Family-Made Easter Garland, Mantle and More Egg Ideas

I was trying to come up with ideas for an Easter garland with which Hazel could help. I decided on Easter egg shapes. I figured she could decorate them any way she wanted and I could use her glitter glue to write the letters. I decided to go with "Happy Easter" but considered "He has risen" or "He lives." We may make another one for Easter morning.

Easter Eggs

Today we took some brown paper eggs that I bought at one of the craft stores and water color painted them.

Start

We even did some crayon resistance painting. I wrote "Happy Easter" on one and wrote "Mimi" and "Pop" on another and Hazel drew on a different one. Oh, and all of Hazel's are gnomes and not eggs. She was adamant about that.

First Ones

Crayon Resistance

Hazel's Masterpiece Gnome

Awhile ago we also decorated some plastic Easter eggs.

Hazel's eggs

Hazel decided she wanted to use glue that day and glued a few sheets of tissue paper on to each egg and then claimed she was done. I cut out some felt and used googly eyes and pom poms to make a chick and a bunny.

I also did some fabric covered ones. I experimented with it a bit and they did not come out nearly as nice as the ones my mother made me, but it is a great way to use up scraps of fabric. In the future I would use smaller pieces of fabric.

To make these you need Mod Podge or something similar for glue and thin strips of fabric and a plastic egg.

Paint some Mod Podge all over the plastic egg.

Then wrap the fabric all around it so none of the plastic is showing. Then cover again in Mod Podge to give it a seal (if you use glossy it will look even nicer, but I didn't have it). And let dry.

You could also do this with yarn, string, ribbon, etc. I would wrap with those in a more planned out way.

Finally when Hazel finished her eggs she made a picture. For some reason she didn't want to use the stickers on the eggs.

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Happy Pi Day!

I'm showing my geeky roots and going back to when I taught math. On March 14, math teachers have started celebrating a holiday called Pi Day! Earlier in the week I gave you some links and ideas of lessons to help with the celebration. Since Hazel is 3 and we are pursuing a Waldorf education we didn't bother with all the geometry stuff and we went to my favorite part--baking pie!

Quick Easter Craft

We made a quick Easter placemat the other day. We ran out of time before we did the St. Patrick's Day one. These are easy. Gather different relatively flat decorations for the holiday--ribbon, paper cut outs, stickers, etc. Stick it on to a sheet of clear Contact paper (which should be cut twice the size you want so you can fold it over). Then fold over to seal it all in.

We are still waiting to hear from one knitter in the Knitted Farm Swap, but have an opening if we do not hear from her soon. If you are interested please email me.

Popsicle Stick Puppets

Ok, I couldn't leave today without some toddler fun--so here it is!!

Hazel brought me one of these puppets we made back in November and asked if we could make some more. I of course said yes since they were mostly Christmas themed back then. So this morning before she went to Nonni's house for the day, we made some.

Hazel's Princess

To make them you glue a popsicle stick across a tongue depressor stick and then decorate with felt clothes and draw on a face. Then we decorate them with yarn for hair and glitter glue and ribbons, etc. Hazel wanted to make a princess. I cut the dress for her and she did the gluing and cut the yarn herself. Oh, and I cut a crown for her princess. Unfortunately, our fingers and other things kept hitting the glitter glue and thus smudging it. She also got the hair over the face I drew on it. Oh, well. It is her creation.

I made a leprechaun and an Easter Bunny. I even gave my Easter Bunny an Easter egg to be sure it was the Easter Bunny.

These are a simple craft to do with a toddler that can be played with some more.

Now that Hazel is gone I have been catching up on reading my magazines. I am loving the latest issue of Country Living. The craft section has some great Easter ideas. Unfortunately my favorite ones did not make their website so you will have to wait until we try them or put our spin on them.

Now I'm off to knit and rest before I have to go to work tonight. Hope you are having a great day!!