Pearly Easter Eggs

A Basket of Pretty!

These simple to make yet elegant Easter egg decorations are my Mom's crafty genius. She was flattered to be featured on my blog, apparently she doesn't know much about my blog or the fact that it's sadly lacking an audience...Anyway! I'm not really sure if I will ever reach my Mom's level of creative ingenuity but I'm working on it.



You'll Need-

• Styrofoam eggs
• Small plastic pearls by the yard (spool) in different colors
• Craft glue (I used Aleene's )
  
• Scissors
  
• Patience!

Steps:
As you can probably tell in the pictures the process is pretty easy, but patience is key with this project!

1. Using your finger (or a sponge) spread a generous amount of craft glue on the top half of the Styrofoam
egg.

2. With the plastic pearls still on their spool unwind just enough to start the top half. Keeping the pearls on the spool makes it easier to wind the pearls around the egg. Starting at the very tip top of the egg begin coiling the pearls around and holding them to the egg to ensure they stick to the glue.

3. After you have the top half done cut the pearl strand and glue the end down to the egg. I recommend letting that half dry for a while before staring the bottom half. Then grab your other color of pearls and begin applying glue and pearls as in the last two steps. When you get to the bottom of the egg cut the strand from the spool and glue the end down.

4. Let these eggs dry at least overnight before displaying

Happy Easter everyone!

A pencil holder that brings the outdoors in...

If you are like me you can barely wait for Spring, maybe that's why I came up with this outdoors themed pencil/stuff holder, this is a great kids craft! Thanks to my Mom for help on this one, she's such a creative lady!

You'll need-

• -One tin can (washed, and with the label and any sharp edges removed)
• -A package of plain wooden Popsicle sticks
• -Acrylic paint in your choice of color, I chose purple.
• -Paint brush
• - Foil glue and green foil sheets (found at most craft stores, or online.)
• -Craft glue
• -Bugs and Butterflies of your choice. Pictured below are feather butterfly found at Micheal's craft store, and vintage tin bug pins from SilverCrow Creations.com )

I took an ordinary sized soup can, removed the label, washed it out thoroughly and made sure there were no sharp edges left. Then using a good slathering of craft glue on the can I began placing the unpainted Popsicle sticks on the can, as close as I could get them to each other. I then let it dry overnight. I chose to paint my sticks with Acrylic paint in a light shade of purple, you of course can chose to paint yours whatever color tickles your fancy. After painting I let it dry overnight again. I thought about just using green paint and painting some grass on the bottom but my Mom came up with the idea of using green foil sheets and foil glue, I was curious how it would turn out so I gave it a shot. You can't really tell in these pictures, because my camera is not the best, but the grass is very iridescent.
Next, using a special glue just for foiling, I put the glue over the Popsicle sticks in very organic lines, to resemble grass. Then after letting the glue dry for a little while I followed the directions on the package of green foil sheets. I placed a sheet over the glue, and using a Popsicle stick I began pressing the foil onto the glue to adhere it. It's pretty simple, all the directions are on the package. I loved the results!

Last but certainly not least, I glued a few lovely tin bug pins onto the Popsicle sticks with some craft glue, I had to hold them on for a little while until the glue was tacky enough to hold them by itself. These tin bugs are little pins, but you can easily cut the pin backing off if you find them easier to work with that way. I also considered gluing a feather butterfly on as well, it seemed more girly, but I'm a girl who likes her bugs! Next time I do one I'll do a butterfly. If you make this project with your kids, I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did!