DIY Coffee Mug Decorating Station for Giving Back to Nurses

Caffe Latte K cup flavor packets in cut diy mugs
This post has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. This post was sponsored by Starbucks as part of an Influencer Activation. I received compensation and complimentary products to facilitate my review. #StarbucksCaffeLatte #MyStarbucksatHome #CollectiveBias

I don’t really get to talk much about my job on here but today I’m going to try and shed a little light on my work life and how my coworkers have given me more than I will ever be able to give in return. I started working nights at the world’s largest pediatric hospital after I pulled myself out of a deep depression after being dismissed from nursing school. My job title is patient care assistant and I assist nurses in any needs they have, take an occasional kick to the face from a combative teenager and babysit children who don’t have parents (Texas has a lot of children in child protective services).

I float all through the hospital and I can proudly say that I have worked on every single floor in the hospital. Each floor is drastically different when you compare teamwork, leadership and level of patient care (some patients are much sicker than others).

Despite their differences, there is one common bond between all of the units in the hospital. Coffee.

There is something so comforting about coffee especially after you’ve just completed a round of CPR and the patient didn’t make it or when you just finished playing a board game with an 8-year-old sexual assault victim to keep her mind off of her reason for her hospital visit. I could go on and on but the point here is nurses and healthcare workers do a lot of hard stuff and sometimes we have to get away. Since we can’t leave the unit, we often retreat to the break room, make a coffee and put our mind elsewhere. I’ve seen a lot of stuff and no one else outside of the hospital can really relate. But as a team, we have each other to talk to and we depend so much on each other during hard times.

DIY Coffee Mug Decal Station In an effort to repay my night shift co-workers for everything they have done for me, I threw them a little party after I moved to day shift. And since caffeine is such a huge part of our hospital lives, that was the theme. I set up a mug decorating station and a latte brewing station. Starbucks® recently came out with the Starbucks® Caffè Latte K-Cup® pods which lets you make lattes using your Keurig. Say what?! Yes people, the beloved Keurig® now makes lattes. That means no more mixing ice cream into our coffee coworkers.

brewing-caffe-latte-k-cup-pods-for-work

Starbucks® Caffè Latte K-Cup® Pods are delicious because they are made from milk, with no artificial flavors, and they come in 3 great Starbucks® signature flavors Caramel, Mocha, and Vanilla and 2 Starbucks® seasonal flavors, Pumpkin Spice and Peppermint Mocha. My favorite is Caramel but I haven’t tried the Pumpkin Spice or Peppermint Mocha yet.

Three of the five flavor packets from the new Starbucks K cup caffe latte

It’s a super easy two-step process. Choosing your mug will be the hardest part. Pick your packet of flavoring. Each Pour it into your mug. Pop your Starbucks Caffè Latte K-Cup® Pods in your Keurig® brewer and stir it up. Enjoy it while it’s hot (haha said no bedside nurse ever).

Brunch activity crafting

The station was set up the entire shift to allow the nurses to come and enjoy it when they had time or if they needed to get away from the bedside. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and had fun decorating the mugs.

I chose three funny sayings and cut them out using my Silhouette Cameo. It was a super simple DIY because not everyone is crafty. It was just the right level of difficulty to empower them to DIY the mugs. Oh and if you want to make your own mug, I’ve included the files for download here.

Download File Here