Gilded easter eggs: a tutorial

What you need:

• Metallic craft foil (I used the one I found at my local craft store, Jones Tones, but there are many brands)
• Double-sided adhesive tape
• Eggs

This year I went hunting for white eggs as almost all the eggs you get here, in Melbourne at least, are the brown variety. I tracked some down at the Victoria Market and I’m now obsessed with their creamy, milky purity.

Contrary to popular belief, the shells of white eggs are not bleached. White eggs are produced by certain breeds of chook.

What to do:

1. Blow or boil your eggs.

2. Use double-sided tape to create adhesive patterns on your eggs.

3. Rub the dull side of your metallic foil sheet over your sticky bits – or follow the instructions in your pack. Which all sounds vaguely inappropriate but it’s up to you as to how far you want to take that. I am personally known for taking things one step too far so you can guess where I am likely to end up.

You can use strips of double sided tape applied to baking paper and a paper punch to create tiny bunny stickers as I did in the first photo in the post.

Or for something more ornate, a border paper punch is a little fiddly but creates a beautiful result.

Or you can just cut strips of your tape to create this simple effect.

However, no matter what method you use, there is no doubt that playdough eggs rolled in glitter produce the most spectacular eggs. As Olive’s creation here attests.

 

God, how I love a glittery finger.

Bunny ear headbands: a tutorial

I’m not a huge fan of the fluffy bunny ear headbands that abound at Easter but these, my loves, are an entirely different kettle of fish. These I love. These transcend festive timelines and should, nay SHALT, be worn at any time of year.

The beauty of this tutorial is in the simplicity of the wire insert. No need to sew casings, thread wire delicately through small spaces; the fabric alone and the coiled wire I use is enough to get your ears perky but malleable. Not a phrase I thought I would ever write.

What you need:

• Fabric – 1/4 metre is plenty.
• Plastic headband form (1.5cm wide, 38cm around the outside arc).
• 45cm florist’s wire or other thin, malleable wire.

What to do:

1. Cut the following pieces from your fabric:

a) One rectangle 5cm x 39-40cm.

b) two rectangular pieces 5.5cm x 35cm that will end up looking like this:

2. But let’s make our headband cover first.  With right sides of your fabric together, sew the first piece of fabric into a tube using a 3mm seam. I just use the narrow part of my presser foot as a guide i.e. sew keeping the left hand side of the presser foot on the outside edge of your fabric.

3. Turn the tube so that the right side is now on the outside. Turning tubes this narrow can be a bit of a pain. If you’re struggling, this is a good method. I actually have a little device I bought that helps with this process. Any good sewing shop should have one.

4. Take your two rectangular pieces and lay them right side together. Measure and mark 6cm from one end, then measure and mark 23 cm on from that.

5. From the end of your 23cm long marking, freehand some curvy bunny ears to each end of your fabric rectangle. These don’t have to be perfect (and indeed better if they’re not in my view because you show me a perfect bunny and I’ll show you…well, never mind but I will show you if you want me to) so don’t be too concerned about getting it completely even.

6. Cut out 2 of your bunny ear pattern and sew (right side together) using the same 3mm seam allowance, leaving a 5cm gap to turn your fabric right side out.

7.  Once you’ve turned your ears right side out, you might like to gently press them. Or not, if you’re a rough nut like that.

8. At each end of your wire, make a rough coil like this:

When you lay your wire on your turned out bunny ears, the coils should reach about 2/3 of the way towards each end.

9. Insert wire into your ears. You will need to bend it to get it in and then manipulate it straight again once it’s inside.

10. Sew your 5cm gap closed.

11. Slip your thin fabric tube over your headband form and either glue or sew ends closed.

12. Tie on your bunny ears wherever you like ’em. If you’re a lopsided bunny-lover, the world is your oyster at this point.

Fan of the droopy ear?

I used slightly different measurements for the longer linen ears : 23 cm in the middle and 11cm at each end. Also, I had to wind two pieces of wire together so the insert was long enough.

If your headband form is a different size I think this works as a general rule for covering: measure the width, double it and then add 2cm extra which allows for wriggle room and a 3mm seam allowance.

Obviously these would look a lot better if I had actual kids to model them but since these are Easter gifts for my girls,  and we are still 3 sleeps out, we will have to make do with these pics sans heads.

I’ll update the post after Easter to include photos of  them being worn. If they’re worn. I’m tipping they will be. But then I’ve been wrong in the past. That one time. Just that one time.

We are staying put this Easter and I am looking forward to a quiet long weekend. Does anyone have extra-exciting plans this chocolate-gilded weekend? Please someone tell me they are egg hunting in the gardens of Raffles in Singapore or attending mass at St Peters. Whatever your plans be they modest or grand, travel safely my darlings and, if you do celebrate, Happy Easter. If you don’t, just grab the chocolate anyway yeah?

 

Easter wrap up – some eggs, the cranky bunnies and other Easterphanalia.

Easterphanalia. It is definitely a word.

The Easter bunny arrived bright and early on Sunday morning. He left some beautiful eggs this year.

I was really very impressed with the way he managed to find some unusual ones. He’s a bunny after my own heart, that one.

Also, a most peculiar thing happened last week – apart from the miracle of the bunny-shaped bread.

There was a sharp knock at our door but when I answered there was no one there. Just a faint smell of cinnamon and chocolate wafting on the air. On the doormat was a tiny box. Inside the box were some colourful beans. Magical beans.

The kids were very excited to hear my tale and on Saturday afternoon we planted our magic beans in the garden with much anticipation and speculation.

The next morning, there were cries of astonishment when the girls discovered that, overnight, lollipops had sprung up from where the beans had been planted. Lollipops with swirls of colour the same as the beans they had planted.

