Pretty Flower Easter Eggs - Pottery Barn Style

While shopping with Beverly, from Flamingo Toes, last week, I found some easter eggs at Pottery Barn covered in little hydrangea blossoms. (sadly I could not find a picture online of the inspiration eggs, so you'll just have to take my word for it)  I love hydrangeas, in fact they are my favorite flower. 
We had them at our wedding in our bouquets, on the cake, and on the tables.

 

My great-grandmother used to grow huge bushes of hydrangeas, and my mom and dad have one of the plants transplanted from her old home. So, I'm really happy that they seem to be "in" right now.  I'm not really sure the silk flowers I used are actually hydrangeas, but they looked close enough and were only $1 for a bunch of 3 at Michaels.  The eggs at Pottery Barn were $6.00 each, making the cost for 6 eggs, $36.00.  I spent $10.39 on the supplies to make my own.  Here's how you can make some for your home!

Supplies:

6 paper mache eggs (I got mine at Michaels for $2.50 

- I thought they would withstand the hot glue better than plastic ones)

ribbon

silk hydrangea flowers ( I bought 2 bunches of each color, $1 a bunch)

hot glue/glue gun

scissors

Step 1:  Heat up your glue gun and snip all of the blossoms off the stems.

Separate them by color,

then by size.

Step 2:  Cut 6 pieces of ribbon about 6" long.  Put a dab of hot glue on the top of an egg.  Gently press one end of the ribbon in the glue.  Loop the ribbon around and glue it to the secured end.  Now you have a pretty little loop to hang your eggs.  

Step 3:  Begin gluing the blooms on.  Start with the large blooms.  Just experiment with the gluing method - I got better as I went along.  You might have to put a dab of glue in the center of the flower first - stick it on - then add some glue to the petals.  They don't have to lay flat - in fact it's better if they don't - but you don't want them sticking out in every direction either.

Step 4:  Once you have a nice coverage from the large blooms, begin filling in the spaces with the medium and small sized blooms.  Just keep going until you can't see any of the original egg.  

Then you're finished!  Hang in a lovely spot or on some branches in a vase.

Happy gluing and have a great weekend,

jessica

Fabric-Covered Egg Shaker Tutorial

Hello! Well, we love music at our house, and as I was trying to think of something other than candy to put in little Charlotte's eggs I thought about egg shakers. I have tried to make my own in the past, but they look ugly and the tape comes off and I end up with rice or beans all in my carpet :( So the best solution I could think of was of course...fabric! So here is a tutorial for making musical egg shakers that are covered in fabric. The fabric I am using is vintage knit- my grandmother actually found it in a barn behind her house! You could also use felt or some other fabric that has some stretch in it. These eggs come together really quickly so you still have plenty of time to make some before Easter :) Ready? Here we go.



Step 1: Create the template. Draw a vertical line 3 1/2" long. At the midsection draw a perpendicular line 1 1/2" long. (These measurements will work for the average plastic egg-I got mine at Wal-mart.) Draw a football shape around the cross that you have drawn.

Step 2: Cut out the template and lay it on your fabric. Cut four little "footballs".

Step 3. Sew these right sides together, using a 1/4" seam. Leave one seam half way open - this is where you will insert the egg. Turn right sides out.

Step 4: Fill the small part of a plastic egg with dried beans - I used Great Northern. You could also use lentils, black-eyed peas, etc.

Step 5: Close the egg tightly, tape the seam well with duck tape, and insert it into your fabric shell.

Step 6: Using a needle and thread, hand whip the opening closed. Voila! Get out your other instruments and have a musical Easter!

xoxo,
jessica

How Does Your Garden Grow? - Fun Felt Magnets

So I am trying to be more creative with my crafts and not just copy something someone else has done...although there are amazing projects out there! It is nice to push myself and really tap into my creativity. I was also trying to think of something to make for Charlotte's Easter basket. We only have a sad little collection of letters on our frig, so I decided to make her a magnetic spring garden! These have been so fun to make! I gathered a bunch of felt scraps, and pencil, and started drawing little creatures and flowers - only using the ones that I could draw really well (I tried a caterpillar, which seems like it would be simple - not so much). I resisted the urge to reach for my trusted friend the glue gun, and got out my embroidery needle and floss instead. I decided that since these would be handled often, stitching would hold up better than glue. I went to Michael's and bought some small craft magnets to put inside my little critters. I cut two of everything - a front and a back. I stitched them halfway around and then stuffed them with a small amount of batting and a magnet. Then, I finished out the stitching. They were really fun to make and Charlotte loves them ( I put them on our fridge just for today, because I was so excited!) So you can be creative and make any little animals you choose - if you can perfect the caterpillar, let me know - I also thought a snail would be cute, or some clouds. Really just use your imagination- the sky is the limit! If you have trouble drawing, look in some of your kids books for inspiration - you could even trace them and make their favorite storybook characters into magnets. Have fun!