Thrifty Thursday: DIY- Silhouette Cups

HAND WASH ONLY!!

Last year for Christmas, I decided to make most of the gifts that I gave to people using some DIY ideas that I found around the web. While I was looking, I came across personalized ceramic mugs using permanent Sharpie Markers.I loved the idea but my handwriting is not that great so I wanted to do something a little different.

I then came up with the idea to make personalized silhouette cups using printed images that I found on Google. This process is a little time consuming but is really worth the effort, so if you want to learn, please continue reading! 

1. Find a white ceramic mug or bowl. These are the options that are available at the Dollar Tree and they work great for this process!

Bowl

2. Find your picture. I would suggest using something with little detail for your first cup just to get the hang of the process. The image that you print needs to fit on your cup so you may have to resize the image and reprint if your silhouette is too big.

3. Cut off the excess paper, leaving at least a one inch border on each side.

4. Use an X-Acto Knife or scissors to remove the silhouette. Do NOT cut the image, just cleanly cut it out. If there is detail that you can freehand, like the flower and tail on the right silhouette, definitely skip that step.When finished, tape the cut that you made to start to reclose the image if you used scissors.

5. Cut your silhouette wherever there are holes in the image. You will have to use an X-Acto Knife for this step if your holes are as tiny as the ones in this image.

6. Tape your template to the cup on all sides. Use four big pieces of tape instead of lots of pieces for easier removal.

7. Place your cut out silhouette on top of the cup and trace out the holes.You can use a pencil first and then trace over the holes when you remove the image.

8. Fill the image in with your marker avoiding the white spaces and remove the template. DO NOT WORRY IF YOU MESS UP! You can easily remove the marker with alcohol or nail polish remover and a cotton swab. When it dries, you can continue coloring.

9. Fix any imperfections and add your own freehand detail. Your design can be as simple as putting dots or hearts on your design and writing the persons name. I decided to use some color in another cup that I did but still stuck with the silhouette idea. If you have fine tip permanent markers you can add even more detail. Some colors may change or get darker when you bake them (yellow turns peach).

10. Allow your ink to dry for at least four hours before baking! Bake your cup at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Do not remove immediately or your cups may crack, just open the door for about 15 minutes before taking them out.  And don't worry, the image's ink will not run; I wondered that the first time because you can see the marker cooking when it gets hot.

Finished Design
The best part about these cups is you can always touch them up and rebake them if necessary. I forgot to add eyelashes to the cup on the right so I will be touching that up along with the cup at the top of this post. I have found that the image stays better after the second time baking.







I have done this process with animals, superhero symbols, and sports team symbols so far. The results were pretty amazing but it does take practice so start with an easy image. Follow me on my social medias and repost your creations!

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