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.