church – mamasbrush

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.

Garden Theme Women’s Retreat Decor

My part is to make the weekend special. To make it beautiful. To make each lady feel like they’ve truly stepped into a retreat space!

This past weekend was our church’s annual women’s retreat (thus less posting last week as we were getting things ready and this week because I’m catching up around here.)

Our theme was “Come to the Garden”… basically, a garden theme women’s retreat! I came up with the idea last year as we were setting up for that retreat. The weather was gloomy and I really wanted to be putting flowers everywhere. Poof, the garden theme women’s retreat was born!

Garden Theme Women's Retreat Decor | mamasbrush #Christianretreat #womensretreat #eventdecor #gardenthemedecor #gardentheme #cometothegarden #springdecor #farmhousespringdecor #flowerdecor #decoratingwithflowers #springcoffeebar

This actually turned into a budget friendly theme for us, decoration wise anyway. I expected to have to buy a lot of flowers to get the feel I was looking for, and that was going to be expensive. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. Then I visited the decorations closet at the church (if you’re church doesn’t have one of these, it really should! I use ours all the time for party planning, retreats and other events at the church.) If you don’t have one of these rooms, ask around for ladies in the church who may have flowers or other details they don’t use anymore or are willing to share.

Many of the flowers in these pictures are from the decoration storage closet, others are mine from home. I made some signs, like the “let us grow” sign here. The wood beads are also mine, but so easy to make in any color.

This is the downstairs space that we used mostly for gathering in the evenings. I asked a wonderful group of helpers to just sort through the totes and make it all pretty! They did a great job. I literally couldn’t have done it without them. I had just under 2 hours from the time we could get into the facility to when our program started.

I picked up some free pillows someone was getting rid of and my mom made cases for them out of the green check print. Then we covered my couch pillows with a yard or so of fabric each from my stash, and tied them on so they would be temporary.

In the middle picture you can kind of see two other signs I made. One says “herbs” and the other says “prune and grow”. I also snagged my daughter’s summer hat to add to the mix.

The bunting is something I helped my oldest daughter make several years ago for her Little House birthday. I’ve used them so many time. I think they are made from some Figtree and Co. fabric. I use them all the time for baby showers, bridal showers, etc. This year I am going to hang them in the kitchen for spring.

There is a kitchenette downstairs in the lodge we used for the retreat this year. I love to turn it into a pretty coffee/tea/cocoa bar with pretty cups and plates and such. I always stow the coffee organizers they have out on the counter and bring my own pretty ones. This space is simple, but effective!

Behind it is this little cafe like seating area. It was so easy to place cute cloth napkins out with a bouquet of flowers on each. Again, super simple, but super effective!

We decided this year to set up a second drink station in the upstairs room where most of our sessions were taking place. The tea collection both upstairs and down belong the head of the retreat planning committee. She loves to share and this year has all matching jars. It made me so happy! 🙂 We brought the white carafes from church to keep things pretty and light. That is a white paper table cloth with plastic backing I have on top of the pink cloth. It prevented the spilled coffee and tea from staining the pink.

That is another sign I made for the weekend too… the “but first COFFEE”. I love how it fit in with the whole look. All the signs were made using my Cricut to make vinyl stencils.

The lace looking bunting was from last year’s tea party retreat. My sweet mama made all those for me last year using this tutorial. I was thrilled to use them again. She couldn’t be with us this year but was super excited to use them used again when I sent pics.

I tried to keep the tables simple this year. Once 8 ladies are squeezed around a 6 foot table with all their stuff, there isn’t much room in the middle. 🙂 I bought 7 of those cute flowers and garden tins from Dollar Tree and painted them white. They scratch easy (be warned) but they were super cute with the flowers in them. I decided to put these together ahead of time and bring them pre-made so that we could just put them on the tables. We used a bunch of the flowers at the church and poked them into some of the green flower foam (also in our decor closet). I use the word “we” lightly. One of the teens at church helped me out by doing all the arranging. She did a much better job than I would have in a fraction of the time. 🙂 I was thrilled she was there to help. I then scattered left over blooms and greens along the tables and placed a couple mini garden tools we had with them. Super easy!

The event turned out beautiful and had it’s intended affect. The ladies were loving the feel of the surroundings and were blessed by both the fellowship and the teaching throughout the weekend. I always say, my part of the events are far from the most important, but I enjoy showing love to the ladies who come by making their surroundings special!

If you enjoyed this garden theme women’s retreat, please pin the following image or share it on other social media!

You can find me 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.

