Easy Mug Design: How to Create a Custom Hand Painted Mug to Sell, Give as a Gift or Use Yourself!

1. Introduction: Have you ever wanted to create a custom? One of a kind, hand painted mug. But you just didn't know where to start. You weren't sure what subsidy take? Hi, My name is Shelly Hits when author, Illustrator, An artist and I was in the same place not long ago. So I went searching all over online to find the right materials the right steps to take. And I have now successfully created and designed my own custom mugs, thes air. Just a couple of the designs I've personally created. And you are able to create similar designs or use your imagination. The sky is the limit. These will be one of a kind. There will be no bug like it and you can personalize them, which is so fun. One thing you can do to personalize them is put your name on the bottom of the mug. You can put the date. You could put someone's name on the mud for party favors for gifts. You can sell these mugs and so much more. It really doesn't take much to get started. You can literally get started with just a few dollars in supplies. I will go over the exact supplies to use. You do not want to use a regular Sharpie pen because that will wash off, so I will go through the exact types of pens you can use and the supplies that you need. It's really very simple. This is something you can do with your kids. As our project you can do and sell these mugs, you can use them yourself. You can create really fun personalized mugs for friends, for family and more. When you enrolled this class, you'll get my step by step process of creating a mug. It's very, very easy, and you'll get the class. Resource is with links to the exact markers and pens I recommend that will work the best for longevity with your mug. So what are you waiting for? Click and roll and let's get started. I can't wait to see the mugs you design 2. Supplies: in this video, I'm going to talk to you about the supplies you need for this class. You need a ceramic mug. Now, To be honest, I just found these at my local thrift store for 50 cents. So you don't have to spend a ton of money. You can get a really nice mug for, like, $5 at your department store. You can find mugs at your dollar store, so just fine mugs that inspire you that you enjoy and make sure that the surface is is smooth so you don't want a textured surface. And preferably you want something that is a solid color so that your design will show up really well on the mug, and then you're gonna need some permanent paint markers. Now people talk a lot about using Sharpie markers for these types of mugs, and I don't recommend using just regular Sharpie markers because they will. They will wear off over time, but you can use the Sharpie paint markers. I don't have one here to show you. I have the Elmer's paint marker, and this is, ah, marker that'll you'll see a lot of makers using on Instagram. It's a really great marker. You can get it really inexpensively at your local stores. I think I found this one even at Wal Mart. Now I found this pack of Ma little Ah Krulik markers, and you can see I got a really, really good sale there. They're normally more expensive than what I would pay for them. $40 for the PAC, but it was 8 63 and so I got this pack of markers, and it comes in different colors. I like the fact that I have a variety of colors to choose from, depending on what surface I'm using. However, I think if for most uses, just a regular white painters paint marker from Elmer's, is going to do the trick for you. I think this is a couple of dollars. You also need rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs just to wipe down your surfaces. I also recommend sketching out your design ahead of time, so just some paper and a pen for that, and then if you want to cover up any area when you're working that you don't want to have a design on it, you can use painter's tape, so that's basically all you'll need for this class. It could be a very inexpensive gift or personalized mug that you can create, and it doesn't take a long time either, so let's get started. 3. Prepare Your Mugs: The first step is to wash your mugs in warm, soapy water. And I've already washed these mugs. So then, after that, you're going to take rubbing alcohol and rub the outside of the mug to make sure the surface is really clean and that the paint can adhere to it Well, so I'm just gonna use regular cotton balls here and just wiped down the surface of these mugs. We're just gonna take the alcohol on the cotton swab and just make sure you wipe down all the edges and the outer parts. Any part that you're going to plan on painting. I don't recommend painting the inside of the mug just because we don't know if the paint could come off and enter into the drink. So just stick with the the outer parts. You can also paint the bottom, which is really fun. You can put your little signature on there, and I also don't recommend painting the edges close to where people are going to be putting their mouth to drink. Why? Just go ahead and and wipe off your mugs, get them nice and clean, and then we will be ready to sketch out our design 4. Design a Flower Mug: the first time I was testing this method of creating a personalized mug, I just got so excited I jumped in. I did not sketch a design and it turned out horrible. I am usually pretty good at going by the fly, but look at this design. It's just crazy. And then this got too close to the surface where you're going to be drinking from. It wasn't