Sunday, October 28, 2012

Weekly Pinterest Challenge

I've been toying with the idea for a few months now about giving myself a Pinterest challenge. I'm a huge sucker for the DIY section and I'm always wanting to try out what I find, but I never manage to actually do it! I'm going to make myself do at least one Pinterest DIY project a week and then I'm going to write about it in hopes to keep me motivated!

I had the opportunity to enter a Christmas ornament exchange with my online mom's group for the season. I'll admit, I was at a loss at what to give. I'm not very creative when it comes to Christmas gifts and Pinterest had some wonderful ideas, but nothing was jumping out at me for a DIY ornament.

I broke down and ordered a really cute ornament from Etsy. I figured it's best to let the DIY experts from there handle that! But I still wanted to do something creative that her whole family could enjoy! I liked the idea of giving a coffee mug that my partner and her family could share a cup of hot chocolate during the holiday season. I searched Pinterest again and found a few cute ideas that involved coffee mugs and chalkboard paint. I read a couple and decided on my own take of this cute idea. There were several ways to do this, but after actually doing it, a lot of the how-to websites lacked little details one how to make the mug actually look like it wasn't a disaster.

I bought 4 red coffee mugs from Target. I loved the fact that they had red for the holiday season! (and I snatched the last 4). 1.99 each






My chalkboard paint was from hobby lobby and pretty inexpensive. For this bottle it was about $7.00.


I honestly redid these mugs about 3 times before I finally got it right, I had so much fun doing them!

The first time and second time: I used scotch tape to mark off a small square on the mug. The paint would bleed through the scotch tape. With the small square on the front of the mug, when you peel the tape off, it actually looks uneven, and there is almost no room to right on it. I also peeled the tape off too fast, and ended up peeling the paint off with it. Needless to say I was getting so frustrated!

M had the idea to make the chalkboard part bigger, and bought me some masking tape! (He's a genius, I know.) Low and behold, both worked!

What you will need:
Porcelain coffee mugs
chalkboard paint
masking tape
sponge paint brush

So here is a run down of how I did this, for the 3rd and final time.

1. Wash your mugs. Soap and water, and let them dry.
2. Tape off the section you want to paint with masking tape. I would do the top and bottom first, then tape the sides.
3. Shake your chalkboard paint bottle really well. If it's not thick when you apply it, the chalk with scrape off the paint.
4. Apply chalkboard paint 1 layer vertically and let dry for 1.5 hours
5. Apply 1 layer horizontally and let dry for 1.5 hours
6. Apply 1 more layer horizontally and let dry for 2 hours.
7. Take the tape off each side at a time and pull gently and slowly. Start with the sides first, then do either the top or bottom.
8. Touch up the edges with your nails or a knife to smooth it out.

I was so excited with how they turned out and I was getting anxious for my partner to get all of her gifts. I was so happy to see she got them only a few days later, and even more excited to see this!


Pictured below are the ornament, mugs, chair tea mix, and Tara's adorable son!


Now.... on to the next Pinterest project :) 

You can follow me on Pinterest here.



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