Chalkboard + Beer Mugs = The Perfect Gift

In my family, we just rotate who has who based on who had who last year, since there is just three families. This year, we had Jill and Charlie {or so we thought, but more on that latter}.

I generally have a hard time thinking about what people would want for gifts and by the time I got around to thinking about it, it was way too late for any knitted gifts. I was actually not going to make any gifts for Christmas. Instead, was trying to buy local, trying to help the local/US economy with my gift purchases.

With that in mind, I searched etsy and found these wine glasses with chalkboard labels. The shop had updated the listing to include priority shipping and that was why I bought them. But, when I went looking for a more manly version {beer mugs}, I couldn't find any listings with priority shipping.

So, I think to myself, I'll have a full week to find beer mugs and paint them. No big deal.

Famous last words.

Box of 4 Beer Mugs - Target {1 day of shopping looking for them, 1 day of resting to recover}

And, now comes the hard part. But, painting can't be that hard, can it?

First, I had to mask off the area to be painted. But, how do you do that on a mug that is curved?! I did try to tape the traditional square but the first piece of tape across the top was never straight.

So, the next best thing...

... cover up the entire area...

... and cut out the square.

Drawing the square took quite some time but by the last mug, I was fairly good at it. My square was about 3.5 x 3.5 inches.

And when you look at the cutouts, they really look squarish which surprised me since the mug is so curved.

I had started in the afternoon, and had to take a break in the middle of the day. When I finished up with the masking, it was evening and I was starting to wonder if I had made a wise decision to make a handmade gift.

Especially since I was losing two days to the trip to Vegas which somehow didn't make it into my calculation when I thought I had an entire week to make gifts.

Next step, clean the glass with rubbing alcohol.

Now, we purchased rubbing alcohol when we first got married and I know we haven't used it often enough to have run out but when I searched for it, I could not find it. So, I had to run up to the store to get rubbing alcohol.

... getting more worried by the moment...

Next step, scratch the surface to prepare it for the primer. I didn't worry too much about this since I really could have just painted the blackboard spraypaint right on the glass itself but the primer instructions said to do it, so I did.

And, then, clean the surface again with the rubbing alcohol.

And then, two coats of primer. I was doing this outside at night...

...in the dark

{uphill, both ways!}

And it was cold!

You are instructed to only use the primer/spray paint when the temperature is above 50 degrees. I just barely made it.

{It was colder my second night of painting}

It was here that I had to take a break. It was late and I still hadn't packed yet. This was Wednesday night. We were leaving the next morning, were not going to be back home until Friday night (night after next) and we were going over to my parents house Christmas Eve Day (in just three days). That would just leave me perhaps just a few hours Friday night or Saturday morning to squeeze in a few coats of the blackboard paint.

Yep. That's how I plan ahead.

We did get home with enough time to spare Friday night to get the two coats in that night.

This left them ready to have the tape removed on Saturday morning.

Because the tape wasn't all one continuous piece, the line on the top and bottom wasn't always as perfect as it could be. But, a little scratching here and there helped fix up the imperfections.

If I had a little more time, I would have searched for something that could have sealed the edges to protect them from wear. Not that I know that there is something out there, but there must be something acrylic and clear that would do the trick.

But, after all the work and worry, I was very please with the final result.

Last step, a little bit of priming the surface: the instructions indicated that you need to chalk the entire surface, careful to not use a blunt edge.

And then I decorated them for gift wrapping.

Happy Customers!

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
Kinky Friedman