Monday 15 March 2010

Make a Mothers Day Teapot for Mum on Mothering Sunday


If you love tea, you will love this beautiful hand painted Mothers Day Teapot craft idea. An unremarkable plain white teapot is decorated with hand painted love hearts to transform it into a very pretty looking teapot - Ideal for Mothers Day.


To make the Mothers Day teapot you will need...
A plain white teapot, you can buy these cheaply at The Range and Asda,
A fuchsia Marabu porcelain paint pen and a silver one too, you will find these at Hobbycraft.
You will also need a pencil and a ruler.

Start off by giving the teapot a good wash to remove and grease or dirt. Dry the teapot on a clean tea towel.

Now with the pencil and ruler, mark out some guide lines on the teapot. I know its a bit tricky because its not a flat surface, but do the best you can. It does look nicer if your writing is straight.

Next in pencil, write in the guide lines 'Happy Mothers Day'. You will probably need to write 'Day' below on another line. If you go wrong, rub it out with a damp peice of kitchen paper. When you are happy that all the text is central you can begine with the porcelain paint pens.

Before use, shake the Marabu porcelain paint pen well with the cap closed. Press onto the tip repeatedly until the ink is visible in it (do not continue once the ink appears in the tip as this may overload it).

If the nib does get a bit too full, draw on some scrap paper to reduce the surplus paint.
With the silver pen, go over the pencil text that you wrote. Then leave the teapot to one side to let the paint dry.

The paint does stay wet for a while and if you smudge it, it des spoil the look of the teapot.

Next either freehand or make yourself a little cardboard heart template, cover the teapot and lip in love hearts. The love hearts can be all sizes and they can go in any direction.

You can avoid smudging the paint by only doing a couple of hearts on one side, and then allowing them to dry for half an hour and then drawing some more. Build up in this way until the teapot is covered.

If you do smudge the paint - not to worry. Have a soapy damp cloth ready to scrub off your mistake. Make sure that this space dries properly before you try to paint on it again.

Once you are happy with your teapot, allow the paint to dry for 4 hours before baking the teapot in a preheated oven temperature for 170 degrees Celsius, 325 degrees Fahrenheit or gas mark 3. Bake the teapot for 30 minutes to fix the paint.

After baking, turn off the heat and open the oven door and allow the teapot to cool down before you remove it from the oven.

The Marabu-Porcelain Painter is dishwasher-safe after baking in the oven.