crafternoon.

Necessity is the mother of invention. And being broke is the mother of necessity. 

I had to come up with a housewarming gift for Faber and Josh last month, and being recently graduated and unemployed, I decided to paint their names on these mustachioed mugs I found at Urban Outfitters. Thankfully Dave still had all his brushes and acrylics from when he used to paint and couldn't care less about them now, so all I had to buy was sea foam green paint... Obvious choice. Dave, for some reason, did not already have this color in his possession.

So here we go. How to paint ceramic mugs.

Materials: 

• Q-tips
• rubbing alcohol
• masking tape
• ceramic acrylic paint
• plastic cup/paper plate
• thin-tipped, stiff paintbrush
• ceramic mug
• oven

Procedure:

1. Clean the area that's to be painted with a Q-tip soaked in hydrogen peroxide.
2. Stick masking tape onto the mug to act as a guide to write centered and in a straight line.
3. Squirt an iPhone home button sized drop of paint onto a plastic bath cup or paper plate, and dip the tip of the paintbrush in the paint.
4. Write/Draw/Design. If you mess up, dip a Q-tip in hydrogen peroxide (but make sure it's not dripping) and rub off stray marks. Blow dry (with your mouth, not a hair dryer). Start over. I did this about 25 times for these two cups....

but it was worth it.

       5.  Place mugs in a cool oven to prevent cracking or shattering                from drastic temperature changes.
       6.  Set the oven to 350 degrees F and bake for 35-40                                    minutes.
       7.  Turn off the oven and allow the mugs to cool in the oven,                    again to prevent cracking.    
       8.  Once completely cool, remove the mugs from the oven.                      Hand wash with mild soap to preserve decoration.

Then you're ready to wrap them. I used a shoe box and wrapped it by unraveling the brown roll that holds the wrapping paper, making sure to wrap the box and lid separately. Line with tissue paper. Fill with joy, or in my case, I used squiggly lunch bag confetti. Pretty much the same thing. Nestle the mugs in the box like you would a baby in a cradle.

Put the lid on. For even more cost-effective cuteness, use the box to double as your housewarming card. Dress it up with some ribbons and bows.

And now time to party. Happy loft warming, Daniel and Josh!