♫ So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Goodbye! ♫

 

It's a super sad week for me here, as I'm saying goodbye to all of my piano students, many of whom I have taught for 4/5 years now - some since I arrived in Toronto and started teaching here!

 

With all the other excitement happening this year, my time with these students has come to an end - at least for now!  I'll be away from teaching piano for a few months but I'm so pleased with how I chose to celebrate my students and my time with them.

 

In the past, for Christmas and Summer gifts I have mainly baked their treats!  My favourites have been Musical Shortbread and High Five Cookies :)  But this little project was something baked in the oven, that, for once in my life wasn't a cake!

Having seen DIY Sharpie Mugs for a long long time now on Pinterest, and in other bloggers' projects, it's surprising to me that I've actually never tried it!  So now was the time!

 

A black and white piano, using a black oil-based Sharpie on a white mug... I liked the idea of a distinct image on the white mug, and then to take it to the next level for my students - to personalise it for each of them.  That was my favourite part, and definitely their favourite part when they opened their gifts!  It worked especially for those students who were siblings because the mugs were individual for each of them :)

 

 

 

I read many posts about the DIY Sharpie projects, and saw how most of them were similar enough, but each had something slightly different they did about them.  I'll tell you how I did it, and how I combined many elements of the "usual" way I found, and chose my own way as I went along as well.

 

What you'll need (weird not to be writing 'Ingredients' here!):

 

Oil-based Sharpie pen in colour of your choice - I purchased a Fine Black pen from Michaels, with 40% off of course!

Plain white mug - I read a lot that the cheaper the better - I got 3 packs of 6 plain white mugs for $10 from Canadian Tire.

 

Before I bought the mugs, I put together a word document with my students' names on in 3 different fonts, some to match personalities, others that fit the style of font with the name itself!  I chose these fonts which I had previously downloaded free: 'Hello Heartache', 'Girls Have Many Secrets' and 'KG When Oceans Rise'.  In the end I only used these as a reference as I copied the font, and used them as a guide on sizing too.

 

Directions (Method?!):

 

1.  Wash the mugs in soapy water, rinse and leave to dry.  Make sure the mugs are completely dry to make you start.

 

 

 

2.  Decide on your image, and using the Oil-Based Sharpie Paint Marker just let it happen!  You could etch out the design with eyeliner (as I found when I researched), or even try a pencil transfer from a printed design, but I used the printed names as a guide for sizing, marked where I wanted to start and finish, and then freestyled the rest. 

 

 

3.  Once the names were done, it was piano time.  I'm lucky - I have drawn an octave of a piano MILLIONS of times in my life!  It was easy to draw freehand, just using a random rectangle (in fact, a pack of stamps!) for the sizing, and then colouring in the black keys by eye.

 

 

4.  The paint pen did appear to dry just as I worked on each mug (I did 4 the first day, 11 the next, and 3 the final day of DIY-ing - I always had to stop and leave for work!).  Then, placing the mugs on a baking sheet - so they are not touching, place in a cool oven and turn the oven on to 450°F.

 

 

 

Careful not to pre-heat the oven before you put the mugs in.  The gradual heating of the oven helps the mugs adjust to the heat, to slowly heat up and to keep everything from cracking.

 

5.  Bake for 30 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave to cool without opening the oven door.

 

*** Whilst my mugs were baking, especially the day there were 11 mugs in there, the smell did get quite toxic!  Luckily, with both the oven fan, and our unit's fan on, and a sunny balcony to go and sit on, it was okay - but do be wary of this if you're in a small space, or are doing a lot of these!  I don't know if it is anything super toxic, but the smell was not great, and I felt like it was not the best to sit inside while it smelt so pungent! ***

 

 

6.  When the mugs have completely cooled (and for me, overnight) - wash in warm, soapy water again and leave to dry.

 

 

7.  Go over any patches of the black design that might have cracked, or be more faded than the rest.  Some of the black piano keys needed a second coat of the paint marker, and some of the thicker parts of the names - but it was super easy to go over a second time.

 

8.  Do a second bake in the oven, again placing them in a cool oven, turning on to 450°F, baking for 30 minutes and then leaving them to cool completely.  When cooled, give them another wash in warm, soapy water.
 

