I picked up the pens at Home Depot (5 colors for around $13) and got a box of Cynthia Rowley mugs at Home Goods (8 for $15). Plus one extra mug to practice on. The stickers were from AC Moore and I think they were about $8. These were the most expensive stickers they had but I wanted the initial to be big.
After applying the stickers I began to dots the paint around each letter.
I did red, black, gold and finally silver.
Since we have a Chinese student with us I had him write each student’s name in Chinese. Then on the others were, Mother, Grandmother, Oldest Son, Strength and Perseverance. If you have a little mess up just clean with alcohol and a Q-tip, very carefully.
The blog said to peel off the sticker and bake the mugs.
Well, taking off the stickers proved to be the most annoying and arduous part of the whole process. It might be the stickers I purchased but the stickers came apart and had to be slowly and carefully scraped off with an Exacto knife.
Of course the paint had to be completely dry so it wouldn’t smear. Ugh. Suddenly this became a multi-day process. Some of the paint leaked under the stickers, I just carefully scraped it off. I would not use alcohol at this point since it is super easy to smear the paint.
Finally my mugs were finished and ready for the oven.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and then just leave them to cool. The whole process from painting to baking can be a little smelly so have some ventilation going.
The mugs came out GREAT. The red got a bit darker but otherwise the colors all stay true and bright. This gift takes a bit of planning but it is well worth it.
UPDATE: Sept. 2015. Sadly the paint did NOT turn out to be permanent. The dishwasher did take off the paint after several months. Hand washing was better and the gold lasted the best of all but, sniff, I'm still looking for easy to use, PERMANENT, paint!
