When our good friend The Pintester asked us to try a pin and see how it goes as part of The Pintester Movement, I KNEW I had to try the Sharpie Mug. So many crafters out there have tried the Sharpie Mug, with various degrees of success and failure.
Which camp do you think I fell into?
The Sharpie Mug Inspiration
First, some background on the Sharpie Mug. This project first became popular through the adorable and aspirational lifestyle blog A Beautiful Mess. Those girls just can’t do wrong! The project, published in June of 2012 as His and Her Sharpie Mugs, became a viral hit on Pinterest, and many crafters attempted to duplicate the project.
Although Elsie & Emma can do no wrong, their followers, it appears, CAN indeed do wrong. Search for “Sharpie Mug Fail” on Pinterest and you’ll get an eyefull.
Now I know for a fact this project CAN work. And I think I know where a lot of crafters go wrong. It’s a common CraftFail problem: doing a project without reading the instructions.
Since my suspicion is that a lot of the failers failed to read the directions, I decided to recreate this mistake to see if the project would fail for me too.
Note: If you want to make this project and NOT FAIL, Diyopolis has a lot of tips and tricks for the Sharpie Mug.
The Sharpie Mug: Pintertested
Here’s my Sharpie Mug after one washing in the dishwasher:
To make the mug, I just relied on the photo and caption I found on Pinterest: Just write on a dollar store mug with a Sharpie for a permanent, personalized mug!
I did NOT clean, bake, or otherwise try to positively influence the mug.
I wouldn’t call this an EPIC fail, although I am pretty sure the words will wear off further with each washing. In fact, I can kinda smudge the ink with my finger:
Next time, I’ll try it after I read the direction, but for now, I’m calling this version (my version) a craftfail.
