Sharpie Decorated Personalised Mugs

Who doesnt love a personalised gift.  These Sharpie decorated personalised mugs are so quick and easy, they make great gifts.


I have a few friends who have moved out of London to the countryside recently (boo).  I wanted to Make them a housewarming gift that would be personal, but functional, in case not to their taste!

I saw these "bewtes" at Notonthehighstreet.com  They are gorgeous.
But they are £14.50 each (yes really £14.50 of a mug!).  They also dont have the handmade feel I am looking for.

I've also seen an amazing tutorial over at designmom.com  which shows how to monogram using graphite transfer paper.

I tried that but couldn't get the graphite to stick to the mugs I had chosen, and my attempts just looked messy, with the ink running everywhere on the mug.

Waitrose now has some nice cheap home wares in store, so I found mugs in different colours, that I thought would look nice together.  they also do a turquoise blue which would work in this mix, and a navy blue and red.  They are only £2 each, with a large enough flat surface to work with.

The materials I used for this project were:
Mugs
Contact Paper
Masking Tape
Porcelain or Sharpie Pens

I also used paper with the letters I needed printed on them, a cutting mat & craft knife.

First, I taped the letter to the contact paper, and cut out the shape. 

You can either use the "hole"shape, and infill, as I did for the S / T / G & H, or use the cut letter itself and use as an outline like my C.

Place the contact paper on the mug, and make sure the edges are all firmly down.  The ink does run slightly underneath if its not firmly attached.

My "C" was for the cutest little boy I know, and I wanted it to look like a fluffy toy.  You need to do the strokes on the letter onto the mug quickly to stop the ink bleeding under the paper.  

n.b Any small bleeds can be taken off with a cotton bud and water before the ink dries.  Or use rubbing alcohol for stubborn marks.

I left these to dry for about an hour, before peeling the paper off.  I put them in the oven for about 15 minutes to firm up.  I would wait 48 hours before putting in a dishwasher.

You can do any funky designs within the shape.

To finish my present, I made batches of Jamie Olivers Epic Hot Chocolate , and put it in bags with marshmallows and disposable wooden spoons.

Pop the chocolate mix in the mugs, and there you go.

Ive made loads of these as gifts now.

My daughter wants the whole alphabet in  decorated mugs, but not sure we have the cupboard space.