Easter

It's been a very full and happy Easter weekend here. Yesterday friends came over and hunted eggs and there was lots of yummy food. I still love egg hunts. I don't hunt, of course, but still...

Something that really makes me sad, though, is a child with an empty basket while others are brimming over. I just couldn't let it happen. Here I sat, just a couple of days ago, Googling 'how to make Easter egg hunt fair'. Seriously. When all else fails, Google it! I did find some good suggestions but didn't feel like they applied to our hunt. Like, give each child a color. But we had wet felt eggs, real hollowed eggs and the sewn felt ones I made. So, since I knew exactly how many children there would be I made six nests of like eggs (jelly beans together, lavender necklaces together) and the girls (most of my friends have girls) all worked together to find the nests. Of course, this means I had to make them a little harder to find than I normally do. It worked out really well!







More Easter crafting, The little felted duck pond and rabbit were for Kaiya and Zoe's baskets and the birds nest for our nature table. I used this pattern for the eggs.

I made six of these little babes in their wool cradle for the egg hunt. I got the idea from here. I'm not even close to being talented with needle felting so, while I normally prefer no face, I thought they might not be able to tell they're babies (they still look like owls) so they got eyes and mouths.

And these beautiful rabbits were made by Lucinda. I love these!



Happy Easter to you all who celebrate and happy Spring!


PS Here is the giveaway winner this week;

Elizabeth

Congratulations! I will contact you in just two shakes of a lamb's tail and you have through 4//10 to get back with me.

Eggs

Today we painted watercolor eggs, tonight I filled them and tomorrow the little ones and a couple of friends will hunt (and smash!) them. Have a wonderful Easter weekend, friends!

Flower and Leaf Decoupaged Eggs AND Real Fillable Easter Eggs

The girls and I have been egg crazy this week. Have I mentioned how much I love Easter? Well, I have sworn against using any plastic eggs this year and am looking for some neat alternatives. I've sewn some from wool felt , made others by wet felting wool and many I have made from real eggs. Those are kinda my favorites and I'm going to share with you how I made them.

All the eggs we've used we ate for breakfast.... so, needless to say, we're getting a little sick of eggs for breakfast! Take your clean egg and a very sharp pair of scissors. I use my very sharp tipped Fiskars. Slowly 'drill' a tiny hole in the top of the egg with the scissor point. Once you're through, cut right through the egg and take enough off the top to fit a little goodie through the hole. You can clean up the edges by gently chipping away til it's fairly neat (not really a concern as it'll be covered later). Make sure you get all the chipped shell off the white before dumping your egg into a bowl for eating. Now clean out your shell and let it dry.

Alternately, this is also a great way to make panoramic eggs. Just do this to the front of the egg instead of the top, as below. To see how to finish these up without the decoupage, skip down toward the bottom.

Now for the decoupage part. Of course, you can decorate your eggs any way you want. We also dyed some with food and plants and are going to do more this way (just fill them with water so they stay under the dye bath) but the girls and I used some of the lovely flowers and weeds they're always picking to dress some of them up a bit. All you'll need is;
eggs
flowers and leaves, clovers, etc..., preferably ones that can be flattened
Modge Podge
paint brushes

Choose your flowers, remove any stem or backing and flatten them the best you can. Don't worry of they're not perfectly flat against the egg, the Modge Podge will hold them down anyway. Brush some of the Modge Podge directly on the egg where you want to place the flower, lay it down over the glue and then put another generous layer over that. Now, you may be tempted to just coat the whole egg. But I prefer not to so that the egg really cracks and opens. And don't worry about the white glue.. Modge Podge dries clear.







Lay them somewhere to dry. I prefer to use a glass or ceramic plate to a more porous egg carton to which I'm afraid it would stick as it drys. Let them dry thoroughly, preferably over night.

OK, now to the fillable eggs. You've got the top off and decorated and dried your eggs. From here you will need tissue paper cut just a little bigger than the egg opening and glue (gel glue, school glue, craft glue... whatever).

Don't forget to stuff it with your treats before sealing it!

Apply a thin line of glue all around the edge of the hole and press the tissue square over it. Trim away any excess.





Just for fun, use an ugly egg to try it for yourself! It's quite satisfying to crack an egg and find a treat inside. But I also love to unwrap gifts I've just wrapped up, just to rip the paper off.

