Sharpie and Dollar store dishes

Hit the dollar store for some cheap plates, mugs, bowls, etc.  Grab a sharpie.  Yes, a Sharpie.  Use that Sharpie to design your own dishes.  Let your imagination run wild.  Use stencils as I did with the Tea Please mug above, or free hand it like I did with the Paul love's 48 plate.  (note Paul doesn't really love 48, but he gets so upset when we tease him about it)   Once you are done designing, put them in a cold oven.  Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.  Turn the oven off, but leave your dishes in the oven to cool down to room temp.

Now I know there are pinners out there saying this doesn't work and you need special markers made for ceramic.  Well you DON'T!  This works fines.  Just be aware that if you use colors some of them will fade when baked, and some will even wash off if you run them through the dishwasher.  The black, blue and red sharpie did not fade, or wash off in the dishwasher.  Yellow baked to a brown and maintained the brown color through the dishwasher.  We used some greens, teals, shades of pink, orange... and they faded or washed off in the dishwasher.  So I'd stick with black, blue or red otherwise go ahead and buy the ceramic pens!