A heartfelt cup of tea - Personalised Christmas craft idea

This Christmas myself and my friend, Kirsty, decided that we wanted to do a crafty project together that would result in some lovely Christmas presents for our family and friends. We searched Pinterest and came across a few ideas for creating special mugs and also homemade hot chocolate gifts. Our brains then got to work to decide what we needed to start this Christmas craft.

When we got down to it and went shopping we discovered that we really didn't need an awful lot to create something that would look brilliant. 

What you will need:

- White mugs (we bought ours from The Range)

- Sharpie oil-based paint markers in whatever colour you fancy (we got ours from Amazon)

- Letters: Either print a stencil in which case you'll need masking tape to stick it on, or buy letter stickers

- An oven

- Antibacterial wipes for mistakes

Optional - Christmas music and candy canes

To make these mugs first, cut out your letters (if you printed them) and affix them to your mug using the masking tape if they are stickers just place them on. When you're happy with the placement start dotting around the letters making sure to go around the letter completely to ensure the letter will be visible when the stencil is pulled it away. Myself and Kirsty each took a different approach to these mugs. I was faster and all over, whilst Kirsty was slow and steady doing fewer dots.

Next, pull the letters away. If on any of your mugs the dots become a little smudged simply use an antibacterial wipe to clear away the mess and pen on anything else you need. When you are happy with your design put all mugs in the oven and turn it on to around 220°C keeping them in for an hour. It's important to put them in before the oven is turned on so that the mugs can warm up slowly. When the time has lapsed turn the oven off and leave the mugs to cool down before taking them out of the oven. 

Ours turned out brilliant and we were so pleased with how they looked. Hopefully, you will get the chance to make these for a gift, or even for yourself. They are super easy and look so good! 

We decided to make these mugs into a larger gift by adding little homemade chocolate blocks for people to enjoy hot chocolate in their new mugs. That post is coming tomorrow...