budget – mamasbrush

Customize your Rae Dunn for Valentine’s Day

I got my very first piece of Rae Dunn pottery for Christmas this year. I’ve been looking at how to DIY Rae Dunn type things for a while and pinning everything Rae Dunn before that, but now I have one. Trouble is, what can I do with one piece?

I got the “faith” mug. Isn’t it cute??? But when I think Rae Dunn, I think of all the ways I can use it to decorate seasonally. And don’t you need a dozen or more pieces to be able to do that? Actually, no. You don’t!

Last month I shared with you how I used my one Rae Dunn mug in a winter vignette. When February was approaching, though, I took some pictures of the process for you. (Just meant to share them earlier in the month!)

In the pictures above, you see the word “Faith” on the right. It’s a great word, but I was looking for something else for Valentine’s decor. The left picture shows you something else… a blank canvas!

Customize your Rae Dunn | mamasbrush #RaeDunn #mug #diy #tutorial #decor #valentine'sday

So I grabbed some masking tape and my water based Sharpie paint pen and got to work. (***Note: water based will wash off, oil based may not. Make sure you have the water based paint pen!!!) You could measure, but I just eye-balled the taping to get mostly strait and just far enough apart.

Then I used my most Rae Dunn like writing (notice it isn’t the exact same, but it’s good enough for me) and wrote “kiss me” on the cup. If you mess up, just get a paper towel damp and clean it off to start over.

I did notice that it bled when the paint pen touched the tape, so I tried to be careful not to get so close the second time. But even then, I just folded up a paper towel, dipped it in a bit of water and cleaned up the edges after pulling the tape off.

And I was done (or should I say “Dunn”?) Not sure yet what it will say with spring around the corner, but you can be sure it will be something.

Okay, so I wasn’t completely done…

While I still had my supplies out and was still itching to decorate (I don’t have much Valentine stuff) I pulled out a couple of my little white bowls. I stuck a piece of masking tape around the bottom to give me a straight line and I added words to them too.

They make me smile! 🙂

Gathering here.

Panda Party on a Budget

When I found out that pandas were going to be my theme for this family party, I was super excited. There is so much cute stuff out there for pandas. This is my take on it.

We had the pleasure to throw a family birthday party for a girl we consider part of our family. She’s one of ours and her mom’s okay with that. They always join us Sunday evenings for our family movie night, but tonight, we added in a surprise birthday party for this newly 13 year old.

Now, for those of you who have been around a while, or who have looked through some of my other parties, you know that we do parties a little differently. I have 6 kids, with my mom and sister joining us, already, we are 10 people! So we don’t do guest lists and I try to keep things pretty simple in the way of activities. We do food, decorations, presents and cake (or pie or whatever the birthday person requests). We also don’t do expensive. I do 6-8 parties a year. I can’t do that times $100+. I just can’t! All I bought for this party was some Pirouette Wafer cookies and paper plates and cups. Everything else was done with what I already had or free printables.

So… pandas. I found some really cute ideas on Pinterest (see my Panda party board here!)

Panda Party on a Budget | mamasbrush #panda #party #birthday #bamboo # China #decor #decorations #black #white

Crafty Pammy has this really great free printable panda craft that I cut out and did with my older boys. Mine is on the bottom. They came up with the idea of actually having the pandas eating bamboo. In another party setting, this would have been a fun craft to let your little guests do, but since my birthday girl was 13, I just used them for decorations.

My pinspiration for the bamboo came from Super Festa Infantil where they have all sorts of panda party ideas. It looks like theirs is pre-printed or something, but I just cut green construction paper into 3 inch strips and then trimmed them up to have the little details at the ends of the segments. Then I taped them to the wall (with special wall tape my father-in-law picked up for me) on top of each other and added stems and leaves. The stems are actually scraps from cutting those out. Then tuck in the pandas and we were all set.

And of course my chalkboard made an appearance. I was just going to do the bamboo since I was running out of time, but at the last minute I fit in a little panda. I just love him!

Cupcakes - Panda Party on a Budget | mamasbrush #panda #party #birthday #bamboo # China #cupcakes #black #white

The cupcakes were inspired by this adorable cake.

Cups - Panda Party on a Budget | mamasbrush #panda #party #birthday #bamboo # China #cups #black #white

And I got the cup idea here. Those are for sale, but a sharpie and white party cups got the job done for me. 🙂

Done miss the other ideas I didn’t use over at my Pinterest Board! And don’t forget to…

Panda Party on a Budget | mamasbrush #panda #party #birthday #bamboo # China #chalkboard #black #white

Gathering here.

Kitty Cat Birthday Party Theme on a Budget

The other day I shared a how to on making a Kitty Cat Cake, but today I want to share the rest of the party. When I say “party”, please know that it’s nothing big. It’s just us (we are 10 people when my mom and sister join us, so we are a party already!) And the budget isn’t big either. This whole thing took a shopping trip and an afternoon to put together. Not too bad. And with more help, it could have been even faster. (My sweet husband did blow up all the balloons for me… that was a huge time saver!

**UPDATE: You can find my new
Kitty Cat Party Pack
on my Etsy shop here!**

I’ll be linking to my Pinspirations throughout the post, but you can find a bunch of Kitty Cat themed ideas (ones I used and ones I didn’t) on my Kitty Cat Party Board. I would have done more if the week weren’t so crazy already.

Kitty Cat Chalkboard - Kitty Cat Birthday Party Theme on a Budget — Pink and grey balloon “ears” on top are a good example of how things don’t always work out but kids like it anyway. 🙂

I didn’t have a lot of time for the chalkboard this time, but she thought it was the best board ever because it had a kitty face on it. (Another perfect example of how things don’t have to be purrr-fect for them to love it.)

Kitty Cat Nose and Whiskers on Balloons and Tableware - Kitty Cat Birthday Party Theme on a Budget

I found the idea for the Kitty Balloons at Best Friends for Frosting. Looking at them just now, I realized I forgot the ears, but they were still really cute and no one missed them. Hers may have been cuter, but no one here noticed. 🙂 The cups were Martha Stewart inspired, and again, not exactly the way I did it. Hers had eyes. The plates were inspired by a cat party from Writing about the Journey. Jump on over there to see more of their ideas!

Kitty Cat Pizza - Kitty Cat Birthday Party Theme on a Budget

When she told me she wanted “Mama Made Pizza” for her birthday dinner, I was very excited. Full sized kitty pizzas jumped into my brain. I did some “research” and found Pinspiration in a Cat party by My Paper Crane. (Her cake was a litter box cake… you have to see it!) But I think the mini Kitty Cat Pizzas I pinned were just as cute.

Easy Kitty Cat Cake from a Box Mix and Standard Pans

And then there is my Kitty Cat Cake (Don’t miss the how to I posted earlier this week!)