Pardon the poor photography. These are reusable travel mugs - an inexpensive version that came with some coffee and a coupon inside (purchased at Target). I had originally tried to get my not-yet-5-year-old to color in the paper insert included, but he lost interest quickly. Rather than give a partially colored mug, I decided to take matters into my hands and create the decoration for each mug.
Those who have been paying attention may notice that the background papers resemble some of the banner pennants for the Valentine's banner I made. It's because you are astute and alert! The world needs more lerts, I've been told. I had some leftover scraps from that project, and I traced the provided insert on the back to get a lot of the work done quickly. (This is where the "with purpose" comes into play in my title, in case you have been wondering. Sometimes the purpose is to reduce, sometimes to reuse, sometimes to recycle. Sometimes it's just to use up stuff I've been hoarding so that my husband doesn't notice the new stuff I'm bringing in.)
For Ms. Stephanie's mug, I tied some hemp twine around the base of the page, stamped letters from her name in Pear ink from the new Bohemian Alphabet (LOVE that this comes with two of each vowel, the numbers, and some other punctuation too), cut out the letters, edged them in Chocolate ink, and adhered them with 3D glue dots. Because the papers were a bit stiff, I decided to curve the base around the mug inset and adhere it before I put the letters on. Normally with mugs, I make the whole design before I put them in. (With just photo collages, I laminate them too, so I can be a little more careless while washing. And so I can easily extract them to update them with up-to-date photo collages.)
For Ms. Kelly's mug, I tied some Chocolate ribbon around the bottom and used the PosterBoard Alphabet to stamp the outline of the letters onto scraps from the paper strip project, then cut those out and used Liquid Glass to adhere to the base paper. I thought it gave an interesting bit of texture and interest, especially since Kelly's name is so many letters fewer than Stephanie's. :)
These mugs had one major flaw. The lids were held on by tape, so there was a lot of adhesive gum all over. I used the CTMH Rub and Remove eraser to lift the adhesive residue, then wiped clean. Vincent comes home with stickers on himself a lot. (Both at this school and at daycare, or from any doctor's appointment.) While I've been meaning to ask the teachers about providing them with some bookmarks to use each week, I've had to deal with the reality of my laundry situation. Often, Vincent pulls his shirt off in such a way that the shirt ends up inside out. If I neglect to turn each shirt right side out and inspect before the laundry begins, I have a gooey mess at the end. One day, I thought to try the Rub and Remove eraser on a shirt. What could be the worst case scenario? I'd end up having to buy a new eraser.
Well, I had to buy at least one new eraser so that I could keep one in my laundry room. For under $3, this thing is a laundry saver! I should start putting these in baby shower presents!
But I digress. I hope that the teachers like the mugs. Perhaps they won't want to bother with the hand-washing they require. These will make lovely pencil holders! Teachers always need those, right? (Yeah, I know that teachers have their office supplies organized just as they like them and aren't going to be messing up the orderly design just to make me feel better. I'm just spit-balling here.)
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