Personalized Mr. and Mrs. Mugs

This morning I went to a friend's bridal shower, and I was so, SO, SO excited for her to open my gift.  One reason was because I just couldn't wait to see her reaction to it, and the other was that now I could finally blog about it.  I've had this little project done for several days, but didn't want to post it until after she'd opened it.

I'll admit first thing that this whole thing was not my idea, I stole part of it from another friend.  But Dave and Emily love to drink coffee, and Emily has "luscious lips" as many of us say, so I just couldn't not make these for them!

The mustache and lips, and Mr. and Mrs. was the part I stole from a friend, and then I decided to add their wedding date to the back.  I painted it all using this special enamel paint, which I got at Michael's for about three dollars I think. 

I free-hand drew the mustache and lips, which were easy, but the words were a bit more difficult.  I've never been good at painting letters even on a flat surface, so trying to do it on a curved surface was even worse.  I started painting the first letter using the same brush as I had for the lips and mustache but could tell right away it was going to be too thick.  Thankfully I still had a teeny, tiny spotting brush from my days in the darkroom, and that made things much easier.  But even then, my first attempt at the words looked like third grade handwriting.  I went back over the letters a few times, rounding them out and trying to make them look "cuter."  The font isn't exactly what I had in mind when I started, but I'm ok with how it turned out.  Once I was done with all of the painting I followed the directions on the bottle about how to bake them in the oven to seal the paint.  

They're now dishwasher safe.  And while this paint isn't meant to come in contact with food, which is fine for coffee cups, it wouldn't work for something like a plate.  If you're interested in decorating mugs or plates, there are a variety of paints and even markers made for painting on ceramics and glass, and the possibilities are endless!  I definitely think personalizing mugs will be something I continue to do for gifts in the future!