Oven Baked Decorated Bowls

So I was with a friend, looking for a craft we could do with a group.  We wanted to keep it simple, but to do something that hopefully people would actually use.  We settled on decorating plates, or at least serving dishes.  Got the inspiration from here...

Source: dotoot.com via Nancy on Pinterest

We ended up with a square-ish shallow bowl that we thought would be cute as a serving dish for cookies.  We sort of had to make it our own, because we had trouble finding a pen/paint that was food safe AND permanent.  Many of them said "not for contact with food."  We finally settled on a Martha Stewart product that at least said "non toxic" and that it would be dishwasher safe once baked.

People could put whatever they wanted to on their plates.  Once they were finished, we were supposed to put them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Later we found out that it works better if you air dry them for an hour first... and put the plates in the oven WHILE it's preheating rather than waiting until it's preheated.  

Here's my final product before it was baked:

And after it was baked:

So where the paint was a little thicker, it bubbled up and some of the bubbles popped.  I did another one later with a much thinner line of paint and it turned out great!  Live and learn, I guess.  This was a really fun project and there is still paint left - so I'm sure there are more dishes to be made!