D.I.Y. Easter Egg "Basket"

Easter is almost here!!  Here is an easy, fun project to do with kids or to use as a cute centerpiece.  

What you need:

Yarn

Water Balloons

Candy of choice

Tacks

Glue

Tweezers

Gloves

Gather your supplies!

In the first step, you have to put the candy inside the balloon.  This is not easy with one person.  Just have someone hold it open and drop in 4-6 pieces of candy.  Blow up balloon just like you would without candy in it.  Make it about 3-4 inches long or a nice "egg" shape. 

Using 1 part water to 1 part glue, soak yarn just enough to get it all moistened. *Or check out our D.I.Y Mod Podge!  It worked great! To make your own, click HERE!

We put too much glue on one. Dipping it got it too saturated so we switched to doing it as in the picture below. 

Carefully wrap the balloon with the yarn, making sure to leave enough space to be able to remove the balloon but also small enough so the candy won't fall out. 

Above is the one that was too saturated.  It probably would have been fine if we gave it more time to dry but I would recommend not using so much glue mixture. 

 Find a place to hang to dry.  Lay a cloth on the floor to catch dripping glue. *Notice the two end ones.  They were not as saturated as the middle one.  They dried better and looked better.*

Allow to dry completely.  We waited overnight. 

Using a pin, pop the balloon.  I used a tweezers to remove the balloon.  It worked slick. 

TA DAAA! :)  Aren't they adorable.  A cute decoration that has a yummy treat.  Have fun!

Crown Of Thorns

My Mom thought it would be a good idea to share this wonderful idea with you all. We found it on the "Holy Heroes" website, which we visit often during the Liturgical seasons.

This (not edible) 'Crown of Thorns' represents Jesus Christ's pain during His Passion. Every time you, or a family member, do a good deed, you're able to pull a tooth pick out. The goal is to have them all gone by the end of Lent!!! The idea is to take Jesus' pain away as you do these good deeds. I think it's fun for kids (and grown ups) to see how well they did, and what they accomplished during Lent!!! :)

INGREDIENTS

4 c. flour

1 c. salt

Water (however much you need to make it like a soft clay)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat to 350 degrees.

STEP 1: Mix salt and flour together...

STEP 2: Add water to dry ingredients.

STEP 3: Lay it out on the counter and separate it into three pieces, and roll them to get ready to make a braid.

STEP 4: Braid it as best you can... and make into a circle!!!

(as you can see it's not very easy to make it look nice) :)

STEP 5: Put about 40 tooth picks into the braid...

 and bake for an hour, or until golden brown.

Then you can put it in the center of your table for the rest of Lent!!! :)

Rice Crispy Nests

I know today is Easter and it's probably a little late to be sharing Easter treats, but I didn't want to pass up sharing this cute snack. Maybe you can still make them this week, or even use them as a snack for a springtime party! Either way, these little Rice Crispy Nests will be a quick way to satisfy your sweet tooth and your budget.

All you need is a recipe for regular rice crispy treats (marshmallows, butter, & rice cereal), coconut, green food coloring, and jelly beans or chocolate eggs.

Start by getting your coconut ready. 

In a small bowl, add food coloring to coconut and mix until desired shade is achieved.

Then you're going to want to make your rice crispy treats. 

(My recipe was 1 bag of marshmallows, 1/4 cup butter {melt on stove top} and 5 1/2 cups rice cereal.)

Then scoop and press into greased muffin tins, making the center more shallow than the edges.

While treats are still warm, fill shallow center with prepared coconut and gently press to help it stick.

 Fill with jelly beans or chocolate eggs.

Setting little Peep chicks on top would be really cute, too! :)

This recipe and idea was adapted from ricekrispies.com

Marbled Easter Eggs

Easter is upon us and with it comes certain obligations. One of the easiest of these is coloring Easter eggs! Okay, so maybe that isn't an obligation, but it sure is fun! :)

When we were little we colored our Easter eggs with the kits that Dad would bring home after work. Mom would boil the eggs and have us clear the table, while we anxiously waited for the dye kits. When he got home, we would get everything set up as fast as we could. We would fight over who got to use the dipper so we didn't get stuck with a plain old spoon to dunk our eggs. Looking back, I realized the stickers would never stay on and the shrink-wrap wrappers never shrunk evenly. We would pull out the crayons and write out names and designs that didn't really show up half the time. We would crack the eggs when they would slip off the spoons and hit the side of the cup, leaving the hard cooked whites of the egg soaked with blotches of color.

Even though things always seemed to go wrong, it didn't matter because we always had a blast!  No matter how old we get, we will always have those wonderful memories that bring some excitement during the Easter season. 

If you are looking to do something a little different with your eggs this year, why not try a marbled effect? This is so easy and looks so cool! Think of all the color combinations you could do! Maybe even try doing a base color then marble....how cool would these look if you colored them yellow, then marbled with blue?! Or color them blue and marble with red?
SO much fun!

What you need:

foam shaving cream (not gel)

food coloring

toothpick or knife

shallow dish

boiled eggs

Spray some foam in your dish.

Add desired colors.

Swirl. (I started using a toothpick, but a knife worked much better.)

 Set your eggs in.

Gently fold foam over the eggs. 

Let sit 5-10 minutes before rinsing with cool water.

My colors showed up well enough, but I think if I wouldn't have left so much of the foam white, they would have turned out better. 

And FYI, the yellow isn't very bright either so I would probably use darker colors next time.

Have fun and Happy Easter!!!