how I use porcelaine pens

for awhile now I've been meaning to do a post on how I went about making the plates I posted about here, here & here...and this weekend I finally did it. here are the supplies you'll need:


{note: for some reason I put my orange pen in the photo even though I actually used my black one}

the first step is to create the lettering - for the plates I made previously I used the home sweet home font which I found via this post on how about orange. this time however I wanted something different so I looked through some of my vintage cross-stitch books:


I used my computer to size & re-create my favorite using the "x" from the font but you could just do it by hand or with graph paper.


next tape carbon paper onto the back of the printed design:


then tape the combo onto the ceramic item - since mine was curved I cut in certain places to help the paper lay flat:


using a pen draw over the design - to make sure your lines are nice & dark you'll want to press hard and don't be afraid to do it a couple times. before you remove the papers you can look at your pen marks to make sure you got all the lines:


this is how it will look when you remove the papers. be careful not to touch it or you'll smug it, on the bright side if you're not happy with your placement you can just wipe it off & try again!


next step is to draw over all the lines with the porcelaine pen. I used the bullet tip on this one as well as all my previous projects. {have a piece of scrap paper available to write on if the flow is too heavy or if you get something on the tip.}


I just take my time and try not think too much about it...keep in mind that little mistakes won't be as noticeable as you think they will when you're all done:



the pen dries very quickly but if you make a mistake you can scrape it off, I just use my fingernail. the last step is to wait 24 hours then bake it according to the directions which will make it dishwasher safe. for the decorative plates I did previously I didn't bother baking though.

so there you go...hope that all made sense, if you have a question feel free to post a comment & I'll do my best to answer it.

UPDATE: after following the manufacturers directions for baking the mug it was NOT dishwasher safe! some of the pen came off :( very gently handwashing, while avoiding rubbing the pen marks worked but obviously is not a great solution for an item that is used often. in the future I'm going to reserve doing this on only decorative items...