Thrift Store, Sharpie Decorated Mugs for Easter

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. If you read Friday’s post, then you know I had Saturday at home all to myself (a Birthday gift from my sweet family), and it was amazingly wonderful 🙂 I accomplished so much, including finishing up the project for today’s post. Have you seen those Sharpie mugs circulating around the internet? Yeah, I know, they’ve been around for a while–I’m late getting on the band wagon. The desire to embellish a mug or two hit me hard a few weeks ago, and so I made a special trip to my local Salvation Army to see what they might have on hand in the way of white mugs. (You may remember me posting about them in one of my Vintage Finds posts?) I happily found six that would work perfectly for this fairly simple project: Sharpie Decorated Mugs for Easter.

My son saw them on the counter, waiting to be Easter-fied and he said, “Did you make those Mom?” I said, “Yes,” and he responded, “Cool.” High praise from a 20-year old, am I right? And he hasn’t even seen them filled with treats yet!

Here’s how I found them at SA’s for 99¢ each. Perfect, blank canvases.

Then I had to locate the special, oil-based Sharpie, which I did, at Michaels, for somewhere around $4.50–not cheap, but worth the investment, I decided.

Okay, so I wish I could show you my first attempt at “free-handing” my daughter’s name. The letters went every which-way and came out different sizes. Ugh. Fortunately, I had some Goo Gone on hand and that allowed me to remove my train-wreck. [I have since read that rubbing alcohol removes mistakes easily–use a Q-tip for smaller areas. Good to know, because the Goo Gone only works, like, the second you make the mistake and it takes some work.] My solution for being able to write nice, even text on your mug is to set it in a cake pan filled with Epsom salt (or regular salt or sand) and then build a “brace” for your writing hand out of whatever (I used wooden blocks). Then I rested my hand on the blocks and could then write pretty evenly.

In addition to the four matching mugs, I found two others that matched and they cost only 49¢ each–woo woo. After you finish writing on your mugs with a Sharpie, it’s time to bake them. I checked out several posts via Pinterest and settled on Bren Did’s recommendation: place mugs in a cool oven, turn on oven to 350°, set timer for 20 minutes, turn off oven when timer dings, allow mugs to cool in the oven. Repeat.

Yes, that’s right, cook them up again. And Bren further recommends a light coat of clear acrylic spray to give further protection to your special project. I will do that once spring arrives, which does not appear to be soon, judging by the view out my window (6″+ of snow). In any case, you’re going to want to wash these babies by hand since it appears there’s no guarantee that your artwork can withstand the rigors of the dishwasher.

I wrote my family’s names on the set of four. Looking for more ideas for your mugs? Check out this website for 50 creative mug suggestions.

I purposely chose larger-sized mugs [for maximum coffee servings] and to ensure that they would hold a few Easter treats, and they are just perfect.

I wanted to try something different for Easter, and I think these fit the bill. We all love coffee, so I guess you could call them “grown up” Easter baskets. Hard for me to believe, my babies are all grown up! We used to buy them new Bibles on Easter, selecting age-appropriate versions each year. But now they have their “grown-up” Bibles, so this year, we will buy them a Christian classic, perhaps Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, to go along with their candy.

I think the mugs make a fun memento of Easter 2017, one that will last throughout the year and beyond.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!
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