It’s not too late to make some Easter decorations. Easter has come about so quickly, but these projects are family friendly and mostly require materials you already have or can easily get. The projects I’ve featured here were very quick, very inexpensive and took little preparation. Each activity, except the shrink wrapped eggs, could be done by a school aged child under supervision.
The first easy project is MARBLED EGGS. Begin by boiling your eggs. While they are cooling cover your work area with plastic ( I re-used an old shopping bag). Half fill a bowl with water so you can submerge the eggs, gather some nail polish ( I used orange and grey) and put on rubber gloves.
Drizzle a small amount of both colours on the water and swirl with a toothpick, drop an egg into the water and gentle roll to cover with the marble.Repeat. The almost totally grey egg shows what happens if you pour in too much nail polish!
Leave them on the plastic to dry.
Pretty MARBLED EGGS. I used free range eggs which have very orange coloured shells, colours will look different on whiter eggs.
The second egg project is SPECKLED EGGS. After your boiled eggs are cool, pour some water into a bowl and add a good squirt of blue food dye and about a quarter of a cup of white vinegar. Dip the eggs into the dye and leave five minutes, stirring occasionally to create an even blue coverage.
I used an old shopping bag to cover my work surface and also wore rubber gloves. Remove the eggs and leave them to dry, then “speckled” by flicking brown paint (I used Winsor and Newton Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna diluted water colour paint and a number 4 paintbrush) onto the blue surface, tilting slightly to speckle the sides.
Again, I used free range eggs which have an orange shell, white egg shells would look bluer.
The last very easy egg project is SHRINK WRAPPED EGGS which involves covering boiled eggs with bought shrink wrappers. (I bought these on EBay)
Separate the wrappers, then slip them over boiled eggs, then, using a dessert spoon, immerse the eggs one at a time, in a pot of boiling water. Hold for 3 – 4 seconds and then leave to cool, while you start the next one. So easy, so pretty.
* I use Martha Stewart’s method for boiling eggs. Heat immersed eggs in one layer in a pot of water until boiling, let boil one minute then turn off the heat and leave in the hot water for 13 minutes before straining and leaving to cool. Perfect boiled eggs!
Quick, free and gorgeous, PAINT COLOUR EGG BUNTING. The day before you make the bunting, collect two of each colour paint sample card you’re going to use, glue them back to back and leave under something heavy (I used a big book) Cut out an oval, egg shaped template and trace two eggs onto each of your colour samples.
Punch holes with a leather punch or similar and knot them onto string or ribbon. I knotted these close together so I could hang them around a cake serving plate.
Today is Licorice Day. Isn’t that wonderful? Licorice is a plant extract used in confectionery, medicines and alcohol. Love licorice.