Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Using A Silver Sharpie To Decorate Mugs

This is a weird DIY thing I tossed together three Monday nights ago in front of the TV in our old house.

Diy Mugs2

The first reason I’m calling it weird is because we no longer live there, so it’s funny that this post somehow got buried and now it’s getting published with our old walls and shelves in the background. And it’s pretty darn close to Christmas, but I figured it might be a fun little last minute gift idea for someone. Better late than never, right? Hence the idea of hitting publish on it (as opposed to delete).

The second reason I’m calling it weird is that I totally didn’t use the right materials to make these mugs food or beverage safe (so they’d be great informal flower vases on a kitchen windowsill, pencil holders in an office, or even q-tip or cotton ball containers in a bathroom) but they shouldn’t be used to hold tea or coffee. I just used a silver Sharpie that I had on hand (the same one I used to make these ornaments to celebrate Clara’s first Christmas). Why’d I do that? Well, we sold a bunch of these mugs that we never used at our moving sale, but when we were packing our three floating shelves in our old dining area we realized there were three more mugs sitting up there that we somehow missed. So before I put them in our donate pile, I got the odd urge to draw on them with my favorite little marker. Just for kicks.

My expectations were to have some fun sketching on the mugs and then just donate them (after writing “not for food use” on the bottom). But I ended up loving them so much that I gleefully packed them up and took them with us to our new house. I think they’ll look so cute in our office (full of pens, pencils, and paperclips). And of course I can also use them every year around the holidays to hold individually wrapped candy canes in fun fruity colors like yellow or pink (which, thanks to the wrapping, won’t be affected by the not-food-safe Sharpie).

As for the how-to details, what you see is what I did. I pretty much just drew rows of hearts all the way around one, some funny scale-ish wiggles that looked sort of like strips of ribbon on the second one…

Diy Mugs 1

…and a whimsical little tea bag on the outside (and inside) of the third….

Diy Mugs 3

The tea bag idea was actually inspired by a similar mug that I recently saw at Urban Outfitters (shown in this post). And of course that one took about ten seconds to do. So anyway, I figured it was worth sharing my odd little a-few-weeks-old evening project even though it’s not really the best DIY gift when you use a silver Sharpie (unless you tell the giftee that they’re not food or dishwasher safe) since a food-friendly ceramic marker or paint pen might make these quick little designs that I threw together a lot more functional. Happy mug-drawing to one and all!

Comments

  3. bex says

    Those are so stinkin’ cute!

    Inspired by your post about the food-safe glasses a few weeks back, I made some for a dinner party I had this past Friday (they were adorable, thanks for asking! :). At the time, I thought it would be great to do some white mugs, so I picked up some porcelain markers too. These look so cute that I might have to make some for myself (the mugs I’m going to do are for my in-laws). I LOVE the tea bag one inspired by UO. I’m definitely going to try these with the porcelain markers I got!

    Reply

  5. Emily @ Merrypad says

    Recognized the UO one immediately – very nice interpretation. Do you own markers that could be used on dishes, and where’d you find them? Maybe a trip to JoAnn’s is in my future…

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Anything that’s meant for “ceramic or porcelain” items that says “food and dishwasher safe” should work. They usually sell porcelain markers that can be washed and used for food & beverage containers at Michaels, JoAnn’s, and Ben Franklin. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  6. stephanie crochet says

    I love how you say that these are a ‘simple, easy’ project when i’m sure it would have taken me twice as long and as many mugs to get mine to be as cute…but you always inspire me to get cutesy around the house and i thank you for that. your whole family is wonderful and thank you for giving us a chance to see your cute lives; and i’m going to set out to enjoy and love on my small apartment (filled with my husband and two rescue cats) just like you all do.

    Reply

  15. Erin says

    Huh… I came here looking for a check list of what you did before each showing (when your home was on the market – did you ever post that or have I lost my mind?) and found a super awesome craft project instead! Sweet. LOVE the mugs. I have a ton of white mugs sitting in the cabinet that we’ve never even touched! Pop one of those little plants from the grocery store and instant hostess gift! Awesome! Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hmm, if you click the “Topics” tab up near our search bar and click the “Operation Sell This House” category you’ll see all the showing-related posts that we shared. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  17. Chicago Cuisine Critique says

    Those mugs came out super cute. Too bad you hadn’t thought about using a dishwasher safe marker prior to your designing. The tea one is absolutely darling and would be perfect for a tea lover. Great ideas. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hey Rachel,

      They’re actually from Linens N’ Things a while back (from our registry). We always used our bigger mugs though, so they just sat around waiting for some action. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  23. Rebecca @ the lil house that could says

    Okay, the hearts and the tea bag I get, but how on earth did you do that awesome circular pattern type thingy so perfectly? Just a bunch of ovals smooshed together? Or a flower type thing? Or it sometimes looks like a line of dog bones… handcuffs? The more I stare the more shapes I see :) But it’s definitely my favorite of the three!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It was John’s idea. He said “do fish scales” – so I did what looked like a few rows of waves or fish scales, which connected to look like those little ovals all smooshed together. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  24. claire says

    those are cute! i love the tea bag one the most! and it’s way cheaper and more fun to make them yourself that to just buy it at urban outfitters. i think i’m going to try to do this now!

    inspiringpretty.blogspot.com

    Reply

  25. Liz says

    Are there granite countertops in your kitchen? It’s hard to tell from the photos. And is there quartz in the bathroom?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hey Liz,

      Yup, there are granite counters in the kitchen and more granite (a different color) in the sink nook in our bedroom. More details and pics as we tackle those areas!

      xo,
      s

  27. Carole White says

    When my husband and I moved into our house we also had a mirror on the outside of our bedroom door. It was so strange because it was at the end of the hallway and it was covering up a beautiful, solid wood, paneled door. Off it came from the door and it went onto the top of dresser in our bedroom instead…a dresser that my husband had growing up that I’ve painted black. It looks awesome and reflects so much light and coordinates well with our mirrored nightstands. Have fun reusing yours!

    Reply

  28. Brandi says

    You’ve totally inspired me to design a mug of my own. I’ve almost purchased the Urban Outfitters mug a few times but now I think I’ll just DIY. Love the hearts too!

    Reply

  29. Chrissy says

    I’m amazed at that Sharpie’s ink reservoir- I was surprised when you showed the ornaments that it was able to cover 2 of them with two coats, and now enough ink to color coffee mugs too! Mine always seem to barely last through writing a couple addresses on packages before petering out.

    Reply

  36. Nicole says

    If you use a porcelain pen (you can buy them at Micheals in lots of different colors) you can bake the mug in the oven and it will be dishwasher safe :)

    Reply

  38. Kate says

    Such a cute idea!I was wondering though, as long as you don’t write on the inside, can you use them for food? thanks so much :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I think you wouldn’t want to write on the inside or the outside lip where you mouth might go (around the outside edge might still be tricky since you’d touch that with your mouth while drinking). Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  39. Cassidy says

    Bake 30 minutes at 350. Voila! Food safe. (At least for plain black sharpies, I’m not sure about metallic.)

    Reply

  40. Cathi Hammonds says

    Is it true that when you use a sharpie on mugs, etc… that you bake them in the oven to “cure” them?

    Reply

  41. pattie says

    sooo after you write/draw on the cup…you put it in the oven?! id there a top coat that needs to go on? can an airtight Glass Storage Jar be used instead?

    thanks

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      If you check out the last paragraph, we actually didn’t put them in the oven, so we mentioned they would only be food safe if you used one of those markers that you bake on and is meant to be on food safe glass. Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

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