 



So there were many different thoughts on whether these mugs could be dishwasher safe or not.  My research on everybody's different blog posts on the project lead me to believe, that yes, if you use the oil-based Sharpie paint markers, and do at least 1 bake in the oven, they are likely to be dishwasher safe.  In my two hand-washings of the mugs there were no problems at all, I just haven't been brave enough to try the dishwasher yet! 

 

I marked up the tags (that had a special note to each of my students telling them I'd miss them a lot!) as Hand Wash Only, just as a precaution, and then stuck one of my Sew Lah Tea Dough stickers on too!

 

A double wrap in tissue paper to keep them safe as I took them to student's houses, and schools, placed in white paper bag, with a strip of piano tape I have had in my craft box forever, and they were ready to go!

 

 

17 DIY mugs made, as of today, 11 given out, and 6 more to go before my time teaching all of these amazing students is over :-(  I am SUPER happy with how much they have all loved the mugs.  Many have finished their lessons to run to their Mum/Dad and show them their new mug with their name on it... YEY!  That's a good feeling!  Hopefully they'll be able to keep them forever, and always enjoy their piano lessons.

 

 

Now I have tried this DIY Sharpie project, I cannot wait to do it more!!  New colours, new designs... I already have one in mind for the Summer time, you'll just have to wait and see how that one turns out.
 

 

I'd totally recommend this project for anyone!  The Sharpie pens make it easy to design and draw with, as you're holding a pen - not a paintbrush!  Keep the design simple and it will be totally effective - it's shiny and well glazed and looks professional (at least to my 10 year old students!!).

 

♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ 

 

Good luck to all of my students in their future musical endeavours and piano playing... I am going to miss you all A LOT and hope to always keep in touch!

A Musical Twist on a Seasonal Classic ♫

Only 9 days until Christmas!!!!

 

Who else is counting down the days?  Not only the days to go until Christmas, but also until everything gets finished up, all of the preparations and the planning, work ending for the year and all the busy times, and craziness to be over so that we can really enjoy Christmas!?

 

I have had a really wonderful semester at work with my piano students, and to celebrate the festive season, as well as bake them a little treat to say well done this year I went with a traditional shortbread recipe with a twist.

 

May I introduce my Traditional Shortbread recipe, modified and decorated to be truly musical - attaching a note to say Happy Holidays and great work this year, but don't forget to keep playing your real pianos over the break! ♫

 

 

Some of my students have received their treats already last week, but most of my students are finishing up their final lessons this week so I'll be handing them out right until my last lesson on Friday!  (Hope none of them are reading this!)... As much as I've had a great semester, the last little while has been CRAZY busy with a bunch of different things going on (usually all at the same time), so I'm really looking forward to the time off over Christmas.

 

I had this idea for musical shortbread a while back.  I have just wrapped up 4 and a bit years at one of my musical jobs, and I wanted to leave the families I have worked with a little treat.  So my first idea was little bite-sized shortbread squares they could take on their way out of class and enjoy.  So I went with this idea and made it musical (of course!) with a little ♫ piped in chocolate on each one.  Just a little musical touch.

 

 

 

Then, in thinking about what treats my students would get at the end of the year I thought I could do a similar idea, but bigger, or better...  And so the piano shortbread idea was born.  At first I thought I would just do it a few keys wide, 3 white keys (C-D-E) and 2 black keys piped on top, but then the idea progressed and I got a little crazier in what I was trying out and decided I wanted a full octave cookie!

 

So over the last couple of weeks I have made 155 musical shortbread bite-sized squares for my group music classes, and 27 larger piano shortbreads for my students (and a few leftover for gifts)...  That is a grand total of 9 batches of shortbread been made in our not-huge condo kitchen!  Paula Deen would be proud of how much butter has been used that's for sure!

 

I've been seeing so many amazing cookie recipes recently so I know you've all been busy with holiday baking of all kinds, so who has time for an extra 9 batches of shortbread this late on in the season?!  So don't worry, I'll just put the recipe up for 1 batch so you don't all think I'm too crazy!  This should make 49 1-inch squares if baked in the same sized pan as I did in my first batch.  Much more reasonable right?!

 

Ingredients:

 

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 1/4 cups plain flour (all-purpose)

1/4 cup white rice flour

1/4 tsp salt

 

Method:

 

1.  Grease and line a 8 x 8 inch square pan with parchment paper.  Grease the paper once it is laid out as well.  Pre-heat oven to 375°F/ 190°C.

