Chalkboards – mamasbrush

How We Do Birthdays: An Owl Theme

In our home we do parties in a big way… and simple at the same time. What do I mean by that? Basically, we have some big impact things that go a long way toward making the day special, but we don’t go overboard, or expensive, or worry about perfection.

I always start with my chalkboard. Sometimes it’s elaborate, other times it’s not. It depends on my inspiration and abilities. I wasn’t feeling super inspired this time, but don’t tell my 7 year old… he thought it was great. You can build or buy one like this (husband made mine) or get a similar effect with Dollar Tree foam board (not an affiliate link) and some chalkboard paint.

Lately the kids have been asking for donuts for birthday breakfasts. We have a donut shop right down the road, so it works out. Husband takes the birthday kid with him to pick out donuts the morning of. I never know what will come home. 🙂 When they got home I had the kids pick their donuts out and I added Oreo eyes and candy corn beaks (this birthday was the day after Thanksgiving, so there is also a turkey donut in there.) Incorporating the theme in this way made something simple into something extra special!

Even simpler and more budget friendly: You could grab donuts from Walmart or the grocery store instead of getting them from a donut shop.?

Decorations were super simple. Crepe paper and ribbon with balloons around the room and some paper cut with my Cricut. An owl and “Whoooo’s turning 7?” on the wall.

Simple tip: Hand cut these if you don’t have a cutting machine.

I found this idea on Pinterest. Kids are always asking for fruit salad, and this looked like a way to make that “fruit salad” extra special! You’ll notice that the Pinterest version looks way better than mine, but perfection isn’t my goal. The birthday boy loved it and that’s enough for me! (Sometimes I have to tell the kids what something is… but I still get credit!)

The cake was the hardest part of the day, but it wasn’t that bad either. You can pick something else from my pinterest board that might be simplier… or more difficult.

For the cake, I started with a 2 layer cake with brown frosting all over. For the feathers I made dots of brown frosting from a pastry bag (the cut off corner of a ziplock bag would work too) in a line. After the bottom line of dots is there, I used the flat of a butter knife to squish and drag the dot up into a “feather”. Then make another row and do the same. I looked for a video to show this, but I can’t find the one I learned from forever ago. (Update: this pin shows what I’m talking about… and then you can try it on a Christmas tree cookie like they do! 🙂

A dinner he loves, gifts (including some that match the theme like an owl clock and a couple owl coloring books) and time together top off the day. Simple, but special! You can pull that off in so many ways… even with store bought cake and a purchased birthday banner. What matters most is that you take some extra steps to make the day special for your kid… it will be something remembered forever!

You can find me gathering here.

How to: Chalkboard for a Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Party

I shared our Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs party the other day. Today I want to talk about how simple this chalkboard art was to make. You can totally do this!! And even if it doesn’t look exactly the same… your kid will think it’s great!

How to: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Chalkboard | mamasbrush

Add a touch of art to your party or event with these tips to make your own. Pea soup fog, meatballs falling from the sky, clouds and hand lettering!

It all starts with my chalkboard. My husband made this one for me years ago, but you could grab foam board from the Dollar Tree and paint it with chalkboard paint to get the same effect.

The cloud is pretty easy to draw. Start using the side of your white chalk until you have a lumpy shape the size you want. Then trace around it a couple times with the end of the same chalk. I added the words with a damp washcloth over my finger (to erase the chalk), then traced around the black with the end of the white chalk again.

The thick words (“Cloudy” and “Meatballs”) were made with the side of short pieces of chalk (my chalk is always short because I’m always dropping and breaking them!) Then I add details and or tracing with the tip of a white piece and fill in the other words.

The meatballs were made using the side of a small orange piece of chalk and outlined with white. It’s close enough to brown over the black and your mind will convince you that it’s brown because you tell it that they are meatballs. 🙂

I scribbled around the whole top half of the chalk board with the side of a piece of green chalk. That’s the pea soup fog… my favorite part the whole things. 🙂

You can do this!! Let me know how it goes! 🙂

You can find me gathering here.

Simple Budget Friendly Party – Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Children’s parties don’t have to be expensive – or elaborate – to be special. I find that my children are delighted by any attempt I make to create a special birthday for them. I don’t even have to do a “Pinterest worthy” job to impress them.

This Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs party was no different. Here are some simple ideas to make the day special, without going over budget!

In our family, every birthday starts with my chalkboard. I position it just inside the kitchen for the kids to see on their way downstairs. Most of the time, this is how they find our their theme for the day.

I have a how to post about it coming in a few days.

Our decorations were pretty minimal for this party. We blew up a bunch of white balloons and tied them together into a big bunch and hung them from the ceiling above the kitchen table (clouds). Then I used white thread to hang all the felt food I could find in the house from the balloons and in the windows. It gave a fun effect of food falling from the sky.

Dinner was homemade giant pizza. I made pizzas just like normal, but instead of shaping the dough into rounds, I stretched them into ovals and then cut the edges off after they were cooked to make giant slices. That’s my nine year old holding the biggest pan we can fit in our oven.

The cake was super fun to make. I started with a normal 2 layer cake and frosted it green. Then I added chocolate frosting to outline doors and windows around the edge to make it look like a building.

The “spaghetti” on top of the cake was made using white frosting with a small round tip. I just squirted it all over and let it fall all over. The pancake was more cake batter cooked in a pan, but it was a little dry. I made it in a 10 inch cast iron skillet to get the size and shape right. Pancake batter might have worked better. Let me know if you try it. 🙂

The giant ice cream cones were made with large cake balls covered in thin frosting so that it would pool a bit. Before the frosting dried I stuck the cones on to finish the effect.

It took time, but you could totally do this!

Some other details to take the day over the top:
– breakfast was donuts (easy!)
– I read the book to the kids during breakfast
– some of her gifts were based on the theme (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs coloring book for one)
-after cake and presents that evening, we watched the movie as a family to finish the day.

That night as we were going to bed, Husband and I climbed in bed saying, “Well… another successful birthday!” And it was!

You can find me gathering here.

Farmhouse Bridal Shower

This is one of three bridal showers I did last spring for ladies in our church. This bride is the one I designed wedding invitations for (I shared those here.)

The bride is one of the adopted daughters of our pastor and his wife and I was delighted to have the opportunity to do something special for her. She loves farmhouse decor (as do I, so it was perfect!), so it just seemed natural to use that as her theme.

The invitation was designed to be emailed to the church. (I’ve changed all names and numbers to protect privacy.)

Would anyone be interested if I were to list invitations in my Etsy store? Let me know and I’ll see what I can do!

I used my trusty chalkboard (love this thing!) and a pennant banner my oldest daughter and I made for her 11th birthday (several years ago now). I just love using it when I get the chance!

The center pieces were fun. I ordered a bunch of mini rolling pins (I’d wanted them forever and found a great place to buy them on Etsy!) for this event and my own use. For the party, I used fabric to cover them and taped it on. This was a great way to temporarily dress them up, but leave them for me to do something else with later. I also decoupaged and added vinyl we cut on my cricut to the wood wood pieces for fast and easy signs.

The jars were painted with chalk paint. We made three of them and I gifted one to the bride. I took the idea right off her registry. She had registered for one exactly like it, so I just DIY’d it for her. (Thanks mom for your help in that project! We all know you did all the work!)

No two tables were exactly the same. Many other elements used for the center pieces were taken directly from my house. That’s my cake plate, my cute blue truck from Hobby Lobby, my “abide” wood block (part of my home spring decor), and those beads were something I wanted to make for myself anyway… just used the party to get it done. 🙂

Oh, and that’s my cute little tiered plate piece. (More beads I made for myself… these were part of my Valentine’s decor.) I keep the church party budget down by using decor and making decor that I want for myself anyway. 🙂

These pallets really make this dessert table, if you ask me. They are painted grey and fit perfectly with the pink. Of course more of our pennant garland to finish it off.

The tiered tray is from home also, as well as all the decor on it. My son made the “LOVE” blocks for me years ago (it actually spells “SNOW” on the other side. The little houses, the cupcake stand, the Rae Dunn mug I styled re-styled myself in this fashion, the mason jar plate and all the hydrangeas were right out of my kitchen.

