How to Make a Patriotic Stars and Stripes Tumbler
The 4th of July is right around the corner and we have a fabulous patriotic cup tutorial for you! Jen of Jen’s Custom Creations is teaching us how to make a patriotic stars and stripes tumbler. And, there’s a bonus! She’s also included the instructions to make an adorable patriotic ice cup topper that is the perfect finishing touch for your tumbler.
It’s officially summer and time to put those tasty chilled beverages in our tumblers! Whether it’s lemonade, iced tea, or something with a bit of a kick, we all want to sport those drinks in style. And, nothing says summer time like a good ole patriotic design!
Jen is sharing her supply list and step by step instructions for how to make a patriotic stars and stripes tumbler. Jen really knows her stuff when it comes to SVGs and tumbler making. We are so grateful to her for sharing her expertise with all of us. This cup is so cute, especially with that ice topper on it! We can’t wait for you to add this awesome design to your tool box.
How to Make a Patriotic Stars and Stripes Tumbler
Here in the States, we love celebrating our country and our flag. It all culminates in early July with Independence Day when most of us go all out! You can hear fireworks for weeks and see all things red, white, and blue for most of the summer. This patriotic tumbler makes a fabulous addition to any summer celebrating. And, it also makes a great addition to your summer product line up. Some of the most consistent sales that creatives see in their shops is from their patriotic items. Whether you stick with a few tried and true patriotic items or you offer an entire line, you definitely want to have this type of cup available early and often!
Adding the Stars and Stripes
The stars and stripes on Jen’s tumbler are spot on and beautiful! In the recipe below, she explains exactly how to achieve this look. Jen says that you can use painter’s tape to do your stripes and design your own stars but she has a much easier method for you too. Jen has already created the SVG (or Silhouette Studio file) that you need to do this cup. All you need to do is download it from her website (it’s super affordable!) and cut it on your machine. Easy peasy, summer breezy! Nothing like saving the time of designing your own decals. It leaves more time for lounging by the water with your pretty tumblers!
The Patriotic Ice Topper
People are absolutely loving tumbler toppers these days. And we are right there with them! There are so many cute and creative things that you can do with them and we are always amazed by what our artists come up with. This ice topper is absolutely perfect for any summer tumbler. Jen uses patriotic “ice” for this topper so that it is the perfect match for the tumbler. But, once you know how to make an ice topper, you can switch it up a little bit to make it match any summer cup! Iced coffee, lemons for lemonade, limes for margaritas, you name it, and you can add it to an ice topper!
To maker her topper, Jen uses our Counter Culture DIY UV Resin and Lamp. The UV Resin makes a super tough adhesive and is also great for any small resin project. Jen uses it to adhere the “ice” layers to her topper and then cures each layer with the lamp. After her final layer of “ice”, she adds the UV Resin into any crevices and it creates the final resin layer for this project. UV Resin literally cures in minutes and doesn’t need to be mixed which means you can have a topper done very quickly. If you want to learn more about our UV Resin and how to use it, we have a post for that too!
How to Make a Patriotic Stars and Stripes Tumbler
Materials
- Prepped 24 plump tumbler from The Steel Magnolia
- Rustoleum 2X Ultra Cover Apple Red, Ink Blue, Ultra Matte White
- Counter Culture DIY Fast Set
- Counter Culture DIY Artist Resin
- Sterling Snow glitter
- Dawn Power Wash
- Stars and Stripes templates available on Jen's website
- Mixing sticks
- Mixing cups
- Protective gloves
- Filter mask
- Rubbing alcohol
- Transfer tape
Instructions
- Use a 24 plump prepped cup to save a step! Or prep and paint your cup with matte white spray paint.
- Cut 24 plump vertical stripe template using vinyl. Or create your own using painter’s tape. Mine are just under 1” in width. If you are using a 32 plump just apply the template to the bottom part of the tumbler. Pull your vinyl and spray the bottom 2/3 of the tumbler with the Apple Red paint, spraying the bottom of the tumbler as well to get nice crisp lines. Don’t worry about overspray on the top 1/3. You could leave the bottom white as well, but would want to tape off the bottom to avoid getting overspray on the white paint.
- Allow paint to dry to touch and pull the rest of the vinyl stripes from your template. You should now have white and red stripes on the bottom portion of your tumbler. Allow the paint to fully dry. I then apply 1 thin coat of Fast Set over tumbler and turn until set.
- Next spray the top 1/3 of your tumbler with the Rustoleum white paint (this is a step I choose to do so I wouldn’t see red through my Dawn Power Wash spots on the following step).
- Allow the white to fully dry.
- Next, holding the Dawn Power Wash about 10-12 inches away from your tumbler spray Dawn Power Wash around the tumbler on the bottom 2/3, near where your line for your blue will be, but keeping the spray over the red/white part. You just want to create a transition from the blue top part to the red/white stripes. I keep rotating my tumbler at this point back and forth while holding it to keep the bubbles from running.
- Immediately spray the Ink Blue paint on the top 1/3 of the tumbler down into the Dawn Dish Soap.
- Rinse tumbler immediately (I use a bucket of clean fresh water, dunk my tumbler, swish around and remove to drying rack).
- Allow tumbler to dry to the touch.
- Using rubbing alcohol on a paper towel, wipe down the stripe part of the tumbler removing any white or red overspray or spots that you do not want on your final tumbler. Since you are using rubbing alcohol it takes a bit of rubbing to remove these spots. Acetone may also be necessary if there are larger areas, just be careful to not get into the blue portion at the top.
- After the cup is fully dry (I wait overnight at this point) apply a thin coat of CCDIY Fast Set with a TINY amount of CCDIY Sterling Snow Glitter (or your favorite white/opal glitter) to give a little sparkle! I love the sterling snow for this cup because it goes so well with the Red, White and Blue. WARNING: Sterling Snow is superfine. Do not open it near other cups that you do not want glitter on!
- While your cup is turning cut out your stars. Mine are 1”. Weed stars. I placed mine one at a time using transfer tape.
- Your tumbler is now ready for a final coat of CCDIY Artist Resin!
Patriotic Ice Topper
Materials
- Artificial ice/crushed “glass” vase filler from Amazon
- Star shaped vase filler from Hobby Lobby
- Lid Topper base for XS lid from Truly DVinyl
- Counter Culture DIY UV Resin
- Counter culture DIY UV light
Instructions
- Using the lid topper base from Truly DVinyl, apply a thin coat of CCDIY UV Resin and then top with a single layer of fake ice/vase filler.
- Place topper under UV lamp for 1 minute
- Check for tackiness of resin, if it is tacky it may require an additional minute.
- Apply 2nd coat of UV Resin and 2nd layer of fake ice/vase filler.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3.
- Apply UV Resin and stick on the stars (I did mine one at a time so I could tilt the topper and not worry about my stars sliding).
- Repeat Steps 2-3 as needed for your stars.
- As a final step I placed a coat of UV resin over any small openings/crevices.
- Repeat Steps 2-3.
- As an extra measure I stick my toppers outside for a couple of hours in the sunshine for some extra UV hardening.
The Wrap Up…
We absolutely love how this stars and stripes tumbler turns out! And we can’t thank Jen enough for sharing her process with us. The generosity of the artists in our community never seizes to amaze and we love it! Community over competition and lifting each other up is so important, and Jen is a fabulous example of it. If you want to see more of Jen’s creations and the SVGs that she has available you can check out her website, jenscustomcreations.com. You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram. We hope you have a blast with this tumbler and that you have a safe and fun-filled summer!
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