Custom coffee mug for a college care package

All the cool kids are carrying travel coffee mugs these days, did you know? Perhaps you've already joined the club of coffee-on-demand, but I've just recently caught on. See, I'm making a care package for my hubby's cousin who recently began studies at Georgia Tech, 777 miles away from his TX hometown. I thought a care package would be a nice gesture. So far, I have EasyMac, coffee, green tea, and a white board. I asked a college student friend what I should add to complete the package and she said a travel coffee mug. Apparently, the Nalgene bottle of my college days has been replaced by the travel coffee mug.

So I started hunting for a cool travel coffee mug. I found the perfect one at Starbucks (conveniently located in my local grocery store) - the Create Your Very Own tumbler. I just traced the provided template (at left) onto some patterned paper, stamped an oh-so-masculine vintage car on the page, and stuffed it back into the bottom of the tumbler. Super-easy!


Now my care package is complete, and I'd like to make some more of these as gifts. I'm going to hunt around online to see if I can find them cheaper anywhere else. I'll keep you posted on my hunt for cheap mugs.

Here's what I've found thus far:

• a link to another lady who has been making custom mugs
• maybe Starbucks really does have the best price at $11 ish. I've found mugs for as much as $16 in my quick web survey
• Starbucks has some travel mug art online that you can download for free, although they don't seem to sell the mugs online
• Treasured Tumblers carries a variety of styles of create-your-own travel mugs, but the cheapest is $14.95. They also have free artwork for your mug in the "Free Stuff" section.

UPDATE:

I found these mugs called Scrapbook tumblers at Target for $7.99. They're a smaller version of this mug, and the trim is in a bright color. I think they had pink and purple. I'll buy one and post samples soon. They are not listed on the Target website, but I found them in the store with all the travel mugs.

Birthday Fun

So today is my 30th birthday. I know, I know, it's hard to believe.

Well, just the other day I had a bunch of stampers over to make birthday calendars. See, one of my goals is to be better about sending birthday cards and gifts on time. So I made this birthday calendar to help me remember. I'm going to hang it on the wall in my craft room so that I will have cards on the ready when needed. My mom and my grandma are both really great about sending birthday cards. They send out all their birthday cards for the month on the 1st day of the month. So if your b-day is the 20th, you're getting a card early. If it's on the 1st, it may be a bit late. What a novel idea, though. I have lots of friends with August birthdays, so this month is a good time to start the new habit.

These are some samples of birthday cards we made together (and matching envelopes).

There's also some samples of pages from the birthday calendar we made together. If you'd like a birthday calendar of your own, let me know. I would be glad to show you how I decorated mine, or I could decorate one for you (for a small fee, of course). Sorry for the white boxes in the photos. I didn't think to take photos before I started writing everyone's birthdays on my calendar!

June - with watercolor mortarboards. The AquaPainter works well in the calendar since it has thicker paper. Otherwise, the moisture makes thinner paper curl. Watercolor paper is on my wishlist!



July - Jon was excited to see me doing a patriotic theme. I think these stars almost look like denim - very Americana.













May - I love these flowers in Year After Year. They're so versatile, and they're easy to color in with markers.









October - These pumpkins are watercolored in Really Rust with the AquaPainter. These colors are so vivid!

Loads of Love - for Father's Day

This was the other make-and-take from Amy's workshop. It uses a signature Katy slant.
I sent this card to my dad, my father-in-law, and my grandfather for Dad's Day. My dad loves cars, so I think he'll like this card. Trucks and blue means its instantly masculine, even though it doesn't say Father's Day.

Supplies:

• Loads of Love stamp set
• Itty Bitty backgrounds stamp set
• brocade blue cardstock and classic ink
• chocolate chip cardstock and classic ink
• watercolor pencils
• blender pen
• crimper - such fun!

secret to happiness - b-day card

This one works well as a gender-neutral/masculine birthday card. No embellishments or fussiness make it a simple card to make, too!

Supplies:

• Simple Shapes stamp set
• Edgy Eloquence stamp set (from the Winter Mini, so it might be in the new catalog!)
• buckaroo blue cardstock (retiring June 30!)
• chocolate chip cardstock
• very vanilla cardstock
• chocolate chip classic ink pad
• buckaroo blue classic ink pad (retiring June 30!)