DIY {Sharpie} Cat Food Dish Tutorial

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I’ve been in the crafting mood lately and I love to get in touch with my creative side in ways that don’t include writing. I’m no artist, but I do have tons of fun being artsy—or at least attempting it!

Dudley and Daisy (our furry feline older children) were in need of new food dishes so I seized the opportunity to get creative. The dishes that I created turned out adorable!

Here’s the tutorial and recap of the process in case you want to try your hand at this project. It’s super easy!

What you’ll need:

 

• An oven safe dish (ceramic)—Make sure to pick out a dish that your cat will be comfortable with. This site has great information on the topic.
• Oil based Sharpies—These will have a band around the bottom of the pen with “oil based” printed on it. You can find them at a craft store or Amazon.
• Rubbing alcohol
• Nail polish remover
• Q-tips
• Cotton balls

 

Instructions:

Step 1: Wash your dish with soap and water and remove any stickers and adhesive residue. Dry with a clean towel. Wipe all surfaces of the dish with rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball. Allow to dry.

 

 

Step 2: Begin creating your design using the oil-based Sharpies. From experience, it’s best to work your way from the inside of the dish, to the sides, to the top edges to ensure that you don’t accidently smudge your design.

However, if you do smudge your design or aren’t happy with what you’ve drawn, it can be easily removed with a little nail polish remover on a Q-tip or cotton ball—I also used a nail polish remover pad and it worked great for larger areas.

Please note that while oil-based Sharpies are non-toxic, Sharpie does not recommend using them on a surface which comes in contact with the mouth or tongue—if you are worried about this and want to create a design on the inside of the dish, you can cut out a hard piece of clear plastic to cover the shape of the inside of the dish. (remember these are dishwasher safe, so the paint stays on quite well)

 

Step 3: Once your design is finished, allow the dish to dry for about 24 hours. I let mine dry for about 18 hours and it worked perfectly.

 

Step 4: Place the dish on a cookie sheet and place it into a cold oven. The dish must preheat along with the oven to ensure that it doesn’t crack due to extreme temperature change—this is very important!

Set the oven to 375 degrees and let bake for 30 minutes.

There will be a strong paint smell as they bake, so I recommend opening a window for ventilation during the process.

 

Step 5: Once the 30 minutes is up, turn the oven off but DO NOT open the oven until the oven has cooled completely—this may take quite a while. Once again, the sudden change in temperature could cause the dishes to break if you open the oven immediately.

Once cooled, remove the dishes and admire your handiwork! The colors tend to change once baked—I actually loved how mine turned out. The purple turned to a darker pink, so I ended up with a dish of two colors of pink and it’s really cute! Daisy loves it, she meowed it to hubby when he fed her.

These are dishwasher safe (only if you used OIL-BASED Sharpies as the tutorial instructs), but hand washing is best. Be sure to wash these before feeding your furry friend!

Hubby fed the cats a Purina Muse® Natural Cat Food specialty in their special new dishes—spoiled little buggers.

Dudley devoured the Natural Tuna and Sea bass Recipe and Daisy enjoyed the Natural Herring and Salmon Recipe. They licked their dishes clean—the food was obviously a flavorful hit with them!

I found the Purina® Muse Natural Food products at PetSmart (where the product is exclusively available) in the cat food aisle.

Choosing which food to buy isn’t a dilemma with Muse because it’s a quality food product. With Muse you don’t have to choose between natural nutrition and food that tastes great. Your cat can have both when you choose Muse. You try to eat nutritious food and as naturally as possible, so why shouldn’t your cat be able to eat the same?

There are a variety of wet recipes available in Chowder, broth, with toppers, in gravy and paté—all are made with real fish or poultry and contain no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. There are 30 delicious recipes and 24 of them are grain free. Natural has never been so delicious. Put Muse to the test with our clean plate guarantee. Here’s a coupon to get you started.

 

How will you design your cat food dish? What flavor Purina® Muse Natural Food products would your cat love best?