Gifts – mamasbrush

Christmas Market 2022 (a little late)

I can’t believe I never shared last year’s Christmas Market! As we buckle down over here to get ready for the 2023 market, I can’t help but procrastinate my other work to share last year with you all! I only hope I’m as happy with this years table as I was with last years!

Christmas Market Display Table | mamasbrush

I was thrilled with the location of our table. I didn’t expect to have this prime location because the gal who usually has it was supposed to be there, but when she canceled at the last minute, (though I was sorry she couldn’t be there) I was happy to fill in.

We start with our tree on the left. With some of the left over product from past years, my [then] 7 year old son made those cute gnome ornaments! I hope we’ll have time to get to some of them this year, but we haven’t started yet!

Aren’t they cute? They’ve set off in him a love of all things gnomes!

Moving down the table I had these cute small book stacks my 12 year old boy made. I also set up that frame for people to find information about my shop and my computer so they could see some of the items in my shop that I didn’t have at the market.

This is right in the middle of the table. At the top is a large book stack my teen son made and one of my mini calendars (shameless plug to find 2024 calendars in my shop now!) Under that is an 11×14 framed print I gifted my pastor’s family. That is one of my “Custom Tree Lots” (also found in my shop!) I just love them! I pick and place trees to match your family (large or small… the photos in my shop show some smaller groupings and even a couple!) and add their names. It’s one of my favorite Christmas products!

At the bottom of the pic are the hot pads my teen girl made to sell from fabric I designed. Somehow I haven’t shared much about this, but I a number of fabric designs for sale on Spoonflower. These are some of my Christmas patterns. One of these days I’d like to share more, but I’m always behind around here. 🙂

Next are some of the wood bead garlands we’ve made, some of my cards, and a bunch of other cute little things we’ve made over the years. In the middle is a mug I had printed my artwork. Those little snowman salt and pepper shakers sold out last year. I really need to get some more of those so the kids can paint them!

This is the far right of our table. I’ve hung another of my calendars for people to see all the designs. More mugs are on the shelves. Those little house shapes you see on the shelves and in front I had my 8 year old paint and we decopaged some of my artwork on. The bottom one is actually fabric we put on and added some detail with the raffia and a gingerbread button. In front are some more cards and a few note pads left over from a couple years ago.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tour. It’s definitely inspired me to try to get more done in the next 10 days before we have to set up for this year’s market!

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2024 Mini Chicken Calendars

My chicken calendars are here and I just love them! Like my Truck Calendars and my Doodle Calendars, they are seasonal and petite! A small (Hobby Lobby) easel will hold them in a little corner of your home. These little cuties are just 3.5 inches tall!

Mini Chicken Calendars | mamasbrush

Cute illustrated desk calendars that fit on an easel. 12 Seasonal Monthly Calendars. Cute Chicken illustrations.

You’ll find a little illustration marking special holidays on most months. A snowflake for New Years, for instance, and a sunflower for 4th of July. I decided to match the illustration at the top this year instead of the actual holiday. I love the little pile of raked up leaves on Thanksgiving Day!

Come over to my Etsy Shop to see the rest of the illustrations for each month! And to celebrate *finally* getting these done, I’ve put all my calendars on sale for 50% off till the end of October! Come be the first to get them!

What’s your favorite month? Tell me in the comments!

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To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate: St. Patrick’s Day

I’ve been very careful about what I teach our children from the beginning. In some things I’ve altered course as they have grown and I have matured as a mother. Spoiler alert: I’m still new at this mother thing… this stage of it that is. I’ve never before had 6 children in these specific stages and I’m making this up as I go. It may seem silly to you, but St. Patrick’s Day is something I have in limbo right now.

Christian St. Patrick's Day Cards bundle.

bookmarks, cards, stickers, clipart, cross, Jesus, four leaf clover, shamrock, luck

My kids have never been exposed to St. Patrick’s Day like I was growing up. As a homeschool family the only way they would have been is if I introduced it… and I didn’t. Just kinda skipped it. I have always taught the kids that there is no luck. So why would I focus on a holiday that highlights it.

Then when my forth was born March 18th, I figured it was perfect… why try to squeeze another “holiday” in such close quarters. Therefore, we’ve never done the whole green thing. I don’t decorate for it, we don’t wear special shirts or pinch if there isn’t green. As I mentioned, we strongly discourage the idea of luck!

Now I must admit to you that we have discussed the day over the years. I don’t think there is anything wrong with St. Patrick’s Day in general. And nothing wrong for those who choose to enjoy the fun of celebrating it. We’ve done our share of reading about who the actual man was (it comes up on world history after all). We learned about Ireland and even some about what leprechauns are.

