Women’s Retreat – mamasbrush

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.

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.

Mountain Lodge Theme Hand Lettered Artwork

Updated 9/2023: I created these Mountain Lodge prints several years ago for our church’s “Cozy Mountain Lodge” women’s retreat. I used them in the centerpieces and gave them away at the end of the event via raffle. This last week I’ve had the opportunity to update them. I’ve learned much over the years about how to digitize my artwork and have some fancier software as well. It was time to “remaster” the original prints and, while I was at it, I made it possible to customize the verses to use your preferred version.

I’m so excited to be able to do this. Version differences, not to mention copyright limitations, have made it difficult to make and share artwork with Bible verses on them. I’m excited to see where this will lead, but for now these Mountain Lodge Prints are available in my shop! Use them at home, as a gift or for church events and activities. I used them as event decor; another lady is using them as a retreat craft. How will you use them?

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.

Get Away to the Mountains – Women’s Retreat Decor

Another in the line up of women’s retreat decor. I love the play on words that this one holds. It sound so rude, doesn’t it. Get Away! Like it’s being yelled. But then, too, it has the “get away to the mountains” feel to it. But my favorite is the verse at the bottom:

“Jesus went out to the mountain to pray.”
Luke 6:12

One of the things I am most looking forward to about this women’s retreat is the chance to “Get Away”. There are 6 little people at home with me all day, every day. And I love them. And I love that we are here every day together. But… I love a chance to get alone with God and spend some real, uninterrupted time with him.

And that is what I hope this piece reminds the ladies of. To take some time away from sessions and games and fellowship and just get away by themselves in much the same way that Jesus did here.

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.

First I Drink the Coffee – Hand lettered quote

First I Drink the Coffee -- Hand Lettering

This is the last painting/ hand lettered piece for our cafe themed centerpieces. I am making centerpieces for 8 tables for the Women’s Retreat at out church and each one has a different framed art.

“First I drink the coffee, then I do the things.”

I saw this quote on Pinterest and couldn’t not make one. It’s too funny. I want to make a note pad with it (I found a tutorial for how to do that)… it’s on my list of things to make this year. I just think it lends itself to a “to do” list. What do you think?

Painted and hand lettered on 140 lb. watercolor paper with watercolor and ink.

Count your Blessings – Watercolor Coffee Bean Illustration

Count your Blessings Watercolor Coffee Beans

Have I mentioned yet that I don’t like coffee? It’s true. I don’t even like the smell… something my husband thinks is crazy. “People who don’t like coffee at least like the smell,” he told me one day several months ago.

Not me.

So I don’t, personally, think of coffee beans as blessings. But I know there are a lot of people out there who do. Every cup of coffee… every coffee bean is a blessing. This one is for you.

I’ve got a lot of coffee going on lately. As it turns out, I love illustrating coffee. It’s been a super fun personal project. As long as I can sip on my tea while I paint. 🙂

Original ink and watercolor illustration on 140 lb. watercolor paper.

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Cupcakes – Watercolor Illustration

This illustration is more on the “sweet” side than the cafe side. But who doesn’t like something sweet with their coffee?

It’s not the color scheme of the first set I tried to make. I am pretty happy with the way these turned out, but I do like other colors better. I’m sure that means I’ll be attempting cupcakes again in the future, but, for now, I am tied to a certain color scheme by the fabric (the one in these images and one other) that will be part of the centerpieces at the retreat.

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“Bear with one another in love” – Hand Lettered Watercolor Illustration

"Bear with one another in love" Hand lettered Ephesians 4:2 with illustrated Coffee cup

I began this concept as a tiny drawing in my sketch pad. I was sick with fever a couple weeks ago… sick enough that my husband stayed home from work to take care of me and all my responsibilities (there are 6 of them ranging from 2-11).

After breakfast I made my move from the table to the recliner, but on my way I grabbed a pencil and my sketch pad. I rarely have time to just sketch and play with ideas these days, and it was a delightful treat to have nothing else I was required (or capable of, I might add) to do but sit there and doodle (with my also sick 4 year old cuddling with me, of course.)

A couple of days ago, that little doodle made it’s way onto graph paper, and then finally to watercolor paper where the daunting job of adding color in a way that doesn’t mess up the whole thing awaited me. A night or two later and I was looking for just the right way to finish it off.

And there it is… “bear with one another in love.” Ephesians 4:2

Original artwork in watercolor and artist pen on 140 lb. cold pressed watercolor paper.

Today Needs a Whole Latte Prayer – hand lettering

"Today needs more coffee and a whole latte prayer" hand lettered illustration

This piece has been grown and tweaked over the last few months. Just when I thought I knew how I wanted it or what I was going to do, something wouldn’t fit and I’d have to rework it.

I originally planned to do it on watercolor paper and use a wash for a more colorful background, but as I worked with the piece and saw holes where I wanted to add more visual interest, I decided instead on the little icon drawings. Those seemed to lend themselves more to colored pencils (another media I had on hand).

In the end, I am pleased with the simple look and clean lines of the black and white with just a couple pops of color. The piece was hand lettered in artist marker on card stock. The images were colored with colored pencil.

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