Bloody Awful Starbucks Tea Cup

I recently got a new job (yay!) and will (sort of) be getting a new tooth in the next few months. So, for the benefit of my early commute and oral health, I’ve been alternating my usual coffee with tea with cinnamon and honey. Most of my travel mugs hold 14-16 oz. and I wanted something that ran a little smaller to keep me (and my favorite baristas) from over-watering my tea. Inspired, by the Downtown Doodler and a New Museum coffee set, I made this.

Aleene’s acrylic spray gloss finish
DecoArt red paint marker
Starbucks 12 oz. BPA-free reusable cup
Paper
Scissors

Picking the Starbucks reusable cup for my project was a no-brainer — it’s mostly white and made of lightweight, BPA-free plastic which lends itself well to painting with craft markers. And your neighborhood store sells it for $1, which makes it a little easier to pick up than some of its’ ceramic brothers at Michaels and other hobby shops. The red craft paint maker was something I already had from when I was working on Yule presents late last year and I thought it might approximate blood very well.

Writing the drink instructions (tea, 9 shots, whole milk, + fresh blood) in blood red was quite fun for this former barista.

Creating the effect of the bloody thumb print on the lid of the cup was easy — I painted the pad of my thumb with the craft paint marker, picked a spot and pressed. Making the effect sustainable was a little harder. For that, I cut a small circle out of a piece of paper, covered the cup with the paper, the stencilled circle leaving my thumb print open, and sprayed the design with a single light coat of spray gloss finish.

To prevent the tea from being over-watered. I added this visual tea-making tutorial, similar to the lines on all of Starbucks’ disposable cups. Remedial tea making 101: one bag at the eight-ounce line, two at the twelve-ounce line. Drawing said lines in your own blood is, of course, optional.

~ by blackmoodcraft on March 1, 2013.