Our Christmas Market Display where I sold my artwork

Our Christmas Market Display where I sold my own artwork | mamasbrush #cards #watercolor #Christmas #market #vendor #artwork #penguin #snowman #Christian #church #mistletoe #manger #Jesus #handmade #Display #pallet wood #crafts #painting #Christmas trees

I’ve been away for a while. I know. When deadlines start to stack up, something’s got to give. I admitted up front that painting is what I do in my spare time… when I have some. And when I don’t, there certainly isn’t time to blog… not to mention nothing to blog about! 🙂

One of the things keeping me busy is a quilt that I’m making for my 5 year old son’s 6th birthday (next week). It’s still not done, but it’s closer. 🙂 On top of that, Christmas market was inching nearer. All my *extra* energy was going to those projects during the day and late into the night. No painting… no blogging. No problem!

But this past weekend was Christmas Market at our church. We took a lot of time the last few weeks working on the children’s projects. They turned out really well.

The small trees on the table were made from lath that came out of our walls during renovation. The blocks are cut from scrap 2x4s my husband used when re-building the walls.

Our Christmas Market Display where I sold my own artwork | mamasbrush #cards #watercolor #Christmas #market #vendor #artwork #Christian #church #manger #Jesus #handmade #2x4 #crafts #painting #Christmas trees #joy

You may notice in the first pictures, that the “J” is missing. Those first couple pictures were taken the night we set up (since the window makes day pictures near impossible) and we had already gathered up all the “J”s to take back home and fix. This is a new project we did this year and I’m especially attached to it because I drew out the letters and the manger shape myself (instead of using the Cricut). When I showed the J-O-Y to my husband, he said we should add “bundle of” to it. After some brainstorming, I thought that little star would be cute! Sadly, they didn’t sell this year, but they could next year, so I tucked them away.

Our Christmas Market Display where I sold my own artwork | mamasbrush #Christmas #market #vendor #artwork #Christian #church #handmade #Display #pallet wood #crafts #painting #Christmas trees

My boys made these cute trees from the old living room floor my husband pulled up in September.

I’ve sold a few things here and there in past years, but this year I prepared a bunch. These are some of the cards I made. They are original paintings done in watercolor. The plastic bags I have them in made them hard to photograph. 🙂

I also turned some of my past art into notepads. They were a labor of love using this tutorial to bind them.

And those little framed guys in the tiered tray were mine as well. I promised myself I’d have better pictures than I have… but alas. I’ll have to pull the ones I have left out to photograph them for you before putting them in the attic.

Attendance was up this year and we did pretty good. All the money the kids make goes toward summer camp and any that I make goes into the “braces fund.” Any little bit helps! 🙂 The Christmas Market takes a lot of work to prepare for, but it’s something I really enjoy doing. 🙂 And it’s really encouraging to me to find that, not only do people like the art I’ve created, but, they are willing to spend money on it too. 🙂

Gathering here.

Farm Girl Diaper Cake – Every Baby Needs a Party

Okay, you’ve heard me say it before: I’m a firm believer that every baby needs a party, and this little farm girl is no exception. Three older brothers already inhabiting the family’s homestead (plus rabbits and chickens), we really had to do something in pink!

Our church budgets for throwing a baby shower for all the first born babies, and I am the one so blessed as to be in charge of most of those. I understand that there isn’t room in the budget for every baby to have a full blown party, and it isn’t in our budget either. And I understand that not everyone thinks that second and third (and forth and fifth, etc) babies need a party. But I disagree!

When I say that every baby needs a party, I do not mean that we need to break the budget each time a baby is born or throw some elaborate gathering. What I do mean is that we should celebrate each new baby as the gift from God that they are! (I feel the same way about every adoption too by the way!) Every baby is special to the family receiving him or her, and it’s my joy to make a point to celebrate with that family… and to make sure they know about it!

A number of years ago, after years of wishing something could be done for all these *not first born* babies, I had a couple ideas. First of all, what if we just set up a table and invite the church family to bring gifts for the new baby. So that’s what I do anytime a new baby is born in our church. It’s not hard, and most of the time the decorations are super simple. This time it was a table cloth, a diaper cake (made at home), and a banner. It will be up for a few Sundays to give time for people to bring in their gifts.

{Planning to share my second “idea” about how to celebrate new babies in an upcoming post… subscribe in the sidebar so you don’t miss it!}

A week or so before it is up, I send out an email “invitation” to the whole church that is made in the same theme as the table. We call it a sprinkling. Most people bring diapers and wipes, but there are a few people who bring other gifts, gift cards, or a personal quilt. Gifts don’t even have to be wrapped… it’s optional.

