Crafts

I was a guest over at Infarrently Creative a little bit ago and I thought I would share what I created for Beckie and her friends over there.  A Sharpie Art Gift Set.  Check out how to make this fun and inexpensive gift for your family and friends this holiday season…

Hello all my IC friends! I’m Heather from WhipperBerry and I’m over the moon excited to be here with Beckie to share my Sharpie Art Gift Mugs today. I just adore Beckie and all her amazing talents.  She’s one lady I would LOVE to spend a day with, just to hopefully glean from some of her knowledge, talents & energy!! One talented lady I must say…

I love this pennywise presents series she’s running this month and I have a fun one to share…

arrow design element from Rhonna Designs

Who doesn’t love a good hot chocolate mug during the chilly months and especially if it’s a mug full of LOVE?! That’s how I came up with my “A Mug A Love” gift idea to share. Here is what you will need…

Supplies

• light colored ceramic mug
• a Sharpie
• plastic sandwich bag
• hot chocolate mix, favorite coffee blend, tea or Choffy
• Kraft paper gift tag
• white chalk pencil

Optional Supplies

• vinyl
• vinyl cutting tool (I used the Silhouette Portrait)
• burlap gift bag
• bag embellishments (ribbon, bakers twine, whatever you would like to use to dress up your bag)

Directions

You can go big or minimalist with this project for sure. It all depends on your style and your budget.  Also, the sky is the limit as far as the design is concerned. I’ve seen some lovely hand written designs that people have created with their sharpies on ceramic mugs, plates and bowls.  I, however am not gifted in the hand writing area.  I have decent handwriting, but I’m too much of a perfectionist and I would blow through 150 mugs, (I’m sure,) trying to get it just right!! I decided to create a vinyl stencil so I didn’t have to go through that headache.  If you are artistically inclined, you can just skip this step and free-hand your design.

I created a design using my Silhouette Designer Edition software and cut the vinyl on my Silhouette Portrait.

This way I had a custom stencil for my Sharpie art.  I placed the stencil on the mug and then carefully colored in the design…

I say carefully because, even with the vinyl the Sharpie ink can bleed through and mess up your crisp lines. What I learned is to press on the marker lightly and trace the edges first.  By doing that your design will come out perfect!

Once your design is complete, place it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes to set the ink.  This way your design will become permanent and whom ever you are gifting it to can wash it, run it through the dishwasher, you name it and the Sharpie ink will not smudge!! How fun is that?

I did two different versions… A Mug A Love and Mug A Love, basically because I couldn’t decide which one I liked better. Yep… commitment issues.

Like I said before, it’s up to you and your budget as to how you dress-up your bag that goes inside the mug. You can take the minimalist approach and put your mix in a basic bag with a gift tag which would look lovely, or you could dress it up however you like. I chose to put my hot chocolate mix into a small burlap bag and dress it up with a small crocheted red doily paired with a simply Kraft paper tag. I wrote Merry Christmas on the tag with a white chalk pencil that you can find in any art supply store. It’s has a finer tip than your basic stick of chalk so it looks a little better.

Now all you have to do is fill it with your desired hot beverage mix and voila, you have a personal, yet inexpensive, not very time consuming gift to give to your friends and family.

Come on over an join me at WhipperBerry… I have all kinds of simple crafts and fun goodies to share for this holiday season and any time of year really. Plus, I love to make new friends!! Thanks Beckie for having me over today, I had a ball!!

Here are some more gift ideas from WhipperBerry…

homemade vanilla extract /// anthro inspired snow globes /// hot chocolate on a stick

You can also find me over at…

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