All the little details were so fun to pull together, right down to the gingham ribbon on the rice krispie treats and the “R” I placed on the drink table as a nod to her new last name.

Was the event perfect? No. No event ever comes together just as it is in my head, but we enjoyed a time of fellowship, ate some goodies, watched the bride and her fiance open gifts, and bowed in a time of prayer for the couple and their coming marriage. The couple and their families felt the love of God poured through the church family… that makes the event a success.

Gathering here.

Tea Party Women’s Retreat

This time last year, I was deep in the throws of preparing for our church’s women’s retreat. As in past years, my part was to decorate and add all the little touches that make it special. It’s not the most important part, by far. The Bible teaching and encouragement is the most important. But I do love to bring a little something extra so the ladies can really enjoy the weekend and feel as much love and blessing as possible.

Because of covid regulations last year, we couldn’t take our group to the usual retreat center for the weekend, so we adjusted some things and converted our church auditorium into our retreat center and decorated it for a giant tea party.

Those garlands hung from the ceiling were made using this tutorial. I’ll be using them again this year, getting 2 years for the work of making them once! 🙂

Tables centerpieces were tea sets we gathered from various church ladies who let us borrow them (this helped cut costs and gave us a fun variety of styles from all over the world).

We found these fun paper tea cups on Amazon (not an affiliate link) for them to drink their tea/coffee/cocoa out of.

I made signs to place around the room and these little gift packs were placed at every place. Inside the packet was a small journal for each lady. There were 4 of each design and we used them to separate the ladies into different groups randomly to mix them up a bit.

This is the tea and coffee/cocoa station. One of the ladies on the retreat committee loves tea and has a lot of different ones. She always brings her collection to share (that is what you see on the left) On the right things look a little sparse because the coffee carafes are not there yet.

One of the benefits to being at our church for the retreat this year was that we could do some fun food. Many would not think of this as a good thing, but most years they ask me not to do any food for the retreat because there is so much food already at the retreat center. Well, one of the things I love to do is include food in my theme, so I was thrilled that I could make all sorts of fun “tea party” foods. This was the inspiration I needed to learn to make french macarons (of course there are no pics of those, because these picture were taken of the brunch spread, but I also made them for some of the bridal showers I’ll be sharing in the weeks to come.)

Many of the ladies stepped in to bring parts of the brunch spread, but I wanted to bring some fun things. One of which was this fun “donut” cake. The one in the pic below fell apart, so we made another one, but of course there is no pic of that. My kids were super excited that the first one fell apart because they enjoyed it immensely!

I was super excited to have a reason to make puff pastry danishes. I’d been wanting to after watching The Great British Baking Show. You can find several pins about how to do this on my Tea Party Women’s Retreat board on Pinterest. I practiced for several weeks before making the official danishes for the retreat. They aren’t as hard or as time consuming as I expected. In fact, I need to make more soon! 🙂

The whole retreat was a success with so much spiritual encouragement, so much fun and laughter, and a great time of fellowship and building up! You can find other details and ideas for your own tea party on my Pinterest board.

If you enjoyed this Tea Party Women’s Retreat, I would really appreciate it if you would pin the image below or any of the specific images… or share on other social media! 🙂

You can find me gathering here.

Monster Theme Birthday Party on a Budget

One of the many parties I’ve had the pleasure of planning since Covid appeared and I disappeared was this fun Monster Theme Birthday Party. Inexpensive and super fun!

Monster Theme Birthday Party | mamasbrush #monsterparty #birthdayparty #boybirthdayparty #monsters #eventplanning #partyplanning

It was a casual at home family party, shutdown style, but the little details made it special to the little monster we were celebrating. I tied together balloons into great bunches and incorporated white ones into the mix as eyes, with black “pupils” colored with sharpie. Black circles of paper would also work.

I used my Cricut to cut out the number 5 and letters of his name. If you don’t have a Cricut, scissors and scrapbook paper (or any paper for that matter) would work just as well.