I found the inspiration for this diaper cake on Pinterest (of course). Then I increased the size of the clipart I used in the invitation and printed it off. Some extra details from the dollar store, fabric store and around the house took it over the top. It turned out really cute (I think!)

Does your church do anything when babies are born??? It’s really easy to start this ministry… and it’s one that blesses families time and again!!

Keep a look out for the other thing I do for families to celebrate the birth of their new babies! (You can subscribe in the sidebar so you don’t miss a post!)

Gathering here.

Cozy Mountain Lodge Women’s Retreat Wrap Up

This past weekend was our church’s Cozy Mountain Lodge Women’s Retreat. We were at a new venue, which turned out just right. It was in the mountains, we were in a lodge of sorts, and once we were done with set up, it was decidedly cozy!

Decorating - Cozy Mountain Lodge Women's Retreat Wrap Up — Pre-cut fabric squares strung up with mini clothes pins were a cute and colorful addition to our mantle. The fabric was an adorable cabin in the mountains theme. Sorry, I don’t remember what it was called.

Unfortunately, though I promised myself I wouldn’t let this happen, I got so busy that I forgot to stop and take pictures of everything. These are the few there are. 🙂

Lit Tree and Snow Blocks on the Piano - Cozy Mountain Lodge Women's Retreat Wrap Up — White lights added a whimsical touch. Since we used the lights and trees the church already had, it was also a huge budget helper!

When I put away my winter decor at the end of January, I put a number of pieces into our retreat box. The snow blocks, wooden trees and the jar of “snowballs” were some of the ones from my kitchen. And since the mountainside out our windows were covered with snow, it was perfect!

Centerpieces - Cozy Mountain Lodge Women's Retreat Wrap Up

The centerpieces were simple. One of the families in our church had a baby shower this past fall with a woodland animals theme. I was able to use the same tree trunk slabs they had made for that (another budget saver!) Baby’s Breath flowers in Ball jars with rocks were inexpensive and gave a lot of bang for their buck. The little birds in nests were in our decor closet at church as well. That was an exciting find. And for the tables, we used Kraft paper. Simple, less expensive than cloth, and more durable than plastic. Plus it had that rustic quality I was looking for.

Centerpiece - Cozy Mountain Lodge Women's Retreat Wrap Up

The framed cabin print was one of the ones I painted (now available in my shop). All 7 of the tables had one and they were given as prizes as part of the “door prize drawing”. Each person got something. When it came to these prints, they were allowed to choose between one of those or one of the remaining prizes that I hadn’t painted myself. That way ladies who wouldn’t have a use for the artwork, had a choice to opt out. 🙂 I was super excited to see most of them taken.

Birch Tree Pretzels - Cozy Mountain Lodge Women's Retreat Wrap Up — Mountain

Mountain Rice Krispie Treats - Cozy Mountain Lodge Women's Retreat Wrap Up — Mountain

The food table we set out in the evenings was more elaborate than these pics let on, yet still simple. Not only had I brought the Birch Tree Pretzels and Mountain Rice Krispies Treats, but also some veggies and dip, chips, pretzels and popcorn. And other ladies brought things to share also. No one ever had cause to be hungry! 🙂 And my kids were thrilled with some left overs!

DIY Chocolate Wrappers - Cozy Mountain Lodge Woman's Retreat

The custom chocolates I left on everyone’s pillows (read that post here) were a big hit too. And even though I had a ton to do, I disappeared to put them out myself. I’m so glad I did! I didn’t want anyone to know they were coming (even the other helpers) and I wanted a chance to pray a few words for each of the ladies who came.

Get going... in step with the Spirit - Galatians 5:25

The remaining artwork I created for the retreat (available here) was framed and left around the room in cozy places where the ladies sat to visit, read their Bibles, or crochet. Sorry there aren’t any pics of that. Each one has it’s own post: Get Away, Get Going, Get Cozy, and {God’s Got this} Let the Adventure Begin.

God's Got This - Hand Lettered Artwork - Joshua 1:9

Are you planning a mountain themed retreat? I’d love to hear about your plans! Share some of them in the comments for others to enjoy!

Gathering here.

Mountain Rice Krispies Treats – Cozy Mountain Lodge Theme Retreat Snack

Tomorrow begins the retreat I’ve been helping to plan (click here to see all the posts about our Cozy Mountain Lodge Retreat) and I’m working like crazy to finish some of the little details that I hope will help set the weekend apart. Of course I hope that the spiritual side of the retreat is what will stay in the ladies’ hearts and minds for years to come, but, aside from praying along that end, that part is outside my responsibility. What I signed on for is to make the weekend extra special for the ladies. That means chocolates on pillows, cute decorations, and these Mountain Rice Krispies Treats (among other things).

