I have great admiration and respect for people who have the foresight to plan, execute, and photograph their seasonal crafts in time to blog about them before the fact. However, I am not one of those clever souls. Luckily, Easter is even longer than Lent, and if nothing else, we can just file these notes away for next year.
(While we're on the subject of doing things ahead of time, I went to the store for our Easter candy on Thursday, and the girl at the register asked me with a sympathetic look, “Getting in some last-minute shopping?” Seriously? You really expect me to buy candy weeks before I can actually eat it? Do I look like a crazy person to you? I don't think so.)
I made these Easter eggs on Good Friday, and would've been able to post about them before Easter had I not spent pretty much all of my time since then (going to church and) making food and subsequently eating it (for a truly decadent but make-ahead brunch, I highly recommend Creme Brulee French Toast. I used homemade bread, maple syrup instead of corn syrup in the sugar mixture, and added a healthy dose of nutmeg into the batter. We didn't have any appropriate booze on hand, so I just left that out. It is a deliciously indulgent treat).
Our current temporary living situation meant I wasn't up for ordering supplies to make psyanky, so I just blew the insides out of a dozen eggs (which insides later went into dough for cinnamon rolls, a delicious-if-I-say-so-myself lemon ginger cheesecake, and the aforementioned French toast), treated myself to a bottle of Mod Podge, and decided to try a few different ideas from Martha Stewart's Easter egg slideshow.
One of them involves covering eggs with pretty origami paper, but since I was only using what I already had, I thought it would also be pretty using these pretty paper bags which I bought (on clearance right before Valentine's Day) for another project I've been meaning to tell you about (and will soon).
I cut a strip from the bag that was a little longer than the circumference of the egg at its widest point, and a little wider than the egg was tall. I was much less precise than her directions specify, and it turned out lovely, so I wouldn't worry about being exact. Snip the paper towards the middle on both sides (leave a quite narrow strip intact in the middle), paint a strip of Mod Podge around the middle of both the egg and the paper, and then smooth the paper around the egg.
Use scissors to snip each strip at an angle, and then use the Mod Podge on both surfaces again to smooth the strips down and cover each end of the egg. Again, Martha does this very precisely, and I'm sure that if you did it her way your egg would be smoother, but I just snipped willy-nilly on one side of each strip, and didn't worry about them overlapping at the top of the egg. When I was all done I covered the whole egg in MP to seal it and give it a little shine.
I also had some colorful tissue paper on hand from wrapping baby shower gifts, so I just folded some narrow strips accordian-style and cut out some simple shapes. Then I painted some Mod Podge onto the egg and used tweezers to place the pieces in various patterns (this was a good call on Martha's part; the tweezers are key with the delicate tissue paper, especially once your fingers are covered with glue, as mine certainly were).
Again, I covered the whole egg with a topcoat of MP when it was done, which gave it a bit of shine and tacked down any loose corners.
Both of these techniques worked really well; the ones with the red and white Valentines paper on them looked very fancy and elegant, and the tissue paper is so thin that the designs look very crisp and delicate, and almost like they were painted on. These were also both easy enough that they could definitely be done with children old enough to wield a paintbrush and some glue. The tissue paper might be a little tricky for young hands, as it tended to tear when it got wet, but I imagine that any thin colorful paper would work well – I think wrapping paper would be great!
I also happened to have some food coloring in my cupboard, so I had gathered some little leaves and things to make botanical eggs and used a bit of trim to make lace eggs, but neither one was successful. The leaves and lace just didn't stick to the egg well enough to make a clean pattern like it did in the pictures (I used rubber bands for the lace and egg-white-and-nylons for the leaves, as instructed by the directions). So I just dyed them again to make them a solid color, and tried to contain my disappointment at my lack of lacy, leafy eggs. Has anyone else had any success achieving these effects? Is there some trick I was missing?
This is the whole batch of eggs, minus one more Valentines/Easter egg that somehow didn't make it into the carton for this shot.
Side note: my egg carton has scripture verses on the inside. How fabulous is that?
We drove down to Dallas to spend Easter with the Lt's brother (a student at the University of Dallas and our only family within hailing distance). The eggs went into our baskets – this one belongs to my brother-in-law. And yes, that is a squirt gun (I didn't have scissors to cut off the dumb plastic tie), and yes, we did have a water fight at two in the morning after the Vigil (oddly enough, college-age boys don't mind indoor water fights in their apartments). And yes, they did come in packs of two, and I did give myself the extra one. I figured it was only fair, considering I was up against two boys, one of whom is a Marine.
In other news, I have fallen in love with Mod Podge, and am planning using it on every available surface in my apartment…
Charlotte (Waltzing says
Oh my goodness, those are gorgeous! And we were just minutes away from you on your Easter visit at the monastery across the highway!
woolnest says
I miss those egg cartons from my days in Chicago, and have similar feelings about Mod Podge. Your eggs look lovely!-Alice
Anna says
When Papa put the paper on the wall… he papered up the stairs, papered up the chairs, even put a border on Grandma's shawl!:) Your eggs are lovely. I always have such a hard time blowing out the eggs.
