Copycat Craft: Sharpie-Decorated Dishware

I just couldn't resist trying the Sharpie technique on some plain white mugs we had after featuring some by Simply Kierste a few weeks ago. I'm sure you've seen this idea all over Pinterest, but maybe (like me) you've been curious about whether or not it really works. It does! Now, I used a stencil kit by Martha Stewart for our mugs, and as you can tell in the picture above, the edges bled a little. I like them anyway, but they weren't good enough to give away as gifts. I'm glad I used my own mugs as guinea pigs. For the bowls below, I printed off the numbers and words, then transfered the outlines to the dishware using a pencil. I've used this technique several times, like here and here. Then I filled in the outlines with a Sharpie. That worked much better.

For these soup bowls, if you're interested, I used a font called soymilk.

There's been quite a bit of discussion about how long to bake the dishware for, and whether or not it's dishwasher-safe afterwards. It seems there's a variety of ideas out there, so I kinda combined some of that advice. I'll just tell you what worked for me. I started the dishes out in a cold oven, set the temperature for 450 degrees, and when the correct temperature was reached, I set the timer for 45 minutes. I let it bake for that amount of time, then shut the oven off, but left the dishes in there until they cooled completely. In fact, just to be on the safe side, I left them in there overnight. Now, as for the question of whether or not they're dishwasher safe, I've never tested this out. I'd recommend hand-washing.

So that's it! So easy to do, and a quick-enough process that you can make several sets for giving away. I'll be doing this again.