Do you need some decor to go with your snacks?
I have these prints available in my shop!

It all started with this Pinspiration. But as it turns out, I didn’t follow her recipe or method at all. Click over to see how she did it, hers look amazing as well! Mine were as easy as this recipe for Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats cut into triangles.

I used green and white candy melts for the dipping part. I followed the directions on the bag, I dipped the big flat part into the green and stood them to cool and dry on wax paper.

A couple hours later (because I was also helping the kids with schoolwork and making a birthday cake for my husband, not because it took that long to set) I followed the directions on the bag again, and dipped the point in white.

I’ve got them all packed up in tupperware and wax paper now, ready to cart to the mountains for our retreat on Friday.

The kids and I tested the scraps. They are really good! Husband still prefers the originals and wishes I hadn’t messed with a good thing. 🙂 I’ll have to make him some regular ones when I get back. But the rest of you should pin that top image for later! 🙂 Yum!

Gathering here.

Custom Chocolate Wrappers – Cozy Mountain Lodge Woman’s Retreat

When I invited myself onto the committee for last year’s women’s retreat, I really wanted chocolates on everyone’s pillow. Alas, we were in a hotel and, though there was plenty of chocolate at the Hershey Lodge and even in the rooms, I didn’t get to be a part of it. This year will be different!

For this year’s retreat, we are at a retreat center in the mountains and I’m so excited. The space is homier and easier to decorate than a hotel conference room, we can bring our own food in, and I have access to all those lovely pillows before the ladies arrive! I’m so excited!

So earlier this week I made up these cute custom chocolate wrappers for the Hershey’s Minitures I bought. The wrappers are approximately 1.25 inches x 3 inches and I used tape to attach them. I used scrapbook paper, but anything would work.

Then I cut out a whole bunch of little papers and hand drew the labels. Yes, there was probably an easier way, but with my husband using the computer and my time constraints, it was actually faster to hand draw them. But I actually love the hand drawn look!! I used a glue stick to attach them to each chocolate after the candies had been wrapped with scrapbook paper.

I’ll be sneaking into all the rooms during set up to place these on each lady’s pillow and saying a prayer for each one’s weekend.

So, now I have a question for you. The illustrations were super simple to do and many of you can probably figure out how I did them just by looking, but I’m curious… would anyone be interested in a video tutorial on how to do the simple illustrations I included on these labels? If there is enough interest, I will try to make time for it in the coming weeks.

Gathering here.

Jesus, Our Kinsman Redeemer and Firm Foundation – Art Print

This week is the women’s retreat I am helping plan for our church ladies. This year it is focusing on the book of Ruth, with a general theme of a “Cozy Mountain Lodge”. I decided I wanted to illustrate a cabin (like one of the crafts that came with the Retreat Package) with some of the lesson themes woven in. This is what I came up with.

Jesus, our Kinsman Redeemer Cabin Illustration

It is such a great word picture. Jesus, our Kinsman Redeemer, sheltering and protecting us like the roof. And as our Firm Foundation, someone we can trust and stand on.

And, you may have noticed, I just love to make my smoke and steam the same way most of the time. It has a fun, whimsical feel I think.

This will be framed, like the other art pieces I designed for the retreat, and set around for decorations. Then I’ll give them away as part of our door prize drawing.

Updated 9/2023: This print is available “remastered” , customizable for your favorite Bible versions, in my shop! Come on over and have a look!

Gathering here.

Save the Date Coffee Cups

Last year I shared this cute prototype for a save the date card we used for our cafe themed women’s retreat. Well, I just wanted to let you know that I have updated that post with all the templates I created and used to make it. I also included some tips to make your project even easier!

These would be great for save the date or invitations for cafe themed parties, retreats or weddings. You could also use this for thank you notes or even just a note of encouragement if you change the tag.

Click over to read the post and download the template files for your own.

If you use it, I’d love to see a pic. Just leave me a link so I can see!

Gathering here.

Category: church

Farmhouse Bridal Shower

Garden Theme Women’s Retreat Decor

Tea Party Women’s Retreat

Our Christmas Market Display where I sold my artwork

Farm Girl Diaper Cake – Every Baby Needs a Party

Recommended Reading:

Cozy Mountain Lodge Women’s Retreat Wrap Up

Mountain Rice Krispies Treats – Cozy Mountain Lodge Theme Retreat Snack

Recommended Reading:

Custom Chocolate Wrappers – Cozy Mountain Lodge Woman’s Retreat

Jesus, Our Kinsman Redeemer and Firm Foundation – Art Print

Save the Date Coffee Cups