centered. This didn't really work out while. And what is this? I don't even know. I think I was trying to do, like, steam off the coffee, and then I just made it into a design. So that's why I recommend sketching it out. Now something Torno is If you do make a mistake, you can remove the paint before you bake it in the oven so you can just use your rubbing alcohol with a small cotton swab, and you can take away any mistake. So don't be afraid of making a mistake, but definitely sketch out your designs. And so what I recommend is taking a little piece of paper. You can either cut it or these are index cards, and then you can kind of see where your design will be. Now you want to think about which side you want it on. You may wanna have a design on both sides. Now, if the if the person is right handed and they're holding the mug, they're going to see the design that is on this side. If you want the person that is, you know, around them to see the design, you would put it on this side. I'm just gonna go ahead and put on this side for this mug and what I'm going to start off with is just a easy flower doodle. So what we can do is just put some simple flower doodles on here, see how they will look. And then on this mug, I will actually put some lettering so that will be in the next video. But what you'll do is you can just put your your index card here or your piece of paper actually going to get a bigger one for this and just kind of see how you want the design toe look. So I think I want tohave just some simple flower doodles on this one, so you can just create your design however you want it you're free to copy my design. I will also link to a couple classes here on skill share in the class Resource is that teach you how to draw flowers. And so that way, if you want to take that class and just get some more information on drawing flowers, that can help you a swell. So my go to flower right now is this one. And I'm just gonna go ahead and draw it out and then just see how it will look on the mug. So I think that will look pretty nice now with the flowers, I can actually go the whole way around. And I can actually do flowers all the way around if I want. And I can do all different types of flowers and designs. You can do whatever is of interest to you. You don't have to do flowers. You can do something that is more personalized to you. The thing I love about this is the sky's the limit. Like you can literally do anything you can have inside jokes. Like, if you have an inside joke with a friend, you can put the inside joke on the mug and give it to them for their birthday. If you have a favorite quote or Scripture, you can put that on the mug. You can do whatever you want it there's no limit, and you can pretty much just have fun with it. And if you've done like what I've done and you know you get a really inexpensive mug, you know, it's just a really fun way to create some custom pieces. You could sell these, you could give them away as gifts. You could do a giveaway for your instagram channel, our profile. So if you're trying to grow an INSTAGRAM following, you could create a mug with your custom design, and then you could do a giveaway. People love that kind of thing and do that, so I'm just going to make it a real simple design. Looks like I have another space. So I think I'm just gonna create simple design with just these same to flowers so you can do as many different flowers as you want. I just want to keep it simple, because I want to show you how simple it can be Now with any paint marker, you want to read the instructions and know exactly what you know, what it is you need to know for these types of markers and like this one is a shake well, and then pump softly and then you can write So again, I always recommend, you know, doing a little test warming it up first for this Painters, Penn says with the Kapaun shake well depressed the market tip Continue to hold on clean, dry surface until pain begins to flow. Yes, So it's basically the same thing for that one. You just have to shake up and then just kind of pump it a little bit. So I'm just gonna go ahead and start from the bottom, come up, make my little doodle here, and I'm going for the hand drawn imperfectly look, So it is not gonna look perfect, and that's what I'm going for. And that's what this class is all about. It's about creating something, custom creating something hand drawn and something that you can customize. So once you learn, you know the skill of doing this, and it just takes a few stops. Then you can pretty much create whatever you want, so you could create something with your mascot on it. from your school, you could create something that has to do with a certain holiday. I mean, it can be anything, So I think I'm just gonna put three flowers. I'm gonna put this next one in the middle here. Hardest thing is just keeping it stable while you're writing on it. See? May wanna stabilize it against the table while you're working, and you can thicken your lines if you want. I just want to do something really simple, but pretty just to show you how easy it can be. But you can get as fancy as you want on these you can get as detailed. But I personally think keeping a little bit more simple is probably the way to go just so you don't get over your head, you know, with to push complicated design. But you can think in those lines if you want. You can pretty much do whatever you want on this that I'm just gonna make my other flower over here. You could just do patterns. So