I am an Irish girl through and through. My grandmother happily lets everyone know that she is from Clarke County in Ireland in casual conversation. I love decorating for St. Patty's Day, but I wanted to come up with a cute, unique gift for the two women in my life that help to take care of my daughter when I go to work every day. I am extremely fortunate to have my parents within a forty-five minute drive. Riley started going to my mom's every day once she was two months. I never could have gone back to work so soon if I didn't have my mom watching her. I went to work every day knowing that Riley's every need would be taken care of because of who takes better care of a little girl than a grandmother. The second woman in our lives is a friend's mom who lives about ten minutes away. She runs a daycare out of her home and Riley loves it there. My friend and I cannot get over the similarities in our mothers. They speak to Riley the exact same way, which for a child of routine is ideal. So I decided on a little something for them. I picked up mugs from the dollar store and racked my brain. I saw a shamrock drawn from multiple hearts and a light bulb went off.
I started out by drawing a stem and a heart with swirls at the top with a green sharpie marker. I initially drew it starting with the swirls at the top of the heart, but I found it was much easier to start from the base.
I then added another heart to the other side of the stem.
The final heart went in between the two hearts.
I continued drawing shamrocks in a vine like creation. I wanted the shamrocks to create one large shamrock, but I actually like the way it came out so I was okay with the vine like creation. The final step was to add the last name. I free handed the name, which in retrospect I wish I had stenciled it on. I'll make sure to the stencil the Shamrock and Irish Blessing Plate I plan on making. The great thing about using a sharpie is that it can withstand the dishwasher and water. You'd need to use a magic eraser and some elbow grease to get off. I only know this because of a Christmas gift I got for my parents where I needed to erase a name from ceramic. The magic eraser is a god send by the way because it's a sponge that has cleaning materials already embedded within it.
I also did the back side of the mug so that it wasn't empty.
Randi - Dukes and Duchesses
What a sweet and thoughtful gift!
Mindie Hilton
I like receiving mugs since I am a dork and always drop my favorite ones. Super cute.
AmieAnn
What a sweet and thoughtful gift for St. Patty's day.. so cute! Thanks so much for sharing with the Pink hippo party.. can't wait to see what you share next!
Carrie
Very fun!! I am passing on the Versatile Blogger Award to you. You can check it out at http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2012/02/versatile-blogger-award-again.html. Hope you are having a great day!