Decorating eggs for Easter

You will need:

This is a fun activity around Easter time. For a more permanent egg, you will need to blow out the contents as described below. If you just want them to last a few days over Easter, you could just hard boil them before decorating (this is probably easier for small children).

To clear the egg (adult activity!)

1. Carefully use a pin to pierce the eggshell at both the top and bottom.
2. Gently blow out the contents of the egg into a bowl.
3. Wash the egg by running under a tap and then dry; wash hands and mouth well afterwards.

Mosaic pattern

As an alternative to painting the egg, you could cover the egg with small pieces of coloured foil (cut into squares), to form a mosaic pattern. Once the egg is covered and the glue dry, paint all over with acrylic varnish and leave to dry completely.

If you are hard-boiling the eggs, try boiling them with some onion skins, or add a couple of drops of food colouring to the water and see what colour the shells turn. The colours will not be very strong but this is a different way of colouring the eggs rather than painting them. The final colours will also vary depending on the colour of the eggs used. 

Easter Hat and Bonnet

For the Easter Rabbit Hat

You will need

Brown or grey card depending on the colour rabbit you want
Pink card
Small amount of white card
Small amount of black card for top of eyes and whiskers.

From the brown or grey card cut a strip of card 3cm wide and long enough to go round the child's head with an overlap of about 4cm for stapling or gluing the ends together.

Again from the brown or grey card cut two ears and a nose as shown to the right. As children's head sizes vary the length of the nose will need to be adjusted so that it covers the child's nose.

Cut two inner ears from the pink card and a nose end.

Out of the white card cut two semi circles for the top of the eyes and two circles for the area either side of the nose for the whiskers to glue on to.

Firstly hold the strip of card around the head of preferably the child for whom the hat is intended and mark a suitable position for each of the ears to be glued.
Assemble each ear by gluing the pink inner ears onto the outer ears and as shown then glue them in position on the reverse side of the band of card.
To glue the nose together, first glue the pink nose tip on the end of the nose and then glue the white circles behind so that stick out each side as shown. Cut some thin black whiskers and glue in place.

Glue the nose on to the strip of card positioning it in the middle of the ears. Add the semi-circles of white card either side and either glue a small piece of black card and user a marker pen to make the top part of the eye.

Fasten the two ends of the strip either by gluing or stapling to fit snuggly around the child's head.

Easter Bonnet

You will need:

Coloured card for the main part of the bonnet
Selection of tisue paper
Ribbon

Cut the bonnet out of your chosen coloured piece of card using the pattern shown on the right.

Decorate the front edges of the bonnet with tissue flowers and leaves as shown.

Fold the back pieces of each side round and the back of the top down and fasten to form the bonnet shape. It might be easier to try the bonnet on a child at this point to help you get the best shape.before either stapling it or gluing it in place.

Finish the bonnet byattaching two lengths of ribbon one to each of the lower inside corners, again it may be helpful to try the bonnet on a child to get the correct position.

Easter Egg Card

You will need:

White or Coloured card for the main part of the card
Selection of tissue paper
Paint or crayons
Ribbon
Glue

Fold your chosen piece of card in half and cut out the shape as shown opposite. With the opening of the card to the right the children can now decorate the eggs to their own design.

The eggs shown were both painted before adding either a ribbon bow
or a band with some tissue flowers.

Easter Basket

You will need:

2 pieces of contrasting coloured card
Tissue paper to line the basket and to make the flowers
Ribbon (an alternative to a tissue flower)
Glue or Glue stick
Choice of large egg or small eggs

Choose one piece of coloured card for the main part of the basket and cut out using the pattern shown to the right.

From the contrasting card cut a strip 2cm x 7cm for the handle, 4 strips 1.5cm x 6cm and 4 strips 1.5cm x 9cm to weave.

Cut the sides of the main section along the dotted lines to the base of the basket.

Using one of the longer strips of contrasting card weave the strip in and out of the cut strips on the sides of the basket by going over the first, under the second, over the third etc. Slide the strip down so that it fits neatly against the base, add a spot of glue to the two overlapping woven card ends to hold the strips together. Then weave the next strip this time going under the first, over the second, under the third to the end, again slide this down to the first woven strip.
Weave the the other two strips to complete one side. Repeat for the other 3 sides. When the glue is dry fold up the sides and fold in the tabs and glue on the inside to form the box.

Glue the handle into place and make small tissue flowers to cover each end of the handle as shown and glue in place. If you prefer a bow could be added instead of the flower, or a group of flowers could be used to decorate the top of the handle.

Add some tissue strips to the box before placing in your choice of egg.

Easter Hen Card

You will need:

Yellow or orange card for the hen and the attached stand
A small amount of red card for the hen's Comb
A small amount of coloured card or paper for the eggs
Selection of paper or card for the straw
Red, orange, and white paint
Glue

Cut out the body, head, wing and stand from your chosen orange or yellow card. Using the red and orange paint, fingerprint around the bottom of the hen and on the head to make it look less flat. Set aside to dry.

Cut out the eggs; these can also look more interesting if they are speckled with white paint.

(If children do not like getting their fingers covered with paint a tiny piece of sponge can be used to dab on the paint and will give a similar effect).

Cut the Hen's comb and beak and some short lengths of brown/yellow paper or card for the straw.

When all the painted parts are dry the hen can be glued together. With the stand folded glue a few pieces of straw to the bottom end of the smaller section, then glue the body of the hen on top and add more straw and the eggs so the hen looks lilke she's sitting on them.

Glue the sections of the comb on top of the head and add the beak before gluing on to the body. Add the wing and then add the eye, either using a black felt pen or a small circle of black card or paper.

Easter Bookmark

You will need:

Yellow and green card for the daffodil
A small amount contrasting card for the flower pot
A strip of card for the main part of the bookmak
An egg carton
Yellow or orange paintt
Glue

To make the daffodil head, cut off one of the egg holders from the egg carton and then trim it down until it is about 1-2cm high. This will be the trumpet part of the flower and needs to be painted either yellow or orange and set aside to dry.

Cut out the main section of the bookmark, the flower petals, the leaves and the pot as shown to the right.

Glue the stem of the flower in place so that the bottom of the stem is positioned about 2cm up from the bottom. Add the leaves and then pot before gluing the flower petals into place.

Finally add the flower trumpet to the centre of the flower head.

Easter Card

You can make a rabbit card for Easter.

Daffodil Card

Make a 3-d pot of daffodils as a Mother's Day or Easter card.