Project 3 . . .

Tea Party Graffiti

Blank teacups given a wordy twist

I am one of those people that is a little bit addicted to stumble upon & pinterest. In passing I have seen a number of different tutorials on how to decorate blank china. Some of them require specialist things (which I can’t buy due to the project rules) but then I saw one which used a simple sharpie pen. I had a dig around my pen box and found a nice pink sharpie (yay) See results below:

Ingredients

1) 4 blank teacups & saucers

2) one sharpie pen 

3) an oven

Method

Firstly I made sure all the cups were clean before I started. Sounds basic but it’ll be much harder to get a stain off once you’ve “baked” the cups in the oven. Then I decided what I wanted to write on the cups. I decided to do two that are a pair as a he + she matching set and then the other two are a little bit random! My favourite is the one which says “I lied, it’s not decaf (sorry)”  The other one says “instant coffee is for philistines”

I didn’t get it exactly how I wanted the first time so I did wipe them clean (warm water was fine) until I got all the wording positioned and sized how I felt it looked best. This was a little problematic on the saucers as I kept ending up with big writing at the beginning and small writing at the end. Once this was sorted, I spread them out on a baking tray and well. . . baked them! 30 minutes on 180 degrees (celsius) was plenty to “seal” the ink.

Once they were good and baked I left them to cool completely and then checked the lettering was secure by rubbing them with a damp sponge. Yup all good & safe. I now have four wordy cups which I can hand wash to my hearts desire (I don’t think they would stand up to dish washing though)

This was a really fun project, I felt really naughty writing all over the cups but I think for cheap blank mugs it’s a lovely idea to make them into something personal. I think this would be a really fun & easy gift to make for somebody. Perhaps with an “altered christmas carol” or birthday greeting.