By the way, did you know my 7 year old can read and has been known to read stuff over my shoulder? I”m just sayin’.

It seems that this miraculous sprouting first happened here.

The cranky bunnies were a big hit.

I turned these beautiful Italian liquorice tins into little bunny beds.

The grumpy ones got heart-shaped tails and cosy bedding in an effort to cheer them up.

It didn’t work. Man, they are perpetually pissed off.

And here was how we packaged up our bunny poo this year. Once again it was a huge hit with kids at kinder and school and among the more immature adults, ie, my friends.

Hope you all had a really lovely Easter and are slowly but surely recovering from the chocolate binge.

Easter Excitement

Lots of Easter excitement at our place tonight. Much anticipation for the arrival of the bunny.

We took these fluffy bunnies to Olive’s kinder concert. They were  a big hit.

One big marshmallow, 2 snips of the scissors and a few dots with an edible pen and you get squealing kids. And some adults who wanted to but held it in.

It’s an Easter miracle.

Yesterday we bought an ordinary loaf of sourdough bread.

We sliced it.

We freaked out!

I’d be lying if I said selling it on Ebay hadn’t crossed out minds.

But then we just made sandwiches with it. MIRACULOUS, pre-Easter sandwiches.

Not so much an Easter bonnet as a crown.

I had, in my head, a vision of gold and silver foil-wrapped eggs, woven artfully into a simple, wire crown. Easter in Kings Landing was the aesthetic I think I was striving for.

Which is, I’m sure you’ll agree, ENTIRELY appropriate for a 7 year old.

For those of you not obsessed with Game of Thrones, you’re just going to have to trust me that an evil queen mother having an incestuous relationship with her brother has Easter parade written all over it.

In any case, the reality (as usual) is slightly less elegant Cersei and slightly more crazy Lady Gaga wears eggs on her head. Shhh, don’t tell the child.

A few things conspired against my vision:

First I couldn’t find gold and silver eggs.

Then I couldn’t get my eggs to stay put on the heavier wire rim. No matter how much fine florist’s wire I used.

So I re-jigged the frame.

And managed to get the eggs to stay put using shite-loads of wire.

I actually liked this slightly wild version before I clipped the straggly wire ends.

In fact I almost left it like that. But it seemed a mite spartan.

Just a small piece of advice  if you are going to go with this look: do make sure you tuck any sharp ends of wire well out of the way of little heads or fingers. Cover jagged ends with sticky tape. Because while a crown of thorns might be appropriate for Easter, a realistically bloodied brow is probably just a touch too gruesome  for this age group.

The child has agreed to wear this, but I think only because she gets to eat the eggs afterwards. Fair enough too I say.

The three blue eggs have a little bit of super glue helping them along. And the crowning egg is polystyrene and a treasure decorated in a previous year. She is under strict instructions not to eat those.

Just quietly, I have no idea how I am going to get this to stay put on her head. It’s kind of heavy. And she’s not going to come at super glue.

I’m making cranky bunnies

I didn’t mean to make ’em cranky. And they’re even rougher than my usual cowboy efforts. And that combination is making me laugh.

The whole sweet, fluffy Easter bunny thing out the window. Grumpy buns at ours.

They need stuffing (don’t we all?) and some accoutrements. I’ll show you the finished project shortly.

Meanwhile, the girls begged me to let them give out bags of bunny poo gifts at school and kinder again this year.

This was one of my most popular ideas last year. People like crap!

Handmade Easter

My mum bought the girls these gorgeous little bags to collect the eggs they found on their Easter Hunt. The lable inside says they’re made by ‘Paisley Green’ but a Google search to find out more was fruitless.

These dear little cards (delivered by the Easter Bunny ) were bought from the very talented Chantal Vincent.

I wanted to include this link to Chantal’s Etsy shop even though it’s closed at the moment. I love all her stuff but her hand carved stamps are just awesome.

Finally, these little fellas.

They were handmade to order for my girls and are just the sweetest little bunnies this side of Watership Down. You can get your own fluffy bunny from the lovely Sam and Charlie on Made It.

I hope the big fluffy fella (The Easter bunny, not Chewbacca) delivered mountains of choccies to all of you.

PS: Favourite Easter joke for this year (ie the one told ad nauseum by the kids that who instruct us to pretend that each time we hear it is the very first time) : Why shouldn’t you tell an Easter egg a joke? You might crack it up.    HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHA.

Watching baby chicks hatch makes me cry

We used food colouring gel and rubber bands to make these simple eggs.

Last week I watched as a tiny, bedraggled (and moist) little chick pushed its way determinedly out of its egg. I’ve never actually seen a chick hatch in real life. It was intensely moving.

I was so relieved when one of the kinder teachers came over to me and reassured me that so exhausted are they from fighting their way out that these fragile but independent newborns close their eyes and have a big sleep straight after hatching. I’d had my fingers poised over my phone to dial 000.

Have a safe and happy Easter lovely readers.

An Easter headband

After distressing my first-born with an over-the-top bonnet last year, I decided to take a minimalist approach for 2012.

I found this headband form at my local craft shop, covered it in some vintage fabric that I think looks delightfully like a grassy, flowery field. Then made a bit of cardboard banner and glued two little chicks on.

You should have seen the relief on aforesaid daughter’s face when I showed it to her. I had discussed it with her beforehand and we had decided on 2 chicks rather than 4,000 but I could still see she was happy that it was, as promised, relatively understated.

PS: The bunny poo  – which came from here  –

went down a treat and I think I’ve avoided a caning by the headmaster.  Bit of a pity really.