Easter Crafts with Kids

Easter is a great time to create some fun crafts with your kids.  The thought of Easter is so uplifting to me.  The day takes place in the Spring, with the sun warming the Earth and with new life all around us. With it still a little wet on the ground to play for long outside it is the perfect opportunity to sit down with your children and have fun making crafts like this.

I use Pinterest as an ideal starter and builder :) .  I sat down with a Pinterest search of 'Easter Crafts" on my computer and an anxious 5 year old at my side.

After looking for what seemed to be hours we both decided that String Easter Eggs would be the most fun. There was so much we could do; we could add sparkles, use different color string and make different sizes.

Example image from Cool Craft on http://tinyrottenpeanuts.com

And now we attempt creating this Easter craft and discussing the meaning of Easter.

We started with a supply run to Michael's where we picked up:

Colored String - Embroidery Floss is best

Elmers Glue

Water Balloons 

Blow up the water balloons.  A pump helps but I found it easier if you just stretch them and blow them up with your own hot air.

The next step is to cover the entire crafting area with newspaper and lay out wax paper to place your finished eggs to dry.  Mix up elmers glue with water [just enough to make the glue thin and watery] on a paper plate. 

Cut your string selections at arms length at first and once you get the hang of it can make the length longer if you wish.  Lay the string in the plate of glue, totally covering it.  [Yes this gets messy]

This was my daughters favorite part of the whole craft.  She loved the feeling of the glue and how it dripped off the string.

Run your fingers down the string to remove excess glue and get ready to be creative. Wrap the string around the balloon as you desire. 

Morgan had a great time doing her first one but lost interest quickly in wrapping the string around the balloon.  We decided that she would play in the glue/water mix and soak the strings and help take the glue off and I would wrap them all.  It was a lot of fun. 

They don't really look like much when they are sitting on the wax paper to dry. The dry time depends on the humidity and air flow but I would give them a good 2 hours.

Morgan was very anxious the whole wait time because the only way to get the balloons out is to pop them. A fun activity by anyone's definition.

They we tried to pop too early on some and decided to wait over night. They turned out pretty cool for our first try, definitely a project we will do again.

They also add a little flare to the room as an Easter decoration.  

What kinds of crafts do you do in the Spring or for Easter, comment and share your ideas.

DIY - Henniker Brewing Company Coasters

I love buying local and supporting local businesses.  Recently a new business has come into Henniker, NH where our town motto is "The only Henniker on Earth" ... look it up, it's true :)

The beer is quite enjoyable and after a few visits we picked up some of their cardboard coasters. And then I had an idea...with a little resizing of them I could make these permanent, reusable coasters.

I purchased some 4x4 marble tiles from Lowes, a box of 8 will run around $3.98. Then I traced the size of the tile onto the cardboard coaster and used some serious scissors to cut the cardboard coasters to size.

I then applied ModgePodge to the tile and placed the cardboard coaster on top. Let it dry or at least become tacky to the touch and then start applying even coats of ModgePodge to the top and sides. Pushing the cardboard coaster down and making sure it is adhering to the tile evenly.

Be sure to let it dry completely between each coat, it could take several hours. If you don't they will look hazy or cloudy - as you will see in the below pictures...I did them a little too fast and they have a cloudy look to them.

I don't have a picture that shows the backs. I do put rubber stoppers on the bottoms so they don't slide or scratch surfaces as well as it makes them easier to pick up and move around. The finished product really impressed me.  What do you think?

DIY - Old, ripped lamp shade; no problem

As you know if you have been following along. We are turning our office into a guest bedroom and on a budget.

The room has an overhead light fixture with a fan unit included on the ceiling. As we all know, when you are getting ready for bed or up during the night you don't want a large bright light shining light to the entire room. I needed a bedside lamp. So yet again I ventured down to the basement to see what we had lying around.

Up came this:

How awesome is this find, right? Just a rip on the left side that goes straight through and some dated scallop design :)

I decided the theme of the room since the DIY project of the nightstand was going to be a vintage/antique theme.

So I knew I wanted to give decoupage another try and I chose to look up on Google images vintage travel items like ticket stubs, maps and old labels for whiskey and such.  I then printed these out on ivory, tan and blue paper on my home printer.  After cutting them all out I placed them on the table in piles by theme and went to brushing on the ModgePodge Decoupage glue with a foam roller (I have used the foam brushes and feeling the roller works the best since it doesn't pull on the paper with every stroke).

Apply the glue in small sections and place the paper pieces randomly around applying more glue on top and layering as you go.  I also covered the inside of this lamp shade because the scallop design was hard to cover when the lamp was turned on.  Check out the finished project!

What do you think?

After this project I was very excited to put some other items in the room to match and the lamp and pull it all together so I decided to repurpose some coasters that had a cafe theme on them and then pulled some old pieces of wood pieces out of the shed, cleaned them up with a wire brush and installed them to really put some functional antique pieces into the room.

And because I went a little crazy while making the coasters I actually went on to cover the wooden TV tray I was using as a working surface and it now sits as a spare table in the guest bedroom. :) 

Had a blast with this project! Things like this are easy to get sucked into. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

DIY - Refresh an old nightstand

We decided to turn our current office into a guest bedroom this summer. As always we were on a budget and I knew that we needed to at least buy new carpeting and a new queen size bed for the space, leaving minimal $$ for other furnishings.

I decided to refresh an old nightstand we had sitting in the basement:

A solid piece of furniture just out dated. I started by removing the doors and filling in the front grooves that made it feel even more dated.

Let dry for 24 hours, then sand with fine grit paper the entire thing. Doors and main structure. Wipe clean with damp cloth and prime with 2 coats of primer ( I used Kilz ). This step is very important because it sticks to the old finish and makes certain the new paint will last.

Let the primer dry completely, I left it overnight.  Then pick your final paint color and paint the entire thing. I put on 2 coats of paint. And then I decided to give it a POP by decoupaging a patterned fabric onto the top and on the front of both doors to hide the design that still showed through the paint.

Let your decoupage dry completely, again, I left it overnight. The next day it was ready to put back together and view the final project.

It looked so good with the doors back on it, I also want to note that I swapped out the nobs it came with for $0.99 each!

I wasn't sure that the material was a good choice but once I placed it in the room and placed all the decor in place I really started to love it!

This was the first of these projects that I have ever done and was determined to pull it off and I think I did. What DIY project's have you tried like this? As you can see, this really pulls the new guest room together ;)