Monster Theme Birthday Party | mamasbrush #monsterparty #birthdayparty #boybirthdayparty #monsters #eventplanning #partyplanning #chalkboard

I love my trusty chalkboard. I get so much use out of it! If you have one, this was a super simple thing to draw. Just make a bubbly, lumpy shape with the side of your chalk, coloring it all the way in. Then with the tip, trace around the outside. I used a q-tip to clean away the shape of the mouth, added white teeth, and the eyes. This chalkboard is the first thing the kids see when they come downstairs. It is usually the way they figure out the surprise theme for the day.

Other balloons were used independently around the room, stuck to walls or resting in containers. I added a wiggly eye and a little smile or other shaped mouth and, poof, a monster was born.

This was an empty jar I had laying around. I bunched up some dark blue fabric inside and added some eyes and a mouth with water-based paint pens (note: make sure they are water-based. The oil-based paint pens may not come off.) Easy, quick, and cheap party decoration! 🙂

I love to use those water-based paint pens to add a touch of birthday to the bathroom mirror too. These monsters were simple to draw. I just scribbled a random shape and added eyes and other details to make them into monsters. One of them even has little toes (just lines people… you can do this!)

Breakfast was regular donuts picked from our local donut shop. To them I added candy eyes (those candy eyes are the maker of monsters!) Easy peasy! Just as easy with donuts from Walmart or even toast and jam for a more frugal option!

The Monster cake is my favorite part of the day. I started with a plain two layer cake and frosted it with the orange. Then I added the candy eyes in various sizes all over. On top are 6 cupcakes that I frosted with the blue using the star tip. Those eyes are simply mini cupcakes stuck on paper straws. I frosted them in the same blue and added large candy eyes. So simple to make, but such a great impact!

Are there any little monster details you plan to try on your next party? Let me know how it goes! 🙂

Blessings,
Babychaser

You can find me gathering here.

Pink Kitchen Themed Bridal Shower

After what felt like several years with no bridal or baby showers in our church, we have had a flush of them in the last year or so. The first was a double shower. Two September weddings led to two brides needing showers in August. Both brides loved pink and cooking, so it just made sense to do a pink kitchen bridal shower!

Above is the gift table. My favorite part is the matching aprons hanging in the windows. Sorry it’s hard to see, but I used my Cricut to add their new married names and the year to them.

I designed these for each of the brides. The artwork is mine and some of the first I used Adobe Illustrator to create (before I had a tablet). They were super fun. There is a 4×6 recipe card… and a 8×6 foldable size too. The last gift is little gift labels with their names on them. Isn’t that whisk so cute? I love it! 🙂

I used both sides of my chalkboard this time. I had homemade tootsie rolls (rolling pins) sitting by it for guests to help themselves to on their way out. (Here’s the link to those!) The other side was visible as guests arrived. I loved adding Hebrews 10:24 – “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love….” (Anyone else love puns?)

Dessert table – I’m noticing in this picture that I could have used something festive on the wall behind the table… oh well. 🙂

Our evening party was perfect for serving dessert. I try to have some non sweet/non sugar options as well, but mostly this was dessert.

The food tags were made with my cricut and embelished with white pen to enhance the hearts. Both brides were gluten free, so I was careful to have gf options for everyone. Rice Krispies dipped in pink melting chocolates, macarons, fruit and veggies, popcorn, meringues and…

This cake was super fun to make. It was gluten free and the cupcakes were regular chocolate cupcakes.

Here are some close up shots of the cake for those of you who like that kind of thing. 🙂 I’ve been working on my cakes. I feel like this one hid my novice more than most. I was pretty excited that it turned out. I found an inspiration photo on Pinterest, I’m sure, but I can’t find it now. Check out my Cake Decorating board if you are interested, though, for more ideas!

I hope you found something to inspire you from this party. Remember, parties don’t have to be perfect to be appreciated. Everyone had a good time and the brides were blessed!

Until nextime,
Babychaser

You can find me gathering here.

Winter Shelf Decor and More

Winter Shelf Decor | mamasbrush #decor #winter #pinetrees #snowman #snow
#snowballs #shelves #chalkboard #art #drawing

Okay, so we are in the second half of January and I’ll be changing these {my favorite} shelves in the next week or so. But before I do, I wanted to share them with you all. I didn’t really do anything with them in January last year, so this was their first winter set up.

