Make a name mug!

I know its a ways off but I've been keeping Christmas in the back of my mind while searching Pinterest lately. I'm all for cute, fun, cheap ideas for gifts and, though I love them, I've kind of worn out the whole hand painted wine glass thing over the last couple of years.

I came across this fun idea and I feel like it will be perfect for gifts for coworkers and friends.

When I was little I could never find my name (or even anything close) on those little personalized trinkets in gift shops and so this makes up for it a little bit!

Things you'll need:
-A mug (I got mine from the dollar tree...because I'm thrifty)
-Colored (or not) Sharpie
-Alphabet stickers
-An oven

Step 1: Clean your mug well before you start, you don't want the marker to rub off because its dusty! Place your stickers however you want them. I didn't want it to have to be perfect so I made them kind of slanted and uneven on purpose (I'm a little lazy super creative).

Step 2: Take your Sharpie and start making dots!!!

Step 3: Once you're satisfied with your dott-ing, remove the sticker.

Its a REALLY easy project, but I thought up some tips I think you should consider before you start...

Tip 1) Try to keep your marker straight up and down, and after you push down make sure you pull all the way up before you move on to the next dot...if you don't you get smeared dots which I don't think are as nice.

Tip 2) Don't do what I did and start really heavy and layer the dots thickly near the letters (see picture above), that makes it harder to blend it and make the dots appear fewer as you work outward. You'll want to start with a light layer of dots and work from the outside IN toward the letters. You can always add more dots, but you can't take them away!

Tip 3) I would take your marker and outline the letters with little tiny dots before you really get going with the thicker layers. This will make sure that you have a good outline for when you peel the stickers away. 

Here are both sides of my final product!

 
Step 4: Put your mug in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. When you take it out make sure you don't touch the marker, it will smear a little bit. Let it dry for about 2 hours and then it should be fine! I wouldn't recommend putting it in the dishwasher, but then again it might be fine, I just don't want to try it!

It didn't take long and it took very, very little effort. Something I really liked about this idea was that you can do so many variations. You can find so many different alphabet sticker fonts at any craft store like Hobby Lobby (Grizley Adams hates that store so much because I can spend hours there), Joann's, or Michaels. You can use different colors.  You can use different mugs. Maybe instead of little dots you can do stripes or starbursts or big polka dots. I can make this same gift for lots of different people and have it look different every time. And it only costs $1 plus the price of the stickers to make!