Now on Easter hide them all over the yard. I can't wait for the girls to open ours!

Still Easter Crafting

I made a Blossom Fairy last night, finished her with the hair and crown this morning. Isn't she precious?! I used this great tutorial from Echoes of a Dream. I'm planning to hang her from some branches in the Easter garden I hope we'll have time to make. Her dress is from a piece of white wool felt that I painted with watercolors. After doing the same with the puppet I made I just had to try it on some felt. Now, true, this wouldn't hold up for anything that needed to be washed like the felt appliqued shirts I made for Zoe's birthday, but for toys and nature table things like this I think it will hold up just fine.





And in case you missed the tutorial I shared yesterday on the Natural Kids blog, here are some lavender filled necklaces I made for the girls. These whip up so fast and they're going to fit perfectly in our Easter eggs.




OK, show me your Easter crafts! I want to see what everyone is doing!

Easter Swap Wrap Up and a Giveaway Winner

The Easter Swap was a great success and I'm ready to show you all the goodies! I'm so excited to fill the girls' baskets and eggs this year.
First up, what I made. You may or may not have noticed these little fluff tailed finger puppets in my shop, but I actually made them up first for the swap (you can see the tail in the link). Three different colors, tan, oatmeal and white. These were so fun, I think I'll make some for the girls, too. And the eggs made just like the ones I showed you last week.



I also stuck in a little poem that I printed onto paper I had water colored.

And here is what I got in return! Everyone sent one egg plus one little something. We have gnomes, finger puppets, bunnies, beeswax impressions... So much goodness here!





So, thank you, thank you, ladies! This was so much fun and we'll definitely be doing it again.

And, of course, a winner for The Enchanted Cupboard giveaway....

Marin

Congratulations! I've already contacted you and you have 48 hours to get back with me.

Don't forget! The Tiptoes Lightly 2 book giveaway is still on til tomorrow. Soo enter now if you haven't!

Easter Crafting

My fingers have been busy, busy lately, getting little things ready for the girls' Easter baskets. I have made a bunch of these felt eggs. I got the inspiration from Rachel's tutorial over on the Clean blog. Originally I had intended to use felt pieces to decorate them like she had done but here's what happened to that; I took them with me one evening while I waited solo ( I usually have dinner with my mom) during Kaiya's ballet class. I had all the pieces cut out, pinned together and placed them, along with my needles and scissors, in my embroidery floss box. All ready! Then I got there and realized I totally forgot to bring the extra felt. Bummer! Thought about cutting up a couple to use til I got home (gotta do something for an hour) but then I (brilliantly (smug, smug)) thought I would just use my crazy awesome embroidery skills to decorate them. Seriously, I am so good I can not only do the running stitch (yes, it's a stitch, mama!) I can do an extremely pained french knot (that is really just wadded up and tied down thread).

But what I lack in embroidery skills I make up in ingenuity! When my mama did see my 'french knots' she laughed and laughed and decided to show me how to make them proper. And then I went a little nuts and am using them like crazy on another Easter work in progress. They're kinda fun once you get the hang of it!

Blowing out eggs for decorating... these were a little fun, too, as I challenged myself to get the yolk out with making the smallest possible holes.

Are you Easter/Spring crafting? I'd love to hear what you're doing. By the way, here are lots of Easter songs, just because I've got the Easter spirit!

PS
Have you entered this week's giveaway? Meet me back here tomorrow for an extra giveaway!

A New Spring Pattern and a Giveaway Winner

Happy Sunday, everyone! It's beginning to look a lot like spring around here and I am really loving it. Just yesterday a couple of trees in the yard started blooming and today will find me out in the garden just as soon as River wakes from her nap. Til then, I've come with a giveaway winner for you....

Elisa

Congratulations! I've contacted you already and you have 48 hours to get back with me.




I also wanted to introduce a brand new This Cosy Life Pattern. Just in time for making little things for Easter and spring Equinox baskets, here is one pattern for making 3 simple spring themed peg dolls. Now, please note, this pattern includes instructions to make a carrot, flower and rabbit peg. It does not include instructions for the accessories, such as the soil in the basket and basket of carrots with the rabbit. These will come at a later time in an accessory options pattern.

$6

In Pictures

Happy Easter!