Easter Egg Decorating Ideas and Tips

 

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!

 

Happy Easter – Coloring Page

Valentines Day Gift Of Gloves

A Valentines Day historical tradition: Just prior to the Elizabethan era, gloves were worn almost exclusively by men. But, by the late 16th century, gloves became a traditional Valentine’s Day gift for women.

In fact, it became custom for a young woman to approach her man of choice and utter the verse  “Good-morrow Valentine, I go today; To wear for you, what you must pay; A pair of gloves next Easter Day.” Having thus been ambushed, the man was expected to send the woman a gift of gloves to wear on Easter Sunday. Sometimes men sent women gloves without an invitation. If the lady wore the gloves on Easter, it was a sign that she favored the gentleman’s romantic overtures.

Sock Toss

Here is a fun game that puts those old sock to good use – especially the ones whose mates have long since disappeared to good use…. and its more than simple to get started. First fill each sock with about a cup of sand or dirt – you will need 3 socks per player. Use rocks to form two 2-foot circles about 10 feet apart each with a single rock in the center. Players take turns at one ring tossing the socks to the other ring. They get 5 points for each sock they land inside the ring, 10 if the sock lands resting against the center rock. First player to fifty wins the game!

Posies Made From Tissue Paper

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.