Easter Eggs! Natural Looking Eggs!

I wanted to make some eggs that looked more like real eggs, spotted eggs.

Warning: these are not as easy to make as the eggs in the two previous posts, but still very do-able.

And I love love love they way they look!

Supplies:

Multi-color Textured Spray Paint (I used Rust-oleum Caribbean Sand)

Plastic eggs

Matte Mod Podge

Container to mix Mod Podge

Food Color (green, blue or both)

Paint brush (not shown)

Brown or gold paint

Old tooth brush (shown below)

The textured spray paint that I used knocked the plastic eggs all over the place. Oh my! I finally found a box to corral them and painted away. This takes some time. Oh, I used two cans of paint for a dozen eggs. Not an inexpensive project if you are on a budget. Next I mixed a drop of blue food color into a small amount of Mod Podge and painted a few eggs with it. Then I mixed in a drop of green food color into the blue mix, making an aqua color and painted more eggs. Now I had three slightly different colored eggs. 

Ready to put spots on them. I used some gold paint and some brown paint (not shown). Wet the toothbrush with water and dip into the paint, then take your finger and bend the loaded bristles, aim at the eggs and let go. Spots. Let them dry and do the other side.

Hope you make some!

Easter Eggs! Second - Antiqued Foil Wrapped Eggs!

Oh so easy foil wrapped eggs. You most likely have all that is needed on hand.

All you need is a little sheet of crumpled foil, eggs, glue and black paint or shoe polish. 

You can use whatever kind of glue you have on hand - I used Elmer's school glue. Plastic eggs were my choice, mainly because I doubt that I could blow out a real egg when I can't even blow-up a balloon! Tear a piece of foil and glue to the egg.Continue tearing and gluing until the egg is completely covered. Let it dry over night or at least 12 hours. Rub some black paint on the foil then wipe most of it off using a paper towel. Let dry. Tah dah!

Next time I may try some brown or gold paint to see how that looks.

Easter Eggs! First - Découpage Eggs!

All sorts of Easter Eggs...I'm sure you will find eggactly what you want, LOL. This will be the first of three Easter egg posts.

I started with inexpensive colored plastic eggs, the ones that come apart to fill with treats, because that is what I had on hand. 

Supplies needed:
Plastic eggs
Bamboo skewers
Scissors or garden clippers 
Emmry board
Mod Podge gloss (or use Elmers school glue and water it down  - half glue, half water then mix well)
Paper napkins (I found mine at the Dollar Store)
Scotch Brite
Matte white spray paint

First, cut off the little tab that holds the two sides of the egg together. Push the egg together and then sand off the rest of the tab using the emery board. Then rough-up the entire egg using the Scotch Brite. Stick the egg on a skewer and you are ready to paint it. After painting I stuck mine in some old Styrofoam to hold it upright while drying.

Or you can skip this step and use:

I found these Decorating Easter Eggs at Walmart...much later! Duh! Would have made this project so much easier!

Now take the napkins (or you could use tissue paper) and separate the layers of the napkins using only the top printed layer. Just cut-out or tear random pieces of paper and stick on the egg using a little Mod Podge to make it stick. Then use more Mod Podge to smooth it down. With this paper I like to use the writing as the background then cut-out little motifs to add last or not.

Let dry and coat again with the Mod Podge.

Aren't they great? They look so fragile, but don't break!

These have been all over the internet for years...finding the right paper makes them yours.

Bunny Tea Pot

Getting ready for Easter? There are a lot of bunnies popping up around here. This one just makes me smile...

 And here is the top -

All you need are a few felt tip markers in Easter colors. Have fun being creative!

Spring Wreath

Yeah! Today is the first day of Spring! And to welcome the season I have an easy Spring Wreath for you to make. 

It was made with items that I already had on hand...so more or less for free.

I purchased the tulips several years ago from the dollar store. I think that I bought eight bunches at a dollar each, then snipped them apart using some old tin snips.The grapevine wreaths I've had for about ten years...and keep changing them to suit my mood and season. The ribbon I got at Walmart two years ago at an after Easter sale for just a dollar. There was fifteen feet of ribbon on the roll and I used it all except for about two inches. Shown in the picture below are two pipe cleaners (chenille stems) one for each wreath that I had on hand from another project. Divide the tulips and start weaving them into the grapevine base. I used seven per side, leaving about two inches for the ribbon in between (fourteen for each wreath, twenty-eight total). No glue needed!

Cut the ribbon in two equal pieces.  Make four loops of ribbon to make the bow, then cut the ribbon,  take the rest of that piece and use it for the tails on the bow. Wrap it around the loops (two on each side) and secure in the back with one pipe cleaner. Secure the pipe cleaner to the grapevine wreath. Cut the ends of the tails on the diagonal and tweak the ribbon to show some movement.

Here are the finished wreaths guarded by Tilly my Havanese guard dog. She might lick you to death! So quick and easy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May the road rise up to meet you...
I love St. Pat's day...do you? Maybe I'll eat some potato soup or not. The only day of the year when I'm very Irish and so is this teapot - a little wear'n of the green...

Use a felt tip marker to draw a shamrock or other Irish design (a Celtic Knot?) on a porcelain dish or teapot. Make the design as simple or fancy as you would like. Remove it with a cotton ball dipped in denatured alcohol and you are ready for your next work of art. 

I machine embroidered two kitchen towels this year. The design "Shamrock Bow" ATG2517 is available at Ann the Gran - changed the red bow to a blue-green to go with my kitchen better. These will be used for spring and maybe summer, too.

That is all I did for St. Patrick's Day. Still makes me smile.

Make your pillow shams look more expensive...

Have you ever purchased one of those mini duvet cover sets and been disappointed in the pillow shams? Especially the micro-fiber ones. They have a tendency to droop and look old even when new. If you can sew a straight (or almost straight line) here is a tutorial for an easy fix.

Before...

Now after...

And a side by side comparison. Right sham transformed! 

All that you need to do is add some batting to the inside.

Items needed for this easy fix:
Pillow sham in need of a make-over
Thread to match the pillow sham
Sewing machine
Batting
Scissors
Iron
Ironing board

Here is how:

Start by ripping out the stitching that creates the flange of the sham. Usually about two inches from the edge of the sham.

Rip it out - all the way around the sham. 

Then turn the sham inside out and press. 

Proceed by measureing the size of the sham. Mine was 30 inches by 25 inches. You will need to cut batting to fit whatever size your measurement is.  


Choose your favorite batting...a crib size should be more than enough for two shams. 

Place your cut batting on the inside front of the sham (on top of the front side when it is turned inside out).

Sew around the sham completely, just shy of the stitch line that holds the sham together. I recommend using a larger stitch (basting type). Turn the sham right side out and press just the edge.

Now sew the flange line (the stitch line that you ripped out in the beginning). You should be able to see where the stitches were and sew over the original line. Use a smaller stitch similar to the one you removed. Pop your pillow in and you are done.

Here is the finished project again...