if you just wanted to do a bunch of polka dots or if you want to do some variety of patterns, you can do that. So you could do squares and diamonds and all sorts of just different patterns. Now, I'm gonna add just a little bit of detail into here just cause that's what I typically do with these doodles. And I just kind of bring my breasts. And this is, you know, this is a paint marker by just kind of swipe it quick to kind of make these these little, um, details here. I'll just add a little bit to my drawing, make these kind of go all the way to the edge there. So it's kind of different than the other leaf, and then I'm just gonna finish this here. Like I said, you're more than welcome to copy the design I'm doing. Or you can also just create your own design, whatever you want. There's a lot of different places to find inspiration. Just look outside. You can see a lot of inspiration out there, and just in a few minutes I have a really just elegant mug that I have hand drawn, and I have put some flowers on there now, one of the neat things as you can also combine. Let's say you want to combine the flour with words. You can also do that. One of the things I like of what you can do with these mugs as you can just put your signature on the bottom so you can say made with love. Or you could just put a little heart and then you can put your name and I just think that's a really neat little touch. You could put the date like the year. Whatever the year is that you're making this this is a little bit harder to get my my letters. They're just because of not having a place to rest my hand. You can use the focal a graffiti, which I have a faux calligraphy class here on skill share, and you can go through that, basically, just thicken your down strokes, and then it gives it a little bit more of a brush lettered look. And you can, you know, just do your regular signature, even just, you know, printed out. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it's personalized. And then if you're giving this is a gift. How fun is that that the person you know has your name on the bottom of this mug and a personalized gift from you. I just think that's really Ah, a neat little touch that you can do to any of the mugs You could put your your shop name. Let's say you have a a Nazi shop or whatever you're doing. Let's say you have on Instagram Channel. You can put your name that you use on that on here, too. So it was kind of running out of paint there. It's gonna fill this end and be done. So again, it's not gonna be perfect. But it's going to be you. It's gonna be unique. And how pretty is that? It's just pretty and sophisticated, and then it has your custom name. So that's the first design that I'm showing you in this class. The next one, I'm going to show you some lettering on the mug. 5. Lettering on Your Mug: So now what you want to do is on your mug. You want to write your lettering piece? I like to take a piece of paper and center it up on the mug and really be able to have something that I can right out my lettering layout. Every mug is gonna be different. I'm just gonna kind of eyeball it and see what will work best for this particular mug. But depending on the size of your mug, you want it to be centered. So when someone is looking at it, they're looking right at your phrase, So this could be a little bit tricky, but you want to make sure that you have this down. So no, What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna let her my phrase one thing you can do a great ideas. You could put someone's name on the mug, and then you could use the mug for party favors and put all sorts of other things inside the mug. But then, you know you're able to have their personalized name for a party, a bridal shower, anything like that. You can also write something like World's Greatest Dad or my mom rocks. I mean, you can look up so many different phrases on the Internet. You can do motivational phrases. I love motivational phrases, things like just breathe or on one side you could say it is well and on the other side with my soul. And so there are so many different things that you can put on your mug. I personally am going to use the phrase but first coffee, and this is a great phrase to use for this type of mug, So I need to decide how I'm going to lay this out. What I typically do is I will mix and regular print writing with script writing or my brush lettering if you haven't taken my brush lettering class yet here on skill share, it's called brush lettering for beginners, and it walks you through every single letter and how to set it up, how every letter is formed and then for this particular project we're gonna use faux calligraphy, so we're gonna go back in and add the thickness to the down strokes later. So I also have a class on faux calligraphy you can take that can really help you with this project, and then I also have a block lettering class, which you can use block lettering on your mugs as well. And so you can take that class to help you. Or you could just take it for fun. I'm in tow fund, so this looks like it will work with my mug. And it's very simple. Your layout does not have to be complex. I really think the simpler the better for a mug because it is harder to write on the rounded surface. And so just make it simple for your first project and something that you will love. So you want to shake up your pen. Make sure it's working well, flowing well on the side before you put it on your mug, and then you want to have your mug