DIY Retro Valentine’s Day Teapot

I am an avid tea drinker! Ice tea is my favorite, but on cold days like today I like a strong cup of hot tea! Usually I just pop a cup in the microwave for a couple of minutes, but sometimes I like to make a kettle if I plan on having more than a cup or if I have company. A few weeks ago I picked up a cute plain white teapot at Kirklands. I really loved the shape, but it was a little plain, so I thought it would be fun to decorate it for Valentine’s day.

Here’s What You Need:

*Ceramic Tea Pot (I bought mine at Kirklands)

*Lazertran Image Transfer Paper for Inkjet Printers

*Sharpie Paint Markers

*Food Grade Shellac or other food safe lacquer

*Rubbing Alcohol

*Printable

Instructions:

The first thing you need to do is clean your teapot with rubbing alcohol. Go ahead and print out the printable. Resize the image if you need to. Set aside the paper print to dry for at least a half an hour.

Decorate your teapot with your sharpie paint markers. I used a pink marker on mine at first, but I thought the pink was a bit too bright so I toned it down with some red.

Cut out your image.Trim the corners little by little until you have a shape that fits. If you want to be more precise with the image fit, you can trace the teapot middle on paper and then measure in the width of the outer lip all the way around and mark. Cut out the inner oval and then use that as a template to trace on the image transfers.

Fill a bowl with lukewarm water. Drop your transfer in the water. It will curl up. Once it starts to uncurl it is ready to take out of the water. Carefully pull the backing off of the transfer and lay it on the teapot centering it and smoothing out any bubbles. Let the transfer dry completely.

To finish off the teapot, spray the image with a food grade shellac such as bullseye. Let dry thoroughly and make sure to wash the teapot before you use it.

Isn’t it cute! My hands are always a little shaky, so I’m not the best with detailed lines, so my sharpie lines aren’t the prettiest. Overall though I think it is a cute teapot that we can use for Valentine’s Day breakfast. I hope some of you guys will give this one a try! You can use the printable I included above, or you can use one of your own photos or scans. I’ll be back tomorrow with a fun Valentine for you all. See you soon…

And Happy Crafting!