Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Another nice way to decorate with Easter eggs


I have been trying out all sorts of ways to decorate eggs.  I have explained some of my experiments in my post today as the Guest Designer on Everyday Cricut - you can click on this LINK to go directly to that post.   There are lots of great prizes this week so you'll want to enter on the Everyday Cricut blog for a chance to win.


Here is one of the variations I tried using just vinyl on an emptied egg.  If you use empty eggs you can save them from year to year and display your creations.  I have collected eggs for years - I started when we lived in Germany.  If you would like to see some of the eggs in my collection, you can look at THIS POST and THIS POST from last year.

You may be wondering about the best method to empty your eggs.  When I was growing up, we would poke at the ends of the egg with a needle to create a small hole and then put our mouths on one end and blow the contents out the other end,  It was messy and rather unsanitary!

When we lived in Germany, our younger son went to the German Kindergarten in our town.  Every so often they would have "Eltern Abend" (Parent's Evening) and this often involved a craft project.  After struggling with the translation of one of the newsletters my son brought home, I figured out that I was to bring emptied eggs to one of these events.  I was amazed to see the other parents show up with eggs that had tiny perfect holes on only one end.


This photo shows you the "secret weapon" for neatly emptying eggs.  The green handled item is a small drill for the end of the egg.  Once the hole is drilled, you insert the metal needle which is placed on the yellow bellows.  The needle breaks up the yolk and, by squeezing the the bellows, you pump air into the egg and the contents are forced out through the tiny hole.  When the contents are emptied, you fill the bellows with water and rinse the egg to remove any residue - neat, clean and efficient!

 

Here is the box for the type of egg emptier I own.  If you search online for "egg blower kit" you will find various sites that sell these - the prices seem to range from about six to nine dollars.


You can drill another hole in the opposite end if you want to thread a ribbon or a wire through the egg.  The blown out eggs are covered very simply by using some wallpaper paste and torn bits of gift tissue.  The irregular pieces are smoothed on and interesting effects are creating by the overlapping of the patterns.


This is the type of gift tissue that we used in Germany and England.  It is firmer than the tissue paper you normally see in the US and it has a pebbly sort of texture.  I still have some old packs - I am not sure if you can buy exactly  the same product here.



An alternative is to use colorful napkins such as these.  Separate the decorative top layer from the plain white second layer.  Then just tear up the colorful layer into small irregular pieces, dip in the wallpaper paste solution and smooth it onto your egg.  (You could probably use something like Mod Podge for this instead of the paste.  We used "tapeten kleister" in the German Kindergarten and I still have some - a box lasts forever).

 

When you are done and the eggs have dried, you simply thread the eggs on a length of wire, alternating with some wooden beads in a coordinating color.  Ribbons tied between the beads make the wreath fuller and prettier.  Don't make the circle too large - five or six eggs is about right.  If it is too large there is a tendency for it to pull out of shape.


Be sure to stop over to Everyday Cricut to see the various decorated eggs I created.  They are lots of fun to make but they do require some time and patience.  While I was working with the eggs I tried a few other types that I will share another day.

16 comments:

  1. These eggs are so awesome, thanks for all the info on egg blowing. It's great to live in a foreign country and learn from them. We lived in Okinawa, Japan and learned so much.

    Donna C.
    goCricutgo

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  2. fabulous, I remember doing the two hole - blowing the egg method.
    Will look for a kit - thanks for your nice projects

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  3. Thank you so much Diane for this "easy to follow" tutorial for Easter. Love how those eggs look after decorated,You are a great artist ! Congrats !

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  4. Wow! The eggs are absolutely stunning! I remember seeing your collection from last year! Gorgeous! I really love the blue collection! Thanks so much for sharing this with us! Glad you are feeling better! Happy Easter!

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  5. really beautiful!! You are so clever, Diane!!!

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  6. I adore what you've done with these eggs! I did Pysanky eggs a few years ago and they do take a lot of work but these look very easy! You can view my Pysanky eggs on my photo website by clicking on my name which will take you to Flickr.com and look under my eggs folder! Thanks for sharing and looking!
    Kris in Alaska
    funamom at yahoo dot com
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/forgetmenotdesigns

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  7. I've been missing some of the things I grew up with -- especially those items Oma used to send for every holiday including little wooden tree ornaments at Easter.

    Now that you mention the "pebbly" tissue ... I miss it even MORE! I'd forgotten about the neat tissue paper (not the glossy, pebbly wrapping paper, though). :)

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  8. What fun to look at all your eggs! Mom has collected them for years ~ so I've been decorating and collecting eggs just as long! Some of my favorite eggs Mom made by covering the shells with tiny seashells. Really unique! We spent 3 years in Frankfurt ~ so I have some of the same eggs. Did you ever get any of the adorable wooden bunnies? Also enjoy the Pysanky eggs. I'm just getting ready to buy some more dye. Anyway ~ thanks so much for sharing! I'm going to go peek at my eggs!
    SusanJ

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  9. I can always count on wonderful info from you and your site. Thanks so-o-o-o-o much for all you do. Would the dye work with wooden eggs or would the wood (don't you like the way the sounds sound?) result in bleeding underneath the vinyl? I guess if you kept the vinyl on the egg, it wouldn't matter. Thanks again -

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  10. Wow, that kit would make it so much easier. Thanks for sharing the "secret".

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  11. Goodness, no wonder I could never get that goo out. About blew my brains out trying when my girls were little and finally gave up. Who knew there was a gadget to make it easy!! Your eggs are absolutely stunning.

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  12. Wow love these eggs.
    Thank you
    Linda in Stanwood

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  13. Hi Diane -
    Thanks for the lesson of the eggs - they are beautiful! Just one question what cartridge did you use to write the words 'faith' and family I really like the font.
    Thanks,
    Bernadette

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  14. Hi Bernadette,

    The "faith" and "family" are both word art from the Home Accents cartridge - aren't they beautiful! This is a solutions cartridge and the solutions cartridges were on sale this week at Michael's - maybe you can find one if you don't have it already.

    Diane

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  15. Kris,

    I went and looked at your eggs - they are lovely. It does take a long time to do them that way so this is quicker (but you can't get the same tiny details with vinyl.

    Thanks for showing us your eggs.

    Diane

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  16. Thank you for showing and explaining the kit. I grabbed one off ebay (it arrived at lightning speed) and it works very nicely, just as you described. I'm so happy I'll be able to save my son's egg creations. We all love scrambled eggs, but nobody really cares for hard-boiled egg salad, so a bonus for us!

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