Easter eggs - A time to get creative

Easter snuck up on us, so before it gets any later I want to show you some Easter egg decorating ideas we came up with last year that resulted in a fantastic pre-teen party and our discovery that you can even use Easter eggs to decorate gift wrapping.

Decorating Easter eggs is an annual event at our house but we've had to make some changes as our children get older. Last year we turned it into a pre-teen Easter Egg Decorating Party and it was such a success we’re doing it again this year. The idea was to have a fun time decorating with craft products. If you have the materials, you can do the same.

The results were much “splashier” than previous years since we decided to forego the usual dip-it-in-the-food-coloring-dye. After seeing the colorful results, we decided the eggs might make fun package decorations as well. Since we were using plastic eggs, it seems that these could be used with bows or even as replacements for bows on a wrapped gift.

We all had so much fun that we want to share these ideas with you and we'll start with how it all came about, from the original teen "can we have a party?" pleading down to the final decorating of packages with our finished eggs. We hope you'll try it, too, because the best part is that you'll have a great time with your children and their friends. I’ve included some pictures of a few of their finished eggs just for some ideas. Just remember that saying about beauty being in the eye of the beholder!

Our daughters (ages 10 and 13) wanted to have an Easter egg dying party similar to the cookie decorating party we have for them and their friends at Christmas. After negotiating attendee numbers, we decided to go for it and it was a huge success! Using plastic eggs, the girls had a great time gluing, glittering and decorating to create fabulous Easter eggs.

Even though you might have visions of gorgeous Martha Stewart-type decorated eggs, the reality is that these girls are into Hannah Montana style decorated Easter eggs. Most pre-teen girls are into the whole glitter, feather boas, purple, pink and black color scheme. You just gotta go with the flow, Mom!

It was a super-easy party to arrange and this was our supply list, some of which we already had on hand or other moms donated from previous craft projects:
· bags of colored plastic eggs – 18 to a bag, 99 cents each at Michaels Crafts and you only need about 6 eggs per girl
· a couple of bags of eggs in various shades of tan and cream, also from Michaels – these are optional as the colored plastic or metallic painted eggs were more popular
· 2 cans of Krylon metallic paint: shiny silver and gold
· embellishments – stuff to glue on the eggs including feathery ribbon (like miniature feather boas), colored tissue paper, small fabric flowers, tiny mirror pieces, rhinestones and sequins, glitter, metallic braids and ribbons, fancy yarns, beads, etc.
· 1 bottle of fast drying craft glue, several bottles of silver and gold glitter glue, scissors and one adult had a glue gun for special applications.
· jar lids or small plastic cups to hold glue
· lots of cheap watercolor brushes to apply glue – they come about 12 to a package and you need a minimum of 3 per girl but have some extras on hand

We used the plastic colored eggs because dying real eggs just doesn’t take very long and only requires the attention span of an average pre-schooler. Besides, we always seem to run out of appetite before we run out of hard boiled eggs at Easter time. As for blowing out raw eggs and using those – don’t even go there! We didn't want to make chocolate eggs, either, for various reasons.

It took a little prep work but with the daughters helping, it went quickly. We wanted to paint some of the eggs silver or gold and found it was much easier to do it when the eggs were open. The plastic eggs have a little dab of extra plastic acting as a hinge to keep the halves together.

We carefully opened the eggs so as not to break the hinge, placed the open edges flat on newspaper, sprayed just the outsides and then carefully slid them to clean newspaper so they wouldn’t stick while drying. The gold paint actually dried almost instantly; the silver usually took two applications.

Whole eggs have to sprayed in stages so it’s easier – and less time consuming - to spray them when opened. We left the pink, purple and blue eggs unpainted. We could’ve done lots more with paint but the idea was to give the girls an opportunity to express their creativity with the decorating.

On party day we covered the table with lots of newspaper and topped that with a sheet of brown paper. We set out bowls and baskets with all the embellishments plus small plastic cups – similar to the ones for catsup at McDonalds – for craft glue, along with watercolor brushes and a few pair of scissors. You can use jar lids for the glue if you don’t have any small cups.