I just love the way it turned out, but my favorite part is that my daughter (11) was helping me. While I was working on taking everything out of the box, she grabbed up those plastic pine trees and set them up herself. I just loved the way they were set up, so I placed that tall wood snowman among them and called um good. I love that skinny little guy. He is one of the projects from our first year selling at the Christmas market. I believe my oldest made him. The jar of cotton balls is labeled “snowballs”. I put it together for my tiered tray last year.

Winter Shelf Decor | mamasbrush #decor #winter #snowman #snow
#snowballs #shelves #chalkboard #art #drawing

Behind that is one of my favorite, inexpensive frames from Walmart. I keep various sizes on hand so I can frame a new piece for putting up or gifting. I put a piece of black paper in it and used my white, water-based paint pen to draw a little scene and write out James 1:17.

Winter Shelf Decor | mamasbrush #decor #winter #pinetrees #snowman #snow
#snowballs #shelves #woodblocks #crafts #wintercrafts #wintercrafting #saltandpeppershakers

On the bottom shelf are several wooden trees I’ve gathered or made over the years. The “Snow” blocks were another from my son, but his time they were made just for me instead of left overs from market. He did them in all shades of green because he knew I would want to use them for a winter-scapey theme after Christmas. The adorable snowman salt and pepper shakers were made by my daughter for Christmas market and were among the left overs. I’m just “borrowing” them until next year when we’ll put them out to sell again. 🙂

Rae Dunn Inspired Cocoa Station - Winter Shelf Decor | mamasbrush #decor #marshmellows #cocoa #candycanes #mugs #RaeDunn

I love this little spot on the window sill above my stove. I usually put mugs all along it through Christmas and beyond, but we got a cat last year and I just can’t keep him off that sill. I am too afraid he’ll get up there and knock something down to it’s doom. And let’s be honest, he’s going to get up there. I find cat prints all. the. time.

So this year I made this a little cocoa themed space. I filled a mason jar with large marshmallow and set my cute hot chocolate mix with it. Then the cittle crocheted mug rug my daughter made for me for Christmas this year. Also for Christmas this year, my sister gave me my first official Rae Dunn piece. I’ve been pinning them for a year now. She picked out this cute mug that says “faith” on it. Problem was, as cute as it would be with all those candy canes in it, it just didn’t fit. So I grabbed my black water-based paint pen and wrote “cocoa” on it in my wobbly version of “Rae Dunn” like writing on the other side. Now I have options. I can use it as is, or I can turn it around and write something to fit my theme.

Toilet Paper Snowman - Winter Shelf Decor on a Budget| mamasbrush #decor #snowman #snow #crafty #winter #easycrafts #decor #decorations #toiletpaperrolls

This is my last favorite thing this year. It was also a gift, last year’s Christmas gift from my older boys (12 and 8 at the time). You see, last year was the year of the toilet paper pumpkins at our church. It seemed that every different group made them, but I had no idea. Not until after we made a bunch and took them to the Christmas market hoping to sell a few for Thanksgiving. We didn’t sell any! No worries, put the toilet paper back in the bathroom and fold up the fabric for a future project. But apparently it started the wheels turning for my boys. Before I knew it, and with no idea why, they were begging the next empty oatmeal container off me for a project. That, plus some help and supplies from my mom, became the cutest toilet paper snowman you’ve ever seen! One of my favorite Christmas gifts from 2018!

So there you have it, my favorite parts of this year’s winter decor. I hope you are inspired to make a special place in your home to make you smile!

Gathering here.

Fall Harvest Birthday Party My {Young} Children Gave Me

For months my children (ages 4-12) have been dreaming up their birthday plans for me. I always make a big deal of their birthdays (in inexpensive and homemade ways) and they are getting old enough to want to do what I do… for me. It’s pretty cool.

They have help. My mom helps with brainstorming and shopping and any crafting. The day of, they kick me out of the house (I go down to my mom’s house [converted from a detached garage] and take a shower… ahhhh… happy birthday to me!) so they can decorate.

Pumpkin Cake - Fall Harvest Birthday Party My Children Gave Me | mamasbrush | #birthday #party #harvest #fall #cake #sweets #pumpkins

This year they baked a cake. Due to a flop the previous day, I helped the little kids make the cake that morning and the big kids decorated it with my mom in the afternoon when she was home from work. It turned out really cute!

