Bisque:

• Coupe Dinner Plate
• Coupe Salad Plate

Pattern:

• Download pattern [PDF]

Colors:

• Candy Apple
• Spruce
• White (optional)

At Your Table:

• Pencil
• Brushes
• Sponge

Accessories (Our staff will be happy to bring these to your table):

• Carbon Paper
• Paint Pen

Directions

1. Trace pattern onto the coupe salad plate using the carbon paper.
2. Using a brush at your table, apply three coats of Candy Apple Red to the areas that say “R” on the pattern.  (As an alternative to Candy Apple Red, you could use Hot Tamale or Scarlet).
3. Clean edges either:
1. By scraping using the opposite side of the brush (look for a brush that has a sloped, hard pointed edge in your brush caddy at your table).
2. By using a paint pen in the same color red along the edges (easier method)
4. The white stripe can either be left unpainted or painted with three coats of White. 
5. Using a paint pen in the same color red, apply a line in the center of each stripe as shown in the photo.
6. For the coordinating dinner plate, apply three coats of Spruce to the entire plate.

Materials

Bisque:

• Coupe Dinner Plate

Colors:

• Hot Tamale
• Black
• White (optional)

At Your Table:

• Pencil
• Brushes
• Sponge

Accessories

• Black Paint Pen (optional) – our staff will get this for you.

Our staff will help you with the handprints!

Directions

1. Draw Santa’s belt onto the plate with pencil.
2. Using a large brush, paint three coats of Hot Tamale on the suit portion of the plate.
3. Using a brush, paint three coats of Black on Santa’s belt.  You can leave the white unpainted or paint it with White.  You can also use a Black Paint Pen on the edges for a finer, smooth line.
4. Using Black glaze, place handprints on the plate.  Our staff can help you get the best quality handprint.

For this entry in our ideas and techniques blog, we will take a little inspiration from our own studios!  We use cups and saucers on every table in the studio to hold water and sponges for our painters.  Our staff artists have come up with some cute ideas to decorate these magnificent mugs! 

Make a Lasting Impression!

Capturing those precious baby fingers and toes can be a challenge! Factor in a squirming baby, art materials, and time and that new bundle of joy will be grown before you freeze that moment in time. Make the process fun and easy by visiting All Fired Up! We are proud to offer wet clay impressions for children at any age from newborn to graduation! Come in anytime during studio hours and our friendly staff will walk you through the process.

Your masterpiece starts with a wet slab of clay. Start with a flat plaque or have your piece formed to a plate. Once your shape is decided staff will help make a lasting impression of your child’s hand or footprint. Leave the piece for firing and in one week you can come back to decorate with paint. We offer a wide range of glaze colors to match any décor.

Details like name, age, and date can easily be added to the piece. If you feel like you don’t have time to decorate you can pay a small artist fee for All Fired Up to complete the piece for you! The entire process is just $35 plus tax.

In addition to wet clay impressions in the shape of a hanging plaque or plate, you can create adorable one-of-a-kind ornaments with your child’s hand and footprints. Ornaments are just $5 a piece.  These make great gifts!

Here’s a really clever gift idea for that “list-maker” in your life!  Get rid of your paper to-do lists and jot down your tasks for the day with your cup of joe.  We’ll show you how to create this easy notepad-like design and also show you some variations on this idea for other fun projects and gifts.

1. You can use any style mug — here we have used our traditional 16 oz. Mug — and have painted the entire mug with three coats of yellow-color glaze (here it’s our “Light Straw” color) as a background. 
2. Give the background ample time to dry.  To create the ruled blue lines, wrap narrow strips of masking tape around the mug to cover the background.  Leave a small gap between each strip of masking tape.  The number of strips used depends on the type of mug you’re using and the thickness of the masking tape.
3. Using a paintbrush, paint three coats of ”Blue Yonder” glaze in the gaps between the strips masking tape.  The masking tape will give you the effect of a finely ruled line.
4. While the blue glaze is drying, carefully remove each strip of masking tape.  Take great care to ensure that the masking tape does not remove the yellow background underneath.
5. Once the blue lines are fully dry, you can create the vertical red lines.  To do this, use our “Salsa” colored paint pen.  Take a ruler and carefully paint the vertical line with your paint pen against the ruler.  Do this a second time directly to the left of the first vertical line for a double-line effect.
6. Finally, grab a black paint pen to write “Things To Do” on the top line of the mug.  Then label each line with a number.
7. Voila!  You now have a reusable and very cool to-do list mug!

Grab a dry-erase marker at your local crafts store to go with the mug and you have an instant gift that is unique and practical!

Variations on the idea

• Fill in the to-do list with your black paint pen to match hobbies/activities on your gift recipient’s list for a personal touch!
• Do the notepad “ruled-paper” effect as a gift for a teacher!
• In addition to the to-do list, try other “write-on” ideas on a mug:  Draw a tic-tac-toe board on your mug in paint pen, or a hangman game.  Then give the mug as a gift with a dry-erase pen and you have an instant interactive game-on-a-mug!