*This post was updated March 6, 2020
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When I first published this blog post, I had given my best friend a DIY coffee mug for her birthday. She lived in Arkansas at the time and I lived in Ohio. Now she lives in Massachusetts and I live in Oregon. Literally completely opposite sides of the country. So I decided to make these mugs again and give her one for Christmas! The photos on this post are now one thousand times better, and I have actually learned a couple extra tricks!

How to Make Long-Distance-Best-Friends DIY Coffee Mugs

What I used:

1. Coffee Mugs. I bought some cute matching ones from Goodwill but anything will do. Even something from the dollar store or Amazon.
2. Sharpie Paint Pens. They HAVE to be the oil based paint pins. They work so much better than regular Sharpies.
3. Rubbing Alcohol. To clean the surface before writing on the mugs and to fix mistakes.
4. A box and bubble wrap. For packing to send to your friend. I just did this part at the post office.

What I did:

1. I stuck both mugs in the dishwasher with a load of dirty dishes before I started my project.
2. Next, I printed the shapes of our two states (Oregon for me and Massachusetts for her) off the computer and cut them out.
3. Then I practiced tracing them on paper.
4. I wiped down the mugs with the rubbing alcohol.
5. I taped the state shapes to the mugs and traced around them ever so lightly with paint pen.
6. After I got them traced, I took the paper off the mugs and went over my drawings darker.
7. Next I put little red hearts over the areas where we each live and wrote our names by the hearts. Then I put the mugs side by side and drew a dotted line between the hearts.
8. I erased any mistakes I made with the rubbing alcohol.
9. Once I got the mugs looking the way I liked, I sat them on the counter to dry for 72 hours!
10. Then, I popped them in the cold oven and turned it to 425 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours.
11. Then I turned it off the oven and let them cool down completely in the oven.
12. When they were done baking and had cooled completely, I took them out of the oven. I packed the Oregon one up in a box and mailed it to Massachusetts along with a picture of the two mugs together. I kept the Massachusetts one and I think of Ashley every time I drink out of it.

Since I made these DIY coffee mugs I also made 10 different ones for a Galentine’s Day brunch/gift exchange I attended this year! They turned out so good!

Have you ever made a sharpie DIY coffee mug? I never realized how easy they are once you use the right tools. Plus they’re super cute!

Thanks so much for reading!