Dashes and Dots DIY Floral Mugs

Not too long ago I rocked out some polka dot and floral mugs with the awesome, permanent and totally food safe Painted by Me markers. Rob and I have talked about having lots of dishes where nothing matches but there is a common theme of black and white. Well, actually, I told him about it and he thought the idea was good enough to get behind so it's all systems go!

I'm not sure if you've ever looked for unique pieces within a very strict color scheme but it's a royal pain in the neck. Even with a color scheme as simple as black and white I'm having a hard time filling the cabinet with enough dishes for a service of 2 let alone a party of 8. And that is a good part of why I'm totally digging Painted by Me. I now have 6 mugs that match even though they don't "match" and it's perfect! Today I'm going to show you how to rock these suckers out!

For this project you will need:

Painted by Me Markers

Painted by Me Ceramics

Alcohol (to clean up mistakes)

There are lots of colors of Painted by Me Markers but these plus black are the 4 I've found myself most drawn to. Choose your favorite 3 or 4 colors and get ready to start!

I would highly recommend starting this project by doodling some flowers made with dots and dashes. You'll be able to see what you're comfortable with drawing and find things that do or don't work before you spend your time drawing onto your mugs.

Draw your shapes onto your mugs being sure to mix the colors up for the flowers. Also vary placement with some disappearing off of the edge of the mug and others fitting perfectly in the space. 

Fill in any empty space with big black polka dots. Now they don't have to be perfectly circle so unless something is super wonky, just go with it!

To be honest, you should really do the inside first because NOT getting the drawings off of the outside after they're on there can be a bit of a headache.

A simple black and white pattern works really well and gives the inside some pop but doesn't pull focus from your fancy front designs! Here I've made black only dotted flowers!

There are lots of styles of mugs and this lovely guy has a bird on it. To mimic trees draw green lines and surround them with polka dot flowers and dash leaves.

To keep things interesting also draw in large dot and dash flowers.

With a bold polka dot interior and a pretty yellow bird, this mug is finito!

Simple but gorgeous!

Though the patterns can look complex, they truly are made of dots and dashes for the most part. Find a pattern for your flowers and keep it consistent when changing the colors for each flower. That is to say if, like above, your center dots are green and your small dashes are also green, do that same thing with other colors on all of the flowers to keep them different but consistent.

Fill the extra space with your big ol' dots and run random black lines inside of the cup.

Simple but lovely!

Last of all we have the most complex design and one that I had to practice on a page or two of notebook paper before I felt confident enough to start on the ceramic. But in the end it is one of my favorite patterns so it was well worth the effort.

Crazy doodles inside of the mug finish this baby up and you're all set for the next step.

The marker is permanently set with heat...

To set your marker you'll need to place your mugs in A COLD OVEN and set the temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for 40 minutes and then turn the oven off. Allow the mugs to cool INSIDE OF THE OVEN. 

Simply put extreme temperature changes cause ceramic to break and we don't want all of our lovely work falling apart on us, now do we? :)

My set matches without being exactly the same. Each shape of mug is different, each pattern on the outside and pattern on the inside different as well. But that color pallet stays consistent so even though they are different, they still match. How awesome is that?

Don't forget these suckers are dishwasher safe AND food safe. Oh, and they're also awesome. Crazy awesome.

For more projects please visit me at:

Dream a Little Bigger