Slender: The Coffee Mug

As a recent college graduate, I’ve been going a lot of that unemployment thing.

For those of y’all who have never done this unemployment thing—i.e. trust fund children and people with a fairy godmother—it’s an incredibly frustrating train to be on. It’s constantly going from high speeds to a dead stop as you navigate through scheduling interviews and fighting off boredom… it’s a judgmental train too. Makes you want to punch the train in the face…

I might have stretched this train metaphor too far.

Regardless, in my copious amounts of free time, I’ve been on Pinterest looking at all the funny pictures and snapshots of things I can’t afford. One of the large sections within Pinterest is the diy/craft section—clearly, a section where you just count all the things you think you want to do, but will never actually get around to doing.

However, there was one awesome tutorial that I saw and immediately just did because it’s awesome: how to make a personalized coffee mug with nothing but a white mug and a sharpie.

This is the link to the original blog tutorial for custom sharpie mugs:“A Beatuiful Mess”.

Caffeine Holding Utility Device: Complete With Universal Grip Handel

My sister and I have two things in common:

1. Our love for coffee
2. Our love for Slender: The Eight Pages

So, when I saw this, I immediately thought that I could make her a Slender-themed coffee mug and take my title as Best Sister Ever. All will bow to my supreme awesomeness.

Achievement Unlocked: Don’t Look Behind You

If you’ve never played Slender before, it’s a great indie-horror game. Best of all, it’s free—the best price there is, really.

If you’ve ever had a nightmare where you’re in a forest, and you’re not sure why, but you realize that you’re being followed… that’s the basic feeling of this game. In the game you need to collect eight pages for no specified reason, and, all the while, the Slender Man is watching.

I’m not going to give a full description, but for more information, this is the official page: Slender: The Eight Pages

Basically, here is what I did:

I started with a cheap white coffee mug that I got from the dollar store and a black sharpie that I had left over from my college supplies.

For this coffee mug, I wanted take a lot of elements from the eight pages that you collect in the game.

Really, it would be awesome to draw a picture of the forest illuminated by a flashlight—but I’m not that much of an artist, bro.

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

The eight pages are all drawn in messily and frantically, which means that it’s easy for a beginner like me-self.

As far as the design goes, I divided the coffee cup into three basic parts: top rim, middle, bottom rim. The middle is where the large illustrations would go, and I divided that into three basic parts too.

I started off by sketching out my three illustrations, which are three of the pages, each divided by one of those creepy trees.

Two Dimensional Ink Capturing Illustration Device: Now Made With Real Trees!

Across the top and bottom rims, I wrote some of the messages from the pages, like “Don’t Look… or it takes you” and “Leave Me Alone”. When I got to the center of the top rim, I made the writing big and featured the title of the game, Slender.

Utility Caffeine Capturing Ceramic Device: Now in HD!

Overall, the cup is a bit busy, with a lot of images and words to catch your eye, but the things that stands out the most is the huge drawing of the Slender Man that I put in the center of the mug.

[Tip: If you mess up with your sharpie, just use a bit of nail polish remover, and the mistake will come off cleanly. ;)]

Once you have your coffee mug decorated to your satisfaction, stick it in the oven for 350 degrees F for about thirty minutes. I’d also recommend putting it on a baking trey while it’s baking and cooling, and not touching it until it is completely cool. My oven mitt touched part of it while still cooling and a couple of the letters on the handle of smudged.

Hydrophobic Ceramic Coffee Dispenser: Now Holding 0% More Coffee And 100% More Fear!

Overall, it turned out quite nicely. If I can get my hands on a rainbow of sharpies, I’ll defiantly try to make a Minecraft mug or, maybe, a mug with my favorite quotes on it. Sharpies are like duct tape—they make the world AWESOME!

Side note:

Here is the original tutorial blog post for sharpie coffee mugs here: “A Beautiful Mess”.

You can find me on Pinterest Here: BLARG; and on Twitter here: BLARG

Lastly, you can find the official Slender page here: Slender: The Eight Pages