DIY Marbled Love Coffee Mugs Made with Nail Polish

I have gotten to where I really love my coffee. Rob has been getting up SO. DANG. EARLY. because he’s got super early morning classes to teach this semester. And the only thing that keeps me from pulling my hair out as he’s trying to quietly get ready and leave me in my peaceful slumber, but failing, is that I’m headed to my freaking Keurig and getting my caffienation on.

It’s a total love affair. I’ve tried so many K-cups and I’m down to my favorite. A Texas Pecan brew and man, oh, man is it fabulous. Now I’m not even technically supposed to have caffeine but desperate measures and my gogo juice is the only thing keeping me upright these days!

So I thought it would be fun to make pretty, Valentine’s Day mugs, that aren’t too cheesy for gifts. I can give them to those who love coffee as much as I currently do. Oh, heck, I’ll probably keep at least one of them for myself 🙂

For this project you will need:

• Nail polish OR Pebeo Ceramic Paint
• White mugs
• Distilled Water
• Large bowl
• Wood skewers (or similar)

This is my gang. Each color was $1 so I’ve not got a ton invested in supplies. I don’t have fingernails to paint so these are for crafting only and I’m okay with that. Know that if you use nail polish these ARE NOT MICROWAVE SAFE. Nail polish is flammable and there is no reason to risk it. Give these to the gals at work who have a coffee pot always going or only use a machine like a Keurig. Be sure to tell your friends to NOT put these in the microwave.

Now, if you’re worried they will forget or just want to go about it differently, grab some Pebeo ceramic paints from the craft store. Now my craft store looked at me like I was a ding dong when I went to buy some so I hit the nail polish aisle while picking up my prescriptions. If I had another store to go to, I’d totally go the Pebeo route because it is safer even if a bit more expensive. Either route you go, the concept is the same, though.

Swirl your paint into a bowl of distilled water. Use something like a wooden skewer to marble if you choose.

Slowly dip the mug into the water. The paint will adhere to the mug.

Use your skewer to clean the excess up around the mug and pull straight up out of the water. I misplaced mine and wound up using my nearby pencil. Oops.

Look at that! Isn’t it lovely? You can see my first mug in the background and for that one, I dipped once, cleaned the water, and stopped.

And it looks like this. I daresay it’s my favorite. Just enough color to be interesting but simple enough to not be offending…

But the second mug I pulled it straight up and then dipped it again to cover more of the mug with the polish floating on the water’s surface.

2 things happened here, I got some crazy abstract marbling, which it turns out I love but I also got some bubbles that popped and stuff that gave my mug more texture than I was hoping for. There’s no denying it’s pretty cool looking, though.

For my last mug, I dipped it in more solid paint after I put a big heart-shaped sticker on the mug. I wasn’t too keen on it so I grabbed the fingernail polish remover to undo what I had done…

But as I did I liked the abstract, chunky edges and decided to clean it up to have less paint on the mug, and as it turns out…

I kind of dig it and it’s way more Valentine’s Day if you want to get technical, than the others. I do prefer the others but this method could be a lot of fun to play with, too.

In the end, I have 3 different very different mugs made with the same bowl of water and $4 of fingernail polish. Not bad and the perfect gift for the java lovers in your life come February 14!

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.