DIY Disney Inspired Sharpie Mug

Yeah, another Sharpie Mug project. There seems to be another one every time I turn around. Here's the deal: I had to know. Does it work? How? How long does it stay? Can it go in the dishwasher? So I decided to give it a whirl here at the cottage and let you all know exactly what I discovered.

I found this adorable little mug and immediately thought of my favorite Disney artist, Mary Blair, and how precious a little Small World & Sword in the Stone inspiration would be right there on the side of it. Done! I found these adorable little squirrels in the Silhouette shop. Specifically, I used "Squirrel" (design ID 31948), "Retro Tree" (design ID 3343), the heart from "I Love You Card" (design ID 24426) and the leaf from a random "flower" design. I then aligned them on the Silhouette using the alignment feature and cut out this vinyl stencil.

Applying the stencil to a curved surface was tricky. Cutting slits along the bottom of the stencil between shapes was helpful, but there was plenty of finagling involved.

I used Whipperberry's Sharpie Mug Gift Tutorial. Which means I used regular Sharpies so this mug is not headed for the dishwasher. (Apparently the oil-based Sharpies do well in dishwasher. But given enough research, they too seem to fail.) I used both my fine tips and my broad tip markers with great results, at first. You can see the marker lines on some of the colors, but try as I might (and I am generally adept at such things,) I couldn't find a way to completely eliminate these. Also, if you do this, use the light colors before the dark ones. I drew the yellow spots on after the outline of the tree and the marker wanted to bleed into the yellow, even though I had applied it 24 hours before.

I baked this mug at 350 for 30 min and let it cool down in the oven. The lighter colors turned a little browner after baking. I wasn't prepared for that. I waited 24 hours before hand washing. And in the end, the design still scrubbed right of. Bummer.

At this point I was thinking about using the mug to hold little bits and bobs in the studio. But I read in the comments on Pinstrosity that baking at 450 for 30 min might do the trick, so I gave that a try. (By the way, the comments on this were all over the map. Seems that mugs can vary greatly even when you buy the same brand and use the same pens and oven. Boo.) No such luck. It looks like this sweet mug is destined for the studio after all. So until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Sometimes It Doesn't Go As Planned: Crystal Palace Lemon Square Recipe

The dirty little secret about a blog like this is that you often have to try things more than once. In fact, most things don't go as expected the first time out. Usually I can sprinkle a little fairy dust on it and make it just the way I like it. But every now and then, I have a complete flop; something that just isn't going to work no matter how many ways I try to salvage it. My most recent case in point: Crystal Palace Lemon Squares.

There are a lot of great sites out there with Disney recipes. And I am a huge fan of bringing a little Disney magic into the kitchen. And this lemon square recipe is ALL OVER the web. The same, exact recipe. The thing about it is, it's fatally flawed. The lemon curd part calls for a cup, A CUP, of butter. Most curds don't have any butter. I also calls for 1/2 an egg yolk; that's right, 1/2, whereas most recipes for lemon curd have several whole eggs. Not to mention the fact that there is no flour in it at all. I was skeptical about it, but I've never made these from scratch before, and butter is almost always better. Look at Paula Dean's recipes. But even as I was mixing it up, I knew it wasn't right.

My suspicions were confirmed. When it came out of the oven it was a liquid mess. The cookie crust was floating on a bubbling puddle of butter. It would never look (or taste) right, even after it cooled. And even Mr. Photos From The Parks couldn't salvage it. If HE can't make it work, then it's not going to. Period. Perhaps the most disappointing thing was the entire cottage's expectation for lemon bars, down the drain.

I do plan on asking for the recipe the next time we are at the Crystal Palace, just to see if it really is what they are giving out. (I desperately want to think that someone just transposed some ingredients or something.) If you happen to get there before I do and find the recipe, I'd love it if you'd pass it along to us. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!