I hope to be sharing a few easy crafts this Summer and Fall as the holiday gift season sneaks up on us. One item I enjoyed seeing was the cup and saucer, vintage is best, in a box with tea bags. It’s just a lovely gift for tea lovers, and can be packaged in many different ways.

It’s one of those gifts for teachers or other adults in your life that deserve something nice, but the price isn’t too high.

I enjoy looking for vintage mugs. I learned that the best mugs are often Japanese made, and Otigari is just one of my Japanese mug makers that offer excellent quality. Too often the mug you purchase chips and fades after a few uses. It’s dollar store quality, and usually a waste of money.

I have been picking up well made Japanese mugs and also English made mugs for years. While a lot of people do the tea cup and saucer, I’ve not seen anyone do a mug and some hot chocolate packs! The important thing is a mug that looks as if it has never been used. The second is to turn the mug over and read where it was made. Look at the colors, is the image just printed on top of the mug or is the design also imprinted into the mug?

Finding these mugs, from thrift stores or even from the back of your kitchen cabinet, is a cost savings even over the tea cups. I do try to use a high quality hot chocolate mix, and as usual display is everything.

A small plastic bag meant for cookies, cut the side if you have a larger mug handle, and ribbon and flower makes this mug gift giving ready. Also the mug will fit easily into a gift bag. Some of the mugs I have used sell for over $20 on Etsy, but shipping is expensive and for just a few dollars at most thrift stores I can buy up enough to make a nice display and the perfect gift. If you haven’t used a well made mug, like the pig Mikasa mug here, you don’t know what you are missing!

So for giving or selling, it takes a few moments to check the mug section. I’ve not a clue what these will sell for, as I donate everything I make and let the manager of the museum shop set the price. It’s just a lot of fun, yet also doing something good for a charity I support. But I wanted to share as some people would like a pig mug over a tea cup any time.