Easter Egg Decorating

This Easter holidays I helped run a craft workshop for children with our local creative group the Neotists. The children made nests from found twigs and materials and painted and decorated Easter eggs. It was great fun and if you are at a loss for activities for your children this Easter weekend, then it is so simple, so here are some tips to give it a go!

To make the nests, we used very bendy green twigs - willow is a perfect choice. We started with three twigs arranged in six pronged 'star' and bound them in the centre with string or yarn. Then we proceeded to weave twigs, grass, straw and yarn in and out of this formation from the centre out. Now time to fill the nest.

We used polystyrene eggs, but you could just as easily use hard boiled hens eggs. Some of the younger children simply painted their eggs in bright colours, which looked fab. But we also laid out pretty floral paper napkins, leaves and foliage so some children could stick these on. If you want to play with decoupaging your eggs, simply water down some PVA glue slightly, then paint a layer of this onto your egg.

Now lay on the leaves, petals or paper napkins (make sure you take off the second, bottom layer of tissue from the napkin first to make it easier to stick down) then apply more glue over the top.

Some of the children cut out some of the motifs from the napkins first to create patterns, however you can cover the whole egg in one napkin, trimming off the excess as you go. You could also use coloured tissue paper to cut out shapes, or other decorative papers, but the thinner the paper the better as it will adhere much more easily.

This was all great fun, but if you want a slightly less messy activity this Easter, there is also always my cute knitting egg cosy pattern which you can find free here!

Happy Easter!