Monday, April 5, 2010

Design your own coffee mugs!



You will Need...

A set of coffee mugs. (ones with a smooth surface work best.)
Spray paint color/colors of your choice. (I used white and key lime)
Mod Podge Clear Acrylic Sealer
Acrylic paints of your choice. (I got a set of 30 colors for 10$)
Assorted Paint brushes
A cup of water for your paint brushes (to keep them clean and help fix mistakes)
Paper towels or any old towel you don't mind getting paint on.
Lots of time and patients! (I spent 2 days on this craft.)


Step One
Make sure your cups are clean and dry. Depending on the cups that you have you may want to change the over all color of them. I used ones that I already had which had blue striping around them. So I used white and key lime spray paint to fix that. I wanted alternating colors so I used the white on the first two and the lime on the other two.



Spray painting Tips

*When you are spray painting you want to make sure you do it in a well ventilated area. Outside works best...If its not windy a garage would be a good place too.

*Also make sure you have some kind of tarp or plastic trash bag so you don't get paint everywhere.

*A good trick is to hold the can about a foot away from what you are painting. Move the can from side to side in a fluid motion this way the paint does not go on think in some spots and thin in others. Also this will cause less dripping.

*Don't be impatient! You will have to do more than one coat and wait for it to dry in between. If you want it to look nice try to do thin coats. This will take longer.

*Wear clothes and shoes you don't mind getting paint on...just in case!




Step Two Once your cups have been painted and are completely dry lay down your towel/paper towels. get out a cup of water and your acrylic paints/paint brushes. If you plan on mixing colors together to get custom colors you may want to get out a paper plate. Begin to paint! If you don't have much painting experience like me just try something simple like polka dots or straight lines. If you make a mistake you can dip a clean brush in your water and go over it before it drys and the paint will come off easy just dry it with a paper towel and try again.



I used light green and yellow mixed together to create the key lime color of the spray paint I used.


Step Three When you are finished painting all the cups and they are all dry take them back outside....or where you chose to spray paint them and you will need to seal them with you sealer spray....this way when you wash them the paint will not wash off. Follow the directions on the can. You may want to wear a mask....This stuff is really strong! Do a few coats and you are done. You now have an awesome set of coffee mugs!

1 comment: