January's Stocking Swap - Mug and Rug

January's Stocking Swap project is a mug and a mug rug that coordinates. 

When the mug rug craze was sweeping the blogs a couple years ago, I loved the idea.  However, I  always thought that the rug should go with a mug.  Two years ago, I found this wonderful penguin mug in the Christmas clearance and picked him up for cheap.  He needed a rug to make him the perfect gift, so I made one that coordinated with him.   Now, I am not an artist and before you think that I drew that penguin, let me say, Au contraire, Mon Ami.  I took a picture of my mug and printed out the picture.  I then had a template of the penguin.  I did fudge a little on his eyes, mouth, feet and bands on the hat, but those are just snippets and easy to cut out.  It was harder to try and make them exactly like the picture because I did try that first.   The words "mug rug" are just free form writing with my sewing machine - over and over - to make it darker and stand out.  You could even write it with a pencil and go over your writing to start off.  It's not hard to do, but not necessary for this swap. 

I still have this mug and it might be the one included in this swap or I could make rugs for any of the following mugs in my gift closet.  I have had two of these Maxwell house mugs in my closet for far longer than I care to admit.  They were part of a package I got one Christmas, but not really my style.  I thought they would have been a great gift for someone else, but yet they still sit in my closet, just waiting for that perfect someone to go home with.  I think a nice blue, gold and white mug rug with a traditional pattern might just fit this mug fine.

Notice it still has a package of coffee in the mug.  That might be a great idea to include with this swap.  A small sampling of your regional coffee.  Or a couple of your favorite tea bags (in their own little gift bag?).  What about a package of hot chocolate?  Something to think about, but not part of the swap, just a little extra.  

Here is another mug that I picked up on clearance, can you tell that I have a mug fixation? I picked 4 of these up on sale with the express purpose of making mug rugs for them.  A couple of months ago I sat down and made two mug rugs to go with these and when I was finished with the rugs, I got a mug out and, they didn't really go together.  My mind had an idea that this mug was green and yellow. . .it's okay, but not exactly what I wanted either. 



I think I will be making these over again this month to get the perfect (for me) mug rug for that particular mug.  I may have to find a mug that goes with this rug since it is already made! 

Another mug that I have in my closet that, yes, again, picked up on clearance, is this tic-tac-toe mug.  It was such a cute idea that I couldn't pass it up.  Here again, I got it just to make a mug rug for it and give it as a gift.  This mug comes with it's own marking pen that erases off the mug so you can play the game over and over.  The inside of this mug is a deep red and on the back has a description of how to play the game. When I saw this mug at Tuesday Morning, I could just picture the mug rug with a tic-tac-toe game in progress.  I think it will be a fun rug to make. 

This is the coffee mug I am drinking out of this morning.  It will not be one of the options for the swap, but I may just have to make a rug to go with it.  This one is part of a set of four that I received 10 or 12 years ago from a co-worker.  The mugs are over sized and perfect for the large mug setting on my Keurig along with my flavored cream.  I can just picture little grapes on the rug or maybe just these muted colors and not an exact replica of the grapes.  Like I said, this will be a fun month to play with making mug rugs.  I have several options, as you can see.  Someone is getting a mug and rug for Christmas.