Time: 45 minutes (includes bake time)
Materials: ceramic mug, Pebeo Porcelaine 150 pen, oven
Last year I shared a tutorial for how to paint ceramic and make it dishwasher safe (also used on this ring holder). I recently discovered that the same company makes the specialty ceramic paint in marker form, which opens up what you can do design wise completely! For my first attempt, I decided to do polka dots. Sounds easy enough right? Well, I ran into a bit of a snag along the way and thought I’d share it with you, because hey, who doesn’t love a good craft fail?
All you need to make your design permanent is the porcelaine 150 pen and an oven. You can use any ceramic mug and may even find good ones to makeover at the dollar store.
Okay, so when I first started this project, I thought that by using those hole reinforcements that I could come away with the perfectly placed polka dot. That when I was all done, I would be able to peel away the stickers in one fell swoop and boom, I’d be done in no time at all. Here’s what really happened.
Everything seemed to be okay until I went to peel the stickers. Because of the nature of the paint, all my dots came up almost entirely with the sticker. It looked like what a bubble wand looks like before you actually blow the bubble. Not only did I lose all the work, but I also had to peel the stickers one by one. Let’s just say my hand still hurts.
The good news here is that even if you make a mistake, you can correct it; your mug is not useless! Just scrub your design off with the rough side of a sponge, dry, and start again. You can remove the paint as much as you need before baking to set permanently.
What I ended up doing (which I’m not 100% happy with) was making dots the size of the marker tip. Once I finished and my design was dry, I baked the mug in the oven for 35 minutes at 300ËšF.
Be sure to turn off the oven and let the mug cool down to room temperature inside before removing, otherwise it could break. It’s also a good idea to put the mug in the oven when preheating so that it doesn’t warm up too quickly.
So that’s my first attempt! I love how much control the pen gives, verses the paint, so I will most likely be trying this project again. Have you tried painting your own mugs before?
Since the mugs are completely dishwasher safe, you can use it for your morning coffee… or to hold washi tape. It’s up to you! And if you’re looking for mugs with a bit more color, check out another version of this tutorial I made for Curbly.
