DIY Metallic Sharpie Mug

I'm pretty late to the Sharpie mug game. This DIY has been floating around Pinterest for a long time now but I haven't been motivated to try it because 1) I already have plenty of cute mugs 2) I couldn't think of anything clever to write on my mug and 3) I read a lot of complaints that this doesn't necessarily work and I didn't want to waste my own time.

However, while at Christmas Tree Shops recently, I saw some cheap-o mugs and plopped a few in my basket with the intention of decorating them with a pack of metallic Sharpie markers that I'd purchased just a few weeks before.

You'll need:
a mug - the cheaper the better
rubbing alcohol
cotton pad
permanent marker

Start by rubbing the surface of your mug with rubbing alcohol. You want to wipe off any oils and residue to make sure the marker ink sticks to the mug.

Now, it's time to color in the mug. I laid down a few strips of tape to make sure I didn't accidentally mark up the wrong parts of the mug while I was trying to color in the handle.

I colored the handle in short strokes and I ended up with this effect! I thought it looked cool; kind of crackled and old and vintage-y.

And then, I just ended up dotting the mug all over.

After you're done coloring, put your mug on a cookie sheet and stick it in a COLD oven. Turn the oven on to 450F. Once your oven comes to temperature, leave it in at 450F for 10 minutes - set a timer. After 10 minutes, turn off the oven and then leave the mug alone, in the closed oven, for 2 to 3 hours, or until the oven has completely cooled down. Exposure to extreme temperature changes might cause the ceramic to crack so be careful.

Cheaper mugs have a cheaper glaze which will melt in conventional oven temperatures (FYI, pottery kilns can reach thousands of degrees). The goal is to heat the glaze enough to have the ink of the permanent marker soak into the glaze so that it won't wipe off in the sink or dishwasher.

Give the mug a rinse and then you can use it to enjoy all of your warm and cold beverages. I gave my mug a little scrub just to test it out and the ink stayed put, so that's good news. In general, I don't scrub the outside of my mugs v. hard unless there's something crusted on there, but that's quite unlikely. Usually, it's just the inside that gets a good scrubbing.

Warm water with lemon, my fav! No, not my fav, but perfect for soothing a sore throat.

Cheers!