New Easter Crafts 2018
Hi folks! Easter is tomorrow and I wanted to share with you some crafts I made for this wonderful event! Last year around this time, I made a few Easter crafts as well: a tray covered in moss and filled with eggs and little chickies; several decorated bottles; and a little wire basket filled with shredded paper, tulle, and faux hydrangeas. Some of those crafts were given away when we played an impromptu game of “pick a number out of a hat” and each person was able to win a “prize”.
This year we’re a bit more organized and my brother and sister-in-law will be bringing their Bingo game so whoever wins at Bingo will win some crafts I’ve made this year.
Now, I didn’t film or take photos of every step in the crafting process, so I’m just posting what I have. But everything is so easy to make and pretty self-explanatory. If you make any of these crafts, do let me know!
“The Big Project”
So one day I was browsing through my emails when I came across this image:
Cute, right? It was an email from Hobby Lobby and to get a better glimpse of the item, I went to their website. I thought, “I would love to make something like this! But how?” So I thought and I thought. How on Earth would I be able to make an egg like this? Hmmm… paper mache! Paper mache? I don’t remember how to make paper mache. I only remembered it involved newspaper. So I went to my trusty YouTube and looked up how to make anything with paper mache. And I found one using household items I had on hand: water and glue.
Paper Mache Recipe:
Equal parts water and glue, in separate bowls.
I decided I would make my egg using a blown up balloon. I kid you not, all I had to do was look down at my floor and there was a blown up balloon! My kids LOVE balloons and they routinely ask their dad to blow them up for them. I didn’t have newspaper so I decided I would use scrap paper. Same concept, right? Newspaper is paper.
The first layer of paper
I cut up my paper into strips and then I dipped them into the water to get them saturated and then after dunking into the glue and removing the excess, I strategically placed them onto the egg, first vertically, then horizontally, alternating with each new layer. Afterward I had about 5-6 layers when I was done. I wanted a sturdy egg!
Then it was time to play the waiting game. It’s recommended to wait 24 hours for your paper mache to dry, but upon checking I realized this big egg would take longer to dry. Also, be sure to keep it out of reach of your little ones. My kids were so intrigued by this huge egg! They’ll definitely want to poke it to see if it cracks, hahaha!
While my egg dried, I worked on the rest of the project.
I started on the stick to hold up the flowers on top. I basically took a pack of wood dowels from Dollar Tree and glued three together in the form of a trio. I did this three times, then I glued the trio on top of each other. So in total, I used 9 wooden dowels.
To glue them I used my hot glue gun. Then I grabbed my Cricut brand green glitter washi tape and I covered the dowels with it. I needed to cover up the ridges and the dowels. We really needed a stem-like look to this!
After my paper mache egg fully dried, I spray painted it gold. Using my X-acto knife I carefully cut out the top creating a cracked egg look. Then I filled the inside with some marbles to create some weight so it would be heavy and stand upright. I also placed it on top of a basket filled with green shredded paper. Then I filled the egg with green moss. Everything was coming along so nicely. Now this topiary isn’t an exact replica of the Hobby Lobby one, it’s just inspired by it. That egg is off-white. I really wanted my egg to be golden.
Next up: the flowers!
I decided I wanted my floral foam to have flowers on it as opposed to just leaves like the Hobby Lobby one. So I used a floral foam from Dollar Tree and some Floral Moss (I love its green, vibrant color as opposed to the dull color of the spanish moss one!) and using my glue gun, I began to glue the floral moss onto the foam.
You have to be very careful when you do this so as not to get burned. I forgot to use my silicone finger protectors at first and paid the price! Ouch!
Also, I would recommend using a round floral foam, not a square one, but it was the one I had on hand. When I went to look for a round one at Dollar Tree, I couldn’t find one.
After the floral moss was glued on, I started gluing my yellow carnations. I used about 6 bunches of yellow carnations, each bunch has 6 flowers. These were also from Dollar Tree.
Next: the eggs!
For the eggs, I bought two packs of 6 eggs from Dollar Tree. These are the big ones. I painted them with white acrylic first before painting them with gold acrylic paint. I did this because the gold paint wasn’t opaque enough and you couldn’t see it on the eggs. Once I primed them with the white paint and then painted them gold, they came out beautifully and exactly the color I wanted. Then I painted my giant egg again with this gold acrylic paint using a dabbing motion to give the egg a texture different from what the paper gave it. I was trying to hide those dreadful lines from the paper. I feel like if I had used newspaper, the lines wouldn’t have been so prominent.
Once my eggs dried it was time to glue them onto the floral foam and I placed “fallen” ones inside the giant egg!
I really love the outcome of this project!
A hatching easter egg sprouting golden eggs topiary inspired by Hobby Lobby
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Two Wreaths
This year, I decided I wanted to make two wreaths.
Here’s the first one:
I didn’t take any pictures of the process, but it was so easy to make! I grabbed a pool noodle from Dollar Tree, bent it into a circle, and secured it with tape. Then I painted it a brownish color with acrylic paint. Once that dried I covered a third of it with burlap, then I alternated with some glitter ribbon from Dollar Tree in purple, blue, and pink. Then I glued on some leaves, white carnations, and added some bling for the finishing touch and voila!
Here’s the second one:
For this wreath, I used a wire wreath form from Dollar Tree and painted it white. Then I used different tulle in pastely colors and using a tying motion, tied them to the wreath form. I don’t know how many pieces I used, but I would say over 300 pieces! This took me about 2-3 days to finish!
After I finished adding the tulle, I glued on some eggs throughout the front. Then using my Cricut I cut out some banner flags and letters!
I added adhesive to the back of the letters using my Xyron create-a-sticker. And then placed the letters onto the flags and the flags onto some twine and adhered that to the wreath and done! Here it is again, front and back!
A Vase
For this vase I painted it gold, added twine to the top, some embellishments and done!
Here it is with some flowers!
Three Glass Bottles
Next up, similar to the vase, I took three glass bottles of different heights and figures, and painted them varying degress of purple. Then I embellished them with bling and twine and flowers!
A Little Easter Egg Scene
My last project was a little easter egg scene. I grabbed a faux wooden box from my son’s play room, this one had some dinosaur magnets in them. And I painted it lavendar. Then I added some white shredded paper from Dollar Tree. Then I added some glittery eggs and some tiny chickies. I added some bling to the outside and embellishments and done!
And those are my crafts for this year! I will be laying all of these out on our backyard table for Easter lunch and then they’ll be raffled off as prizes for the Bingo winners!
Until next time!
Jackie
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New Easter Crafts 2018 is a post that first appeared on the website: Baby Henry Likes on March 31, 2018.