Father's Day Pint Glasses

Sometimes the gifts that are hardest to come up with turn out to be the most obvious in hindsight. And that was so true for this project! I wanted to create a useful Father’s Day gift for my husband that the kids would help create. Since my husband likes to keep pint glasses in the freezer for a cold glass of beer, what could be more useful than a couple of new glasses?! Add a little paint pen art from the kids, and voila!

Look at these awesome beer glasses I found at Dollar Tree! I’d never guess that’s where they’re from if I didn’t buy them myself! They’re so nice and heavy! (By the way, it is very difficult to photograph glasses!)

So here are my supplies:

Pint glasses (could also easily sub a regular drinking glass, mug, etc.)
“Painters” brand paint markers (I bought mine at Wal-Mart)
Letter stickers (optional – color doesn’t matter)

I already had all of these materials except the glasses, so it was a budget project for me! I did a similar project a couple of years ago with plain white mugs the kids decorated for their grandfathers, and we filled them with candy.

I read a lot about the best pens to use on glass that would hold up in the dishwasher, and these were a top contender. You could stick with one color or choose complementary colors.

Since my kids are too young to write, I chose to color on top of stickers to spell out a message on one of the glasses. My son loves helping Daddy in the garage and yard, and he often uses his toy tool bucket to help out. So I spelled out “Tools Rule” on the glass he’d decorate. Then he colored on top of the letters (with a lot of assistance from me!), and we peeled the stickers off.

I also let him draw / color on the back of the glass however he chose. For my daughter’s glass, I wrote “I (heart) Daddy” on the front, and she also colored the back on her own. The paint isn’t permanent on the glasses until it’s baked, so I was able to do lots of touch ups with my fingers while we were decorating. I’m not sure how permanent the paint is on clothes, so keep a close eye on the kids!

Let the glasses air dry for a few minutes, then place a pan in the oven and put the glasses on it. DO NOT PREHEAT THE OVEN! Once the glasses are in the oven, set it to 350 degrees, and set a timer for 40 minutes.

Without baking the glasses, the paint will wipe off, so don’t skip this step! I figure a little extra heat can’t hurt, so once the timer went off, I just turned the oven off and let the glasses cool off inside the oven. After an hour of that, I carefully pulled the pan out to cool the rest of the way.

Here are the finished products! I put some white tissue in the glasses, so you can see the designs on each side.