BFF Mugs

My sister is coming home from Afghanistan this week. Can I just say YAY!? E and I will be going for a visit and we'll be celebrating all the holidays/events she missed while she was gone. I'm more than a little bit excited. So, while she's flying across the world, I'm getting crafty. First up, some BFF mugs for us to sip our coffee from while we chat on weekend mornings again. You know... when it's morning for both of us, not morning for me and evening for her.

These mugs are all over Pinterest and I think you can even buy them on Etsy if you're not up for making your own. I'm up for a challenge, so I went for it.

First, I started with some $1 mugs from IKEA. Except, they seemed too small and they were oddly sloped which was going to make the pictures skewed. So, I hit up Target and got some more substantial mugs for $3.50 each. Still, quite cheap.

I googled "Ohio silhouette" and "Virginia silhouette" and printed/cut those out. I used a little double sided tape to attach them to the mugs.

When I moved into my desk at work, I was left with a bunch of old school office supplies from the 70 year old man who lived in my cube before me. Things like transparencies and those transparency pens. Also, one of those black grease pencils. I don't even know what people used those for in the office environment. I've only ever seen them in the grocery store when I was a kid. Anyway, it has come in handy several times around the house. I used it to trace the outlines of the states.

Sip, sip... kitty wants a drink! 

The Pinterest ideas are for using Sharpie markers on the mugs and baking them to make them permanent. I splurged a few extra bucks for an actual paint marker that is made for ceramics. Once I had the grease pen outlines, I used my marker to trace inside and draw the hearts.

I let the marker dry for about 30 minutes before I carefully scrubbed off the grease pencil with a napkin. I wasn't sure how smeary the marker would stay and for how long. The directions said the marker needed to dry for 4 hours, but should be baked between 4 and 8 hours. They baked for 40 minutes at 425 degrees. Easy peasy.

I'm so excited for Sis to open them and then I'll return to Ohio with my Virginia mug.