Decorated Hard Boiled Egg
Easter eggs:
1. Boil eggs.
2. Crack shell by tapping it lightly against hard surface. Make sure you do not crack it too hard as desired effect will not happen.
3. Dip in colored water (food color). Keep submerged for twice the time the instructions say to allow the egg to take coloring inside the egg.
4. Peel shell off and serve or serve as they are and let your guests find the surprise inside.
Picture Perfect: Print one-inch-square versions of your favorite snaps on white water-slide inkjet sheets. Spray with three coats of Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic to set the pix, apply trimmed images to dyed or spray-painted eggs, and display the results to your favorite little chicks.
Beat the Bunny to the Punch: Use simple-shaped paper punches to cut forms from painter’s masking tape. Smooth tape pieces onto clean, white eggs, and dye the huevos. Let eggs dry completely and remove tape to reveal lovely white patterns.
It’s a Wrap: Wrap blown eggs in spirals of colorful yarn, trim, ribbon, or rickrack held in place with clear-drying glue or paste.
Pop and Hop: Add 1 or 2 drops of food coloring to separate batches of the sugar syrup from your favorite recipe for popcorn balls, add popped corn, and form into colorfully corny eggs.
Go Natural: Toss two handfuls or more of yellow onion skins into a 4-quart pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer until the color of the water is deep brown. Position small fern fronds or leaves on clean white eggs and hold the greens in place with a rectangle of old pantyhose stretched over the egg and fastened at the back with a wire twist tie. Add 1 cup of white vinegar to the pot and gently place as many wrapped eggs into the kettle as will fit without crowding. If using blown eggs, place a lightly weighted, heat-proof plate on top of the submerged eggs to ensure that they’re completely immersed in the dyeing liquid. Continue to very gently simmer the eggs for at least two hours, or for richest results, overnight. Remove eggs from the pot, allow to cool, and remove the stocking and foliage to reveal leafy imprints surrounded by a deep sepia brown.
Stripes: Rubber bands of varying widths, placed tightly around the egg, will leave strips of the under-color after dyeing.
Wax-Resistant Patterns: Have your kids use a crayon to create desired image on a hard-boiled egg. The wax will repel the dye when you dip it, leaving your design. Mom can then place the dyed, dried eggs on foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet in 250 degree oven for 10 minutes to melt wax. Remove the eggs, then carefully remove residue with paper towels.
Animals: Create a bunny, hen, pig or even the family pet using the egg as the body and adding ears, tail, and so on. Pipe cleaners, yarn, paper cutouts, non-toxic markers and pompons will bring your critters to life.
Stencils: Tape small stencils to the egg and brush or sponge-on some colorful designs.
Shell Games: Use hollowed-out eggshells if you’d like to save your decorations for future use. And don’t let the egg insides go to waste. Enjoy them scrambled and topped with Old El Paso® salsa, add to Betty Crocker® Pound Cake Mix, or freeze them for another use.
Centerpieces: For an eye-catching centerpiece, try layering eggs and Easter grass, lasagna-style, in a wide-mouth glass vase (a large tube or cube works beautifully). Eggstraordinary!
1. Layer 5-by-15-inch sheets of tissue paper, alternating colors. Make 1-inch-wide accordion folds.
2. Wrap 1 end of a pipe cleaner around the center of the folded paper, and twist to secure. Round the edges of the folded paper with scissors.
3. Fan out folds, and gently pull apart each layer of tissue paper to create petals.
Tools and Materials
Crepe Paper Daffodil How-To
1. Download daffodil template, enlarge 200 percent, print, and cut out.
2. With paper clips, secure each element of the template to an appropriate shade of crepe paper, aligning the arrows with the grain of the paper. Cut out with scissors in the quantity indicated and trim top of trumpet piece with pinking shears.
3. To create stem, wrap together three 18-inch pieces of 18-gauge paper-wrapped floral wire with floral tape.
4. To create the bulbous bottom portion of the trumpet, place thumbs and forefingers together in the center of the trumpet piece, 3 inches from the bottom. Applying light pressure and moving outward, pull toward either edge, stretching the crepe paper as you go.
5. Run a bead of Fabri-Tac adhesive down one long edge of the trumpet, and bring edges together to make a cylinder.
6. Fold and pinch bottom of cylinder to top of stem, and secure in place with floral tape.
7. Insert hand into cylinder, and use fingers to shape the base of the trumpet.
8. Stretch pinked edge of trumpet against the grain of the crepe paper, and curl down with fingers.
9. Evenly space three petals around the base of the trumpet and secure in place with floral tape. Repeat with the remaining three petals.
10. With floral tape, attach each leaf to a 15-inch length of 20-gauge plain floral wire. Use more floral tape to secure each leaf to the daffodil stem.
PATTERN:
Mark on the table, or on the floor, if preferred, with chalk, four parallel lines, eight or ten feet long, and four or five inches apart. Thus there are three narrow spaces. At the end of each space make a circle, numbering the middle one 10, and the other two, 5. The middle space is marked 3, and the other two, 1.
The object of the game is to have each child roll five eggs, one at a time, down the middle space to the circles at the ends. If the egg goes into the middle circle, it counts 10, but if it stops in the middle space, it counts only 3, and so on, counting the number of the place where it stops.
Tally is kept for each child, the one scoring the most points wins the game.
Country & Victorian Times 