 

 

2.  Beat the butter well until soft and fluffy.  The more whipped the better!

 



 

3.  Add the icing sugar and sugar and cream together with the butter until light and fluffy.  At least another two minutes in the mixer.

 

4.  Add the vanilla essence.

 

5.   Sift both kinds of flour, and salt into the bowl and mix well until blended together.  At this point don't be put off by the fact it is all crumbs!  I was nervous too that it wasn't coming together, however it is a very dry mixture (have you noticed there are no eggs?!) and it will all be okay in the next step!

 

6.  Pour the dough mixture into the prepared pan (oops this photo is from a different batch, sorry about the different pan!)

 

7.  Press firmly down on the dough, pressing the crumbs all together - trying to get an even spread across the pan.  Use something flat to press it all down.

 

8.  Prick holes in the shortbread with a fork at 1 inch intervals.  I was okay with this amount of holes for the bitesized pieces, but when I baked the pianos I actually planned the holes to be in line with where I would be cutting out the pianos or where the black keys would be piped for aesthetic effect!

9.  Place shortbread into the pre-heated oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until the edges have turned a golden brown.

 

10.  Leave to cool in the pan, cut into squares. 

 

11.  Leave to cool completely before piping decoration on top.  I used Baker's chocolate melted, and piped with my smallest circle piping tip.

 



And 155 musical squares later the first project was finished!

 

Here's a little look at how the piano process went too... Same recipe, just 6 batches more baked in a tray bake pan to make 9 pianos in each.  You can see here how I pricked the holes for the air to escape through in a sneaky way so that it wouldn't be visible when they were baked and decorated!

 

 

The day after baking these I piped the black keys onto them using the same baking chocolate.  I scored the lines with a sharp knife to etch out the white key edges and then piped the black keys on top.  I had made a template for these but for the most part I just went with it and kept piping!  

 

Everything dry and before I packaged them up with the notecard attached it was photo time...

 

Here's the Sneak Peek I shared with my Facebook and Instagram followers earlier this week... A little preview at what was going to be next on the blog!  Are you following me yet?  I love having new followers and new 'Likes' so please, come on over and see me!!

 

A few more close ups to take a look at the shortbread itself!  Decoration aside, the shortbread taste is for sure the best bit!

 



 

Do you bake shortbread over the festive season?  I've had a great time baking these batches upon batches of it, and my number one taste-tester husband has REALLY enjoyed it too :-D

 

Looking for more student treat ideas, check out my Hand Five cookies I baked in the Summer at the end of the school year!

♥ Valentine's Day Piano Worksheets ♥

Valentine's Day is coming and starting tomorrow afternoon I will be taking along my musical Valentine's Day worksheets for all of my piano students along with a little pencil for them to use and keep!

I wanted to give them a little treat but also develop some of my own worksheets this year.  I started off with my Composer Love Stories - telling them stories about composers, their wives, children, songs they wrote for them and then also mentioned some things about the 'Romantic' Period of music of course!  To finish off this worksheet I did a little matching quiz to check to see if they really had read it all.  Then I realised I needed more.  A worksheet or two that would also be suitable for my much younger students!  A Love Story to write, and you'll see I suggested they write it about music, or from their piano's perspective because really, which 6 year old will tell their piano teacher which boy they love at school?!  And then finally, for all of the students that need quizzing on their notes on the staff, they can fill them in on the Love Note Staff Hunt hearts.

For Composer Valentine Love Stories just click for the PDF!

Valentine's Day Piano Love Song (Click for PDF) 

Love Note Staff Hunt (Click for PDF)

I bundled it all together, added a heart I cut out from music scrapbook paper, holes punched on either side and a pencil slotted through so it holds together.  I used just curling ribbon we had a large roll of to tie it all together.

Just a little note:  I purposefully do my documents in black and white only.  I LOVE everybody's worksheets in colour, they look amazing, but for little piano teacher me trying not to print like crazy all the time I thought it would be good to stick to black and white for my worksheets this time (as my printer just ran off 75 sheets for this week!)... And well, my students love to colour anyway :-)

For when I am printing in colour (and I do that a lot too!) here is a great list of printer cost saving tips from amazing piano blogger Susan Paradis with her latest blog post - just click here!

I think we'll be having a lot of fun with it this week, please feel free to download these documents and let me know how you used them too!

♫ Happy Musical Valentine's Day ♫