Hi! It’s Rachael from Penelope and Pip here. Liz asked me to create a DIY that you could do with your kids to keep them busy on their summer holidays.
Meet Boris. He’s been hibernating for the winter and now he is ready to party on your plate! This DIY is very easy, even for the novice illustrator and the finish product is dishwasher safe too!

Materials you will need:

1. Porcelain plate (I picked mine up from Target)
2. Porcelaine marker in black. I use Pebeo 150 Porcelaine Markers.
3. Porcelaine paint in pink (you can use a pink marker too)
4. Paint brush
5. Small round dish for using to draw Boris’ face

Step by step instructions….

Step 1: Take the smaller bowl and place it on your blank plate. Make sure you leave more room at the top for Boris’ ears. Now trace around the smaller plate to create a circle using your procelaine marker. Don’t go the whole way around – leave a space at the bottom for his bow tie.

Some tips on using porcelaine markers: Make sure you shake them well and push the nib down a few times on a piece of paper so you don’t get a big ugly glob at your starting point. If you make a mistake, just wipe it off with a damp cloth.

Step 2: Add some semi circles at the top for his ears

Step 3: Draw a small circle in the space where his bow tie will go at the bottom. Connect this to his face with some triangles on either side to complete the bow. I colored my bow in as I thought Boris might like it a bit fancy.

Step 4: Draw a small circle for his muzzle in the bottom half of his face. Add a cute little love heart and a mouth.

Step 5. Add two more circles for his eyes above the muzzle. In each circle, draw another circle for his pupil and color it in. Leave a little bit white – you can decide which direction he is looking by where you leave the white part.

Step 6: Add two lines above his eyes for eyebrows (be sure to make them circular or he might look angry!). Add two rosy cheeks with your pink paint as well.

Step 7: All that is left to draw is his top hat. I recommend having a practice first on a piece of paper. I draw tops hats by drawing two circles and adding straight lines to connect them and a bigger circle at the bottom for the rim. It’s easy once you have a go.

Let the plate dry for 24 hours and follow your paint’s instructions for cooking the plate in your normal oven. I had to bake mine for 35 minutes at 150 degrees.

After the plates have been cooked, they will be dishwasher safe (it’s amazing!).

You could use this simple circle technique of drawing to create all sort of other animal plates too – Boris might be a bit lonely all by himself.

I hope you enjoy prettying up your dinner table with lots of cute little Boris the Bears.