I Promise Starbucks Isn't Paying Me: A Red Cup DIY

(although it'd be nice if they did.) and for doing this, not like... being a barrista as a summer job. I did that already.

Well, look at me delivering!

I promised a few DIY gift ideas so here you go:

Before we begin, an intro:

(take a drink, I'm gonna ramble.) I mentioned I LOVE this time of year, when the fog rolls into SF and it's cold and I can wear all these layers and knits that make me look like part hipster, part JC Penny's catalogue. I also like the Red Cup season.... I kind of don't remember what it's all about but it signifies that it will soon be winter and that's happy news for me.

Mmmmm Peppermint Mocha

Starbucks recently came out with a reusable cups that actually look like their paper cups. I'm a HUGE fan of "things that look like other things" especially if they are reusable things that look like fake things and one-time use that look real. (I don't know why.) There's a whole market for stuff like this and for some reason I love the shit out of it. Starbucks had come out with a few reusable cups before that looked somewhat like their paper cups but these were mostly ceramic with silicone covers. Problem is, I don't trust myself traveling with ceramic anything. (I broke a mason jar today while walking through Cost Plus because I didn't want to spend 10 cents at Beverly's.)

So, when they came out in plastic for $1? I ate that shit up and bought about 3 of them. I've always liked seeing the creative ways people draw on Starbucks coffee cups and since that's not within the realm of my design abilities I figured it'd be a good chance to try my and at it.

This weird overlapping busy look

Love it, can't recreate it for some reason.

Yeeeaaah, and then I drew DC characters:

               

SO TODAY, in an attempt to have a red-cup all year 'round I am going to try and show you a DIY to make yourself a re-usable Starbucks Red Cup. So here goes nothing!

Re-usable Red Cup

Now, you'll find this diy sort of works with any basic "add paper to a thing you want to last a while" so learn and adapt as you will.

You will need:

• 1 reusable plastic Starbucks cup (this one is a grande 16 oz. I don't know if they make them bigger.)
• An ex-acto kinfe or any other cutting implement you can find. (I've been known to use a utility knife to cut apart pages for design projects. It really freaked out my professor.)
• a sponge brush
• Outdoor Mod Podge.
• 1 Venti size paper Red Cup

The process:

Step 1: 

a face only a mother could love.

Finish the grande latte you got in a venti cup because you figured if you were going to go to starbucks anyway you might as well get breakfast too. (It's still breakfast if it's 11. Right?) Don't worry about your caffeine intake, the vibrating will help you out with a later step. Then wash the cup out, or else everything gets sticky.

Step 2:

Remove the lip and the bottom of the paper cup. 

this is actually a grande/medium cup because I did this before I realized I needed a bigger one.
You can take a drink because I fucked up. Also ignore the painfully messy desk.

 cut down the side as well to flatten out the paper.

Step 3:

Roll the corner of the paper between your fingers until you can see the layers of cardboard coming apart. Ideally you want to separate the inked red layer from the other three layers.

 Once you've sort of separated the layers, you can peel them apart. Be careful because you do run the risk of ripping the red layer and we're trying to save that shit. The idea is to get the red layer as thin as possible so we can easily manipulate it onto the cup.

Yes, I'm wearing green jeans. What of it?

Step 4:

Wrap your paper around the cup to make sure you did this right and it's all the correct size. The top edge of the paper should be flush with the lower ridge around the top of top of the cup- NOT the lip that the cap locks onto. (It'll stick better if it doesn't have to go over a lot of... level changes.)

Once re-assured you didn't fuck up, take mod podge and apply it liberally to the back of your paper and slap that shit onto the cup. Fold the ends down and trim them with your cutting implement.

and it's MOD podge, none of this "modge podge" shit.

 

Step 5:

I feel like you guys knew where this was going. Start coating the outside of your cup in mod podge. Get a good layer on there and let it dry. You're going to do this about 5 times.

Wait until the mod podge gets clear before you add the next layer.

Take this time to do your homework. Which also requires you to be on blogger. Look at me being responsible! (That is an analysis of page layout in comic books. It's for one of my DAI intro classes.)

It doesn't really matter what kind of stroke you use to apply the stuff until the end. When you think your'e getting into your last few layers, start using a stabbing- I mean dabbing motion with your brush so you get a more textured look. This is where the whole, vibrating-from-having-too-much-coffee thing helps. You don't HAVE to do this if you like the... woody? Liney texture that the sponge brush gives to mod podged stuff. Since I don't I went this way instead because it was closest to the look of the original plastic cup- which also had that sort of texture to it. 

I think they call it stippling...

Anyway lather, rinse, repeat until you think you have enough layers. Then let it dry until you're comfortable using it. I don't think this is dishwasher safe but I don't have a dishwasher so that's not a problem for me. Now everything in my bedroom smells like mod podge but I kind of couldn't care less... probably the fumes talking.

In-de-fucking-stinguishable. At least, not from far away.

You can do this with magazine cutouts that you want to apply to a cup or scrap booking paper- you can peel it apart like I did this cup if it's too thick... or just get the thin stuff. That process is a little trickier because you might need a template for the outside of the cup... Maybe I'll tutorial that later.

I really hope this was understandable as this was my first... full-assed tutorial. Let me know if someone else tries this DIY.

And spare tidbit, I guess. My current favorite drink is a soy (I'm lactose intolerant,) sugar-free (if I can get it) cinnamon dolce latte. Except I keep forgetting I like cinnamon dolce because I don't like cinnamon candy. For the times I'll forget I will usually get a peppermint mocha (also soy) but usually it's just a plain soy latte because most places I go use vanilla soy milk which is pretty sweet already. It's also fucking expensive to not be able to process lactose... Soy milk is like, 50 cents more in some places! That shit adds up!

Oh, the tutorial's over. I don't know why you're still reading this. Enjoy.