Permanent Marker Mugs

Right before turning the oven on

Since adding homeschooling Mr. R. and Miss E. to my list of jobs, I have struggled with including more of the extracurricular activities (art, music, etc.) into their school week. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day for me to get everything done, so when I do fit some such activity into the day I want it to be a little big and definitely memorable. This was one week where I really wanted to do a fun art (well, more craft than art) project with the kids.

We have a tradition in our house on Saturday mornings, my hubby makes a big brunch dish and the kids all get to enjoy "coffee" (it's really more of a latte than a coffee but they don't know that yet). Each child has their own special mug. Mr. R's is a solid green ceramic and Miss E's is a solid red ceramic. Miss A has a small red mug out of a nice solid plastic as she is only just 3, but Miss S just has her sippy, which only gets a tablespoon or so of coffee added to her milk. I guess I'm rabbit trailing again. My hubby tells me all the time that include WAY TOO MANY details and a longer back story than necessary.

 After seeing a pin on Pinterest for making your own decorative mugs using permanent marker and your over, I decided that it would be our project for the week. On Wednesday afternoon (while A and S were napping), I gathered all the permanent markers, and R and E's mugs. We sat down at the dining room table and I explained that I was going to let them draw on their mugs with the markers. Then we would bake the mugs so that the marker stayed on them. The kids were a little skeptical at first and hesitant about doing anything to their precious "coffee" mugs. That is until I told them that we were going to make homemade stencils so that they could put any shape on them that they wanted. R knew exactly what he wanted, a Batman symbol, and E chose the silhouette of a princess. I printed said items on cardstock, cut them out carefully with an exacto knife, and then taped them to the mugs. The kids colored them in really well and wrote their names, etc. on the mugs. Then we baked them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I did choose to place the mugs in the over before turning it on so that they would come to temp slowly and I'd avoid the slight possibility of breakage. They turned out really well and have even survived washing intact.

Mr. R kept writing his name until he thought
that he had it just right :o)

Mr. R's batman logo after baking

Miss E wrote this all by herself,
can you tell I'm a little proud of her?

Miss E attempted to make a border along the top
of the mug with hearts and squares

hearts

Mr. R thinking he's pretty cool
with his batman mug

Miss E enjoying her mug the next morning