rusting in a way that is comfortable for you Now. I'm trying to get into a position where you can see it on this video, but if you can just let let it lay flat on the table, then that's often better because then you have more support and more control. This is a different feel than regular lettering, because you don't have this support of the table to your hand, but just go nice and slow, Take your time. And remember, if you make any mistakes, you can always take a Q tip with some rubbing alcohol and just take off any paint that you don't want there. And as I'm going just kind of adding a little more thickness and you can have your letters . Bia's thick as you want Orosz thin is you want one of my letters started to get a little thicker. So then I just decided to go ahead and make all the letters thicker. And that's a great way to just cover up any happy accidents. You know, I don't necessarily call them mistakes. A lot of times you're gonna have things that happened in art and things that you can, though you can change and you can. You could make better by just going back like I'm doing now and adding in some thickness to your letters. And for some reason, I was having a little bit of difficulty with this pen. If you do, just stop and shake it. Put the cap back on, shake it up again, make sure you pump it again and just try to keep it going so I'm just putting in the initial script lettering, and then I'm gonna come in and add extra to it to the down strokes. This is the basics of focal atrophy. And like I already mentioned, you can take my focal a graffiti class if you want to really learn this for this project and for your design. But you basically just come in later and you add additional thickness to the down strokes to give it that really pretty brush lettering. Look, I really love that look. It's just really pretty. And it just adds that extra to your cup. Now you can just leave your lettering as it was. I mean, you don't have to add the thickness, but I do recommend the faux calligraphy on the mug because it will just make it look that much more professional. It will just give it that extra look of a finished look. And I'm just again having a little bit of problems with my pen but working through it. You know, I tried this pen out earlier and I was having no problems at all. But of course, when you go to record, end up having a little bit of issues, but it's really simple. You know, All you have to do is just plan out your layout and then write it on your mug. You can also right on the bottom. You put your name could also write something on the back. So that's something you can do as well. And you have a customized mug. 6. Let Your Mugs Dry: Now that you have your lettering and designs on your mugs, go ahead and let them set for 24 hours to dry. So you just want the paint to be really dry before you bake it in and make it permanent. 7. Bake Your Mugs: Now it's time to bake your mugs and make the paint permanent on your mugs. So what you want to do is you want to get a rimmed baking sheet. This one has been used well. I usually put foil over it if I use it, but I just thought I would use this one and put my mugs upside down. That way, even the anything on the bottom gets really nice and baked, and you want to preheat your oven to 375. Wait until it's preheated and then you will bake your mugs for 25 minutes. After you're done baking your mugs, you'll turn off the oven, but you'll leave the mugs in the oven until it cools down. This is about a 1 to 2 hour process, so you just leave the mugs in the oven while there while it's cooling down and then you take him out and you can enjoy them. I have tried this before with other mugs, and I have put them into the dishwasher. I have put them into the microwave, and I personally have not had issues. But for the best use and for the longest where of your pain. I would recommend hand washing them in warm water and detergent. So enjoy your mugs. Post a picture of your mug that you created in the project area. I would love to see what you create. 8. Next Steps: congratulations. You should now have a finished mug or mugs that you have custom designed. These are one of a kind designs. There will never be another design exactly like this, and I hope that you had fun and you enjoy the class. I would love to see the mug you created, so simply take a picture of it and posted in the project area. You'll have to do that from a browser or from your computer, and you'll see the your project tab on skill share. If you enjoy this class, I would really appreciate you simply taking a moment to post your review here on skill share. There should be a pop up at the top of your screen that says, Would you recommend this class to other students? Simply click yes and post a sentence or two about what you learned, what you appreciated or what you've gained from this class. And it would mean the world to me. It also helps to reach more people with this training, and so I appreciate you taking a moment to do that. You now have a skill you can continue to use for years to come. You can create very affordable gifts for Christmas birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, bridal showers and more. Plus, you could just have fun creating new mugs to drink your coffee or tea or hot chocolate in. And it's a great project to do with your kids again. My name is Shelly hit. Thank you so much for joining me in this class. I hope to see you in my other skill share classes on Instagram and I will see you next time .