Leila says
So so pretty. I'm so happy the colors come out so well with your glorious camera! Jealous…:)Habou got out all the dyes and blew out 10 eggs…but we just ended up not having time to do them 🙁
Rosie says
Thank you!Charlotte, we were there for the Vigil – we probably crossed paths in the Communion line!Anna, I've never heard that, but I love it! That's totally me right now. I hadn't blown out eggs by hand (or rather, by mouth) in a long time – we have a little hand pump that we use when we're doing psyanky (like this: http://www.polartcenter.com/Blas_fix_One_Hole_Egg… that makes it very easy, especially in the quantities that we require when we're all working on them together at home! But this time I just gently twisted the tip of a sharp knife to widen a pinhole on each end, and didn't worry too much about keeping the holes too tiny. That made it much easier to blow out the insides, and since the holes got covered with paper on most of the eggs, it didn't really matter how big they were!
Dawn says
Those are lovely!
Sarah says
Beautiful Easter eggs!!We are in transitional housing, too … It's interesting and small, but we are doing just fine … And it's. only. temporary! I keep reminding myself of that =)Happy, happy Easter to your entire family!
Deirdre says
Those are lovely! I especially like the green flower one. Very cute and VERY Rosie.Never heard of Mod Podge… but it sounds fun!
Mrs Bossy says
Beautiful! Do you keep them from year to year? The water pistol in the basket was brilliant.
Cathy says
Oh my goodness….This has became my all time favorite blog. These are gorgeous! I have only a 12 year old daughter at home and we perfunctorily died the Easter eggs with Paas. I'm pretty sure she thought she was too old for it. We will certainly tackle these next year!Thank you!P.S. Glad I read it here first instead of over at Martha's. Sometimes the perfection there is intimidating….
Anna says
I skipped a good portion of it.http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activity/when-papa-put-paper-on-the-wall.html
Jules says
Wow! these are beautiful. My girls and I would have a fun time making these – just wondering, how long do they last?
Cathy says
Oh dear. "Dyed" not "died".
Sue says
How strange that I was just thinking about how I learned to cover eggs like that back when I first came to Japan, and I was trying to remember how to cut the paper! Thank you!Just FYI, the Japanese paper used for that is called "washi". The cheaper versions are machine printed and cut in squares for making origami, but if you go to the shops where it is printed in the traditional way, you can find some gorgeous paper in sheets large enough to use as wrapping paper. It's very beautiful!I just love this blog. I learn so much, and get so much great inspiration from you ladies!
Elizabeth says
So now I know what to do with all the wrinkled,but still pretty, tissue paper I have stashed in the spare room closet! (I knew I shouldn't get rid of it…oh how I justify my poor behavior…)The lace eggs do sound lovely. I might give them a try and let you know how it goes. Jules, if I'm not mistaken (and it is, of course, very possible) if you blow out the inside of eggs, they last until you break them. 🙂
Rosie says
Jules – Elizabeth is right; since the eggs are empty, they will last until we drop them!Mrs Bossy – ordinarily, we would keep them year to year (at my parents' house we have hundreds of eggs that we've made through the years and store in egg cartons at the top of the craft closet). Because of our current nomadic lifestyle, though, I might give these away (I already left four down in Dallas with the brother-in-law).And the water pistols were a big hit. 🙂 Sue – I think it would be very dangerous to let me into one of those shops: I am a sucker for beautiful paper. Sounds heavenly!
Patty says
So cute <3 thanks for sharing the tips!
Maia says
Wonderful! I read "Our current temporary living situation meant I wasn't up for ordering supplies to make psanky" — which were EXACTLY the thoughts I had. The eggs which resulted are fantastic! I have been ducking in on this blog infrequently, so forgive my ignorance (I have figured out that you are one in a family of contributors), but as I read on, your mention of "the Lt." (combined with "temporary living situation" and "one of whom is a Marine") leads me to ask if you are military. And if so, may we add this blog (in all it's wonderfulness) to our Catholic Military Momma list @ Flowers Round the Cross? We are trying to network with other Catholic military moms (wives open to life) who blog, even if the subject material isn't specifically military! We would love to add this awesome blog (I have a bit of a blog crush…)!Also, I have a sister at UD — if plane tickets from Korea were cheaper, I'd have been there for Easter in a heartbeat!Thanks for the great post and sorry for the story of a comment!Maia
cathmomofsix says
Just found your blog and have to say it's the first one that I wanted to print out, bind, and read for fun. Kudos.
Jensamom23 says
Beautiful!
Rosie says
Maia – I loved your "story of a comment;" that was some clever detective work! I am indeed the wife of a Marine lieutenant; pretty new both to married life (9 months) and to military life (he was commissioned a year ago). But it's lovely to meet you, and we would be delighted to be included on your list – thank you for asking! I look forward to getting to know you more!Cathy, cathmomofsix, and Jensamom23 – Thank you! You're so sweet.
Faithemmanuel says
I'm always late- but had to comment on beautiful eggs! Also- if you don't have mod podge and want a subtle look, just use water on brightly coloured tissue paper- when the paper dries, it will fall off and leave beautiful imprints. -Faith