In recent years I’ve started reconsidering St. Patrick’s Day and have been less of a stickler about luck in general. Don’t get me wrong, the children have all heard me ask them, “Is luck real?” They know that the idea of luck started with people who didn’t know God. Now that my youngest is 7 and can answer all the questions, I didn’t worry so much about showing them the movie Luck (super cute by the way! We used the free trial on AppleTV to see it.) So as Valentine’s Day was getting near, I started looking forward to what was next and I couldn’t help myself. I designed some cute cards for handing out on St. Patrick’s Day.

We still won’t do much, but how can I resist printing out these cute bookmarks and setting a cute green themed table for their breakfast??? I can’t!

My message hasn’t changed (much)… I’m just taking this opportunity to spread it even further! 🙂 And to bless my kids with bookmarks… something they are way into right now by the way! Now the only question I have to ask myself is what color background am I going to use??? I like them both!

Pop over to my shop for 30% off in the next 7 days if you want some! Use coupon code STPATTYS or click here.

Clue Themed T-Shirt Design

Clue game t-shirt with candlestick and billiard room | mamasbrush design

cricut easy press, Clue SVG, Clue Cut file, DIY t-shirt

This is a quick one. I designed this shirt for a friend of ours for her 16th birthday. She loves the game Clue and we’re planning a little “Clue” themed party for her soon. A party theme isn’t complete without a matching shirt (at least I’ve gotten in the habit of creating one for most themes these days.)

I sourced the chalk outline from, I’m so sorry, I can’t remember where! It doesn’t always occur to me in the moment that I’m going to want to blog the things I’m doing. I’m trying to be better, but failed again.

The candlestick was something I created. I couldn’t find anything I liked, so I tried it out and am pleased with the way it turned out. I asked our friend’s mom what her favorite weapon and room are in the game, so that is why I picked candlestick and billiard room.

I love my Cricut Easy Press. It’s so much easier (huh!) than using my iron. I kept putting off the project, but it’s silly because it was so fast!

Have you created anything lately?

Christmas Decor – Mistletoe Sign

This one just makes me smile! I painted this years ago… it was one of the first paintings I was really excited about. I’ve made cards with this mistletoe on it in past years. One simply said, “tonight.” I like that one. 🙂

This past year I digitized it, making it possible to do so many more things with it… and to make it BIG! In this design, I added the words, “In this house, we do mistletoe!” I can’t wait to find a place to put it when December rolls around!

It’s 50% off right now as part of my Christmas in July sale. Print it at home or have it printed and add it to your Christmas decor this year.

Christmas Decor Mistletoe Sign | mamasbrush

In this house, we do mistletoe. Quirky Christmas sign with illustrated mistletoe. Christmas in July

Christ Centered Christmas Sign – Our Home Believes

Is July as busy for you as it is for me??? Yes? No? Well, I’m finally here to share some of my Christmas in July projects with you. Here we go!

Christmas clipart to use for your Cricut or Sihlouette cut machines. Jesus' manger with the words "our home believes".

Have you seen those adorable farmhouse Christmas signs that say “We believe” with a Santa hat? I love them. I remember seeing them for the first time, thinking they were so clever. The only problem is… we don’t. Yikes! Can you BELIEVE I just said that on the internet? You can’t take things like that back! But it’s true. When our children were born, we decided not to “do” Santa.

But, hang on… does that mean I can’t have one of those cute signs? Not quite! A few years ago, I designed a “we believe” kind of sign with a manger instead. Because in this world where so many people don’t believe that the One True God stepped down from heaven to walk on earth and take the penalty for our sins, our home DOES believe! We do believe that the story of Jesus being born in a stable and laid in a manger is a true story, and we love to celebrate it!

2021 Christmas Market Display | mamasbrush #woodbookstacks #Christmasdecor #winterdecor #craftfairdisplay #craftfair #woodbeadgarland #signs

I created it as a cut file for vinyl. Here you can see it applied to canvas on our family Christmas market table this past November. I used scrapbook paper for the brown and yellow, then applied the black outlines and words in vinyl over top. It was a little tricky to do for me (a beginner in all this Cricut layering stuff), but totally do-able!

As I added it to my shop this month (for our Christmas in July sale! — Shameless plug!), I’ve included the layered PNG cut files for applying it as you see here, a simple single layer file, and a printable file if you’d rather just frame it! All files are on a transparent background for you to use in whatever crafting project you’d like! Grab it up this month for just $.99 and use it to make gifts ahead of the rush or create your own Christmas cards with the clipart!

Christmas clipart to use for your Cricut or Sihlouette cut machines. Jesus' manger with the words "our home believes". Use for decor, gifts, Christmas cards.