Each girl only needs a tiny bit of glue at a time; just replenish as needed. Glitter glue was a real hit because it added glitz to the egg at the same time acting as glue for beads, etc. We also had a few pair of tweezers handy to help with picking up and placing beads but they’re optional.

Helpful hint: I put sand in large plastic cups – one cup for each girl – and they used these to stick their brushes in, handle first, while not in use. This way their gluey brushes didn’t stick to the paper or get glue on anything else, including their sleeves.

When they were little, the girls decorated eggs with cotton balls and construction paper ears to look like bunnies. Now that they’re older, we went with dazzle and glitz and to help get them started, we showed them pictures of jeweled eggs. While these were probably a little too sedate for them, they loved the idea of decorating eggs like the famous Faberge eggs.



Faberge Eggs Imperial Russian Fantasies Poster Book


We provided bottles of water and cupcakes for snacking. The whole party was inexpensive, took up most of the afternoon and the clean up was negligible. The girls had so much fun making their beautiful creations to take home and those eggs (and remembering the fun they had making them) will last for years. The other moms thought it was a great party, too, particularly since we all know there won’t be many more opportunities like these as our children get older and have more activities on their calendars.

At the end of the day - and after the girls left - we were about out of steam but still had lots of creative ideas running around in our brains. So, we decided to take our ideas one step further by adding the decorated eggs to Easter gift wrapping. It's always exciting to explore alternatives to traditional gift wrapping, so this was an unexpected post-party bonus.
If you're interested in having an Easter egg decorating party like this for your daughter/friends and want a little more info or suggestions, just e-mail me at MissDiezella@yahoo.com. and I’ll answer any questions from our personal experience, which is somewhat limited but maybe helpful.

Illustrating Easter with a look at Chinese cut paper

Imagine walking through a doorway to the sight of an elaborate red paper cutout. In traditional Chinese culture it was common to place these papers over doorways and in windows where the contrast of sunlight would have a dramatic effect. These were handmade decorations that performed as beautification for the modest home. They also served as an aid to home schooling; used as a teaching aid for the young.

Mothers would instill important messages of character and morality with these cut papers. The idea is strong in symbolism; embedded in these artistic embellishments are familiar images to most Chinese. In a culture that mixes folklore and symbolism; paper cut into fanciful designs became the perfect medium to tell a story. Children grew up recognizing that flowers, fruit and animals had symbolic meaning in addition to their common status.

In addition to that there were mythical characters and beasts woven into folk tales that had a moral to be learned. In spite of Chairman Mau’s cultural revolution this culture survives and now the art of paper cutting, both in the old tradition and innovative new ways, lives on.

The Chinese have many visual symbols for birth, believing that the calendar has a strong influence on a person’s future.

As Easter approaches why not take a try at using this age-old paper-cutting technique for crafting a hand made card or gift-wrap. I think that it would be nice to blend the Chinese style of paper cutting with images that are familiar to Western culture. We too rely on symbols for our holiday traditions, and these can be easily applied to Easter decorations.

Western/Easter symbols
Easter - from Eastre, the Saxon Goddess of Spring
White lily - Purity, Virgin Mary
Lamb - symbol of sacrifice, symbol of Jewish Passover (escape from Egypt)
Candles - Jesus
Rabbits and eggs - pagan symbols of birth
Carnivals - time of gaiety before the fast of Lent
Colors - white, purple, green, red

You can find out more about this:
http://www.annieshomepage.com/symbols.html

Working with cut paper also has a place in Western culture, with, of course, a much shorter history. Before there was photography there was the popular practice of cutting paper silhouettes of loved ones to be framed or carried in a locket with a clip of hair.

Of course not all these very popular oval frames contained cut paper likenesses but it was one of the techniques employed by the talented to record the memory of someone dear. As art became freer and more diverse artists began to explore new ways of expression, like the technique of collage, where layers of paper and ephemera were add to the composition to make a modern look.

The idea of making a collage is a good fit in today’s culture. It’s relatively fast, it’s expression, it’s the opportunity to say something in your own unique way. So I hope you will use my invitation to explore this creative avenue the next time you feel the need to express yourself, or have want to make a creative gift-wrap or personalized gift card for someone special. There are many possibilities for you discover that go beyond the usual ribbon and bow.