Fall Harvest Birthday Party My Children Gave Me | mamasbrush | #birthday #party #harvest #fall #centerpiece #scarecrow #pumpkins #gourds #floralarrangement #decorations #decor

They colored pictures for the walls and put together a centerpiece according to the theme.

Fall Harvest Birthday Party My Children Gave Me | mamasbrush | #birthday #party #harvest #fall #chalkboard #kidart #pumpkins #handlettering

This year they even put my chalkboard to use! Isn’t it adorable! They all helped in some way. Keep in mind that the oldest is 12 and the youngest had just turned 4.

Thank you babies for a wonderful birthday!

[Most of this post was finished back at the end of September, but life got busy and the blog (as necessity demands) is the first thing to go. (I haven’t been painting either!) I just popped in to work on some new posts when I discovered that this one had never been finished. So here it is. Hopefully there will be another this week, and they we’ll see how life settles in. I miss sharing… and having things to share!]

Blessings,
Babychaser

Simple (and cheap) Chocolate Theme Birthday Party

It’s a chocolate themed birthday party! Super inexpensive, simple and fun. The kids loved it and so did my mom (the birthday girl).

Mole Chicken - Chocolate Theme Birthday Party

So, a couple weeks ago we celebrated my mom’s birthday with a chocolate theme. We often go out for dinner on her birthday, but there is chocolate in Mole sauce and she LOVES her Mole. No question… I would be cooking. (We got our all-you-can-eat sushi a few days later!)

I kept the decorations pretty simple. I spent August trying to recover and catch up from the unexpected 10 days we spent in the hospital with my daughter in July. Only now am I starting to feel we’re back to normal.

I made the Hershey Kisses by wrapping foil over upside down bowls of various sizes. The paper is just printer paper I cut into strips and put messages on. Are they perfect? No. But they were well received and did their job. The little ones in the next picture (on my shelves) can also use the top of a water bottle instead of a little bowl, but I forgot to keep the ones we had. If you do that, you can fill them with candy and give them as party favors too. Since it’s always just us at these parties, we didn’t need the candy or the favors. 🙂

The Chocolate Tuffles and Cupcake cards could have been framed, but I didn’t get to the store for the frames, so they were cute on their own. My mom has since framed them and hung them in her chocolate themed bathroom. They doubled as gifts.

The chalkboard frame is just a cheap white frame (my go to frame for all my artwork because of it’s simplicity) from Walmart with a black sheet of paper in it. I used a white water based paint pen to do the illustration of a mug and hand lettered “just add chocolate and cream please” on the side. I love that frame! Silly that it took me so long to pull it together!

Chalkboard - Chocolate Theme Birthday Party

As you know if you’ve been around for a while, I decorate my large (husband made) chalkboard for birthdays and events too. Everyone has come to look forward to it and uses it to help determine the theme for the day when I keep it a secret. This one says “birthday wishes and chocolate kisses.”

Brownie Cake - Chocolate Theme Birthday Party

This brownie cake on the back of a Ghirardelli Brownie box mix was the inspiration for the theme. This past spring, my mom saw the picture of that Ombre Brownie Cake on the box and declared that she wanted to try that. I decided that day that we would do it for her birthday.

I’ve never made ganache before and as you can see, my cake doesn’t look exactly like the picture. It was a good first run though, and I hope to do it again because it was yummy!

Note: Not all (or any) of your plans have to work out just right. The person or people you are celebrating will still feel loved that you tried to make their day a big deal! Don’t let fear of failure (or failure itself in my case so often) keep you from going all out!

Gathering here.

Category: Chalkboards

How We Do Birthdays: An Owl Theme

How to: Chalkboard for a Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Party

Simple Budget Friendly Party – Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Farmhouse Bridal Shower

Tea Party Women’s Retreat

Monster Theme Birthday Party on a Budget

Pink Kitchen Themed Bridal Shower

Winter Shelf Decor and More

Recommended Reading:

Fall Harvest Birthday Party My {Young} Children Gave Me

Simple (and cheap) Chocolate Theme Birthday Party

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