DIY Kid's Craft: Hand Print Painted Coffee Mug

My son finished school for the summer a week ago and he has been asking to do crafts. I quite enjoy painting on glass so I figured this would be a perfect personalized craft to do! My son and I created this piece as a gift for Father's Day.

You will need:

• 1 plain white oven safe dishwasher safe coffee mug. The dollar store always has an abundance of these. 
• Folk Art enamel paints in various colors. You can find these paints at craft stores next to the regular acrylic paints. Another good brand is Martha Stewart. 
• sharpie
• various paintbrushes to include a thicker paintbrush or perhaps a sponge brush as well as a couple fine tipped paintbrushes.
• disposable plate

Step 1: Make sure your mug is clean and dry. Paint a layer of blue paint on the outside. Allow to dry completely. 

Step 2: squirt some paint on the disposable plate and kinda swirl it around to make a somewhat even layer of paint. Place your child's hand flat in the paint palm facing downwards. Have your child make sure their fingers are somewhat spread slightly and gently and very carefully place their paint covered hand across one side of the mug thumb side up. It is not going to be completely perfect, but as long as it somewhat resembles a fish you're good to go! Allow to dry completely.

Step 3: Add some seaweed, bubbles, eyes and mouth! Allow to dry completely.

Step 4: Take your sharpie and get your child to write a message whatever they want to write. My son chose: "Dad is fishtastic!" (my husband loves fishing). I went back over my son's writing with the fine tipped paintbrush and enamel paint. 

I also added the words" "Father's Day 2014" and went over the writing again in enamel paint. Allow everything to dry completely.

Step 5: Place your finished piece into a COLD oven. Heat the oven to 350 F and leave in there for 30 minutes. This is going to seal your child's artwork onto the mug. Using potholders, take the piece out of the oven and place on a heat proof surface to cool completely. 

Ta da! Finished! 

Tips and tidbits of info:

• I went back over the sharpie words with enamel paint as I knew the enamel paint would seal on the mug. In my experience, regular sharpie tends to come off even after baking the glass to seal. To save time, I recommend buying the sharpie paint pens. I was at home ill at the time of making this craft, so I just used what I had on hand as far as supplies.
• If you make mistakes with this craft with the enamel paint, the paint will peel off. This is ONLY before placing the mug in the oven to seal. The first attempt at placing my son's paint covered hand didn't go well as it was just a giant smeared blob and he was complaining it didn't look like a fish. I took a wet rag, wiped off everything to a clean slate and started again. 
• Patience is key with this craft as far as drying time! Make sure you allow layers to dry. Enamel paint is very thick so it takes longer than regular acrylic paint to dry. If you try to handle the mug when the paint is wet, the paint will stick to your fingers and come off. 
• I'm not sure if any mug will be safe to use as far as oven curing, however I preferred to keep safety in mind and use an oven safe mug.