Christmas in July sale.

You can find me gathering here.

Christmas in July

Of all the seasons and themes I get excited about, Christmas is one of the top. I love to illustrate and paint Christmas-y things. It’s true. Those of you who have been around a while (or, yikes, dug in to some of the archives!) know that there is a lot of Christmas on this site.

Now, fast forward to March of this year when I finally decided to open an Etsy shop. My first concern was that I had no idea what to make… Christmas was really far away! I summoned all my creative juices and prayed a lot and I did come up with some things to list that make me smile. I hope they make you smile too, at least to see them pass through your feed.

While I’ve been creating all that non-Christmas stuff, I’ve been holding a hope in the back of my mind… Christmas in July! Could I continue filling my shops with products and artwork while still preparing some Christmas for July?

I’ll have to admit it was hard. I had bigger plans than a large family and garden would allow, but I have managed to get a few things listed to kick off Christmas in July. I’ll be adding more throughout the month as I have time and I’ll be highlighting each item here beginning next week.

Don’t want to wait??? Visit my shops now to see what’s there!

Mamasbrush Designs has some crafty and practical Christmas items.

Mamasbrush Decor has Christmas home decor.

…with more in the works! Subscribe to find out when new items are listed!

The big announcement??? SALE, SALE, SALE!

Both shops are running a 50% off Christmas listings during the month of July! This is my biggest sale yet and is probably the steepest discount I’ll offer on Christmas this year! Don’t miss it!

You can find me gathering here.

Fresh Salsa – Updated Artwork

Fresh Salsa Watercolor Print |
mamasbrush

Fresh salsa veggies kitchen wall art decor.

I’ve shared these watercolor veggies before. It was an illustration I made for my dad one year for Father’s Day. I was super happy with how it turned out then, so I wanted to digitize it to add to my new Etsy shop.

It’s my newest listing and everything in that shop is currently 30% off through the 8th to celebrate it’s opening.

You can find me gathering here.

Carrot Patch Sign

With spring officially begun, we are full into the beginning of garden season! How better to celebrate, than with a cute Carrot Patch sign!

This is the part of the year that I still like gardening. Ask me again come July or August when it’s too hot to be outside and the weeds and pests have taken over and my opinion is often different. But for now… for now I’m all about the planning and the prepping and the seed starting. Yes, and even the decorating!

So… I designed this cute sign specifically for my sister who is loving all things carrots these days! I wanted to have something for her when she arrived for her visit this week, but I couldn’t help but print myself one and frame it up! It’s sitting on my kitchen counter waiting for me to figure out a good place for it. 🙂 I couldn’t stop there, though! I’ve also added it to my Etsy shop so you can have a copy too!

My sign reads, “Welcome to our Carrot Patch”, but my sister lives alone, so that isn’t going to work for her. Hers says ,”Welcome to my Carrot Patch.”

Carrot Patch Sign | mamasbrush
Farmhouse decor for your homestead, farm or garden loving spring home. Gift to garden lovers or for Easter!

I designed this sign both ways, so, whether you need this sign in your family home or want to use it in your own space, I’ve got you covered! This sign would be great framed as an 8×10 or 5×7 on an entry table or in a dorm room, or framed as an 11×14 on the mantle in your living room. You can also choose to print the pdf of the 8.5×11 size to put in the front cover of your homestead, household, or school notebook!

How would you use it?

Discount time… As always, during this first week in the shop, I want you to have 33% off if you would like to buy one of these Carrot Patch Signs for your home. Enter coupon code CARROTS33 at checkout, or just follow one of these links to have it automatically taken during these first 7 days!

If you like my Carrot Patch, would you please consider pinning the image below to help me spread the word. 🙂 Thanks for your support!!

You can find me gathering here.

Flower Pot Note Pad

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I would be using my flower pots design for the upcoming women’s retreat. (That retreat is this weekend, by the way and the main reason I haven’t posted this week.) At the time, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, and in reality, I expected to do more, but other projects took over.

In the end, I decided to make this Flower Pot Note Pad with them. It wasn’t practical to make a note pad for each of the 50-something ladies who are planning to join us, but I could include one in each of the gift baskets (pots, really) I’m putting together for the door prize. So that’s what I did.

I basically followed these direction for making the notepad, though, if I’d done it exactly this way (I did last time), it would have worked even better. One difference… I couldn’t find my padding compound. We looked everywhere I can think of. Nothing. I read somewhere that Modge Podge works too, so I tried it. (We always have lots of that around.) And it worked!

If you like my Flower Pot Note Pad, would you please pin the image below or share it on other social media!

You can find me gathering here.