I am ready for summer to be over so I can sip some hot chocolate.

The Mug Project - The House Mug

Hi there. For the next mug I wanted to do a row of little houses. I wanted their chimney smoke to say something cute, but I wasn't sure what. I came up with the idea to write different ways of saying hello, which turned into "hello" in different languages. It wasn't what I was going for, but when Cody saw the houses he said "Went for the small world look, huh?" I guess it sort of looks that way.

{english and chinese}

{spanish)

{german}

{french}

I love this mug. So cute... and educational!

Evil Kitten/Cute Kitten

We tried to take some cute pictures of our newest cat, Assassin. She is extremely playful (or non-stop psycho) and has learned from our other cat Reagan to play rough. Cody tortures her by holding down her paws and kissing the top of her head. She acts like his kisses are made of fire and cries out little meows like she is in pain. Which is funny. Because they are kisses. Not holy water on a possessed person.

My husband is adorable. My cat is a demon.

This one is my favorite with her one crazed eye.

Clearly she was not cooperating with the "cute photo" idea. But here is a cute picture of me to make up for it. :) Ha.

Mug 4 - Cody's Manly Mug

For the next mug, Cody wanted his very own manly mug with his handsome face on it. He also wanted Big Foot on it because Cody likes Big Foot.

And so I would like to present the hand painted beard and Sasquatch mug:

My depiction of Cody's cute face.

A friendly but shy Sas.

Pebbles, you ask? Yes, Pebbles. Cody's father told us that on a few different occasions, he has been camping out in the middle of nowhere and has heard little rocks being thrown against his camper. He thinks it is Big Foot and now he/we refers to him as Pebbles. That is why this charming Sasquatch (in the classic "Patterson" pose) is holding a small rock.

Mug 3 - The feather mug

The next mug I made is probably my favorite. Feathers!

Feathers are so hot right now.

Mug 2 - Sleeping Beauty Inspired

For my next mug I was inspired by the beautiful background art of Sleeping Beauty. This is my favorite Disney movie as far as art goes. I just love how unique and distinct it is.

The mug did not turn out as perfect as I would have liked (this paint is temperamental), but I think it is pretty cute and hopefully you get the idea.

Lots of trees

Some sixties-esque flowers (my favorite part).

And some extra handle detail.

This was a fun mug to paint and it didn't take that long. It's great for my retro taste.

More to come soon!

The Mug Project - Mug Numero Uno

A few weeks ago, I decided I did not like our mug collection. They were too small and I was tired of looking at them. So. Last Christmas I had made Cody his very own wood grain mug. (You know how your grandma or mother or mother-in-law sometimes gets it in their head that you like something, for instance unicorns or frogs, and from that point on whenever you receive a gift from that person, it is always a unicorn? Well I am the Grandma in this case and Cody's eternal gift theme is wood grain.)

Here is the mug I made for him for Christmas 2011:



This was before I shelled out for some good brushes. I don't even remember what I used to paint the design on but it might have been a tooth pick. I do not recommend the toothpick method.

He loved his mug and it is the favorite one in the cupboard. So I decided that I was going to make an entire set of hand painted mugs. I used Pebeo porcelain 150 paint and an assortment of very very small tipped paint brushes.

Is that how I hold a paint brush? Weird.

I came up with ideas for each one using Pinterest and Etsy, (and my brain). Yes, I might be an idea thieving copy cat, but if I see something I like on Etsy that I can easily make myself, that's what I do. So sue me. (please don't sue me, I really do buy a lot of stuff from Etsy. I am a supporter. Just also a DIY-er.) The truth is, I did get some inspiration from Etsy, but I tried to make each one my own.

Here is the first mug I made for the collection:




The owl mug was also painted using a crappy tool (not a fine tipped paint brush). The lines turned out a little crazy because of this, but I just love how he turned out! It took about 3-4 hours to paint the owl. Once I got all of them painted and made the final touch-ups, I baked them in the oven using the directions on the paint. I made sure to put them in before the oven started heating up, and then once they were done baking I let them slowly cool down in there before taking them out. I pretty much just left them in the turned off oven over night to make sure they wouldn't crack from temperature change.