Polka Dot Dyed Easter Eggs - Tutorial

I didn't grow up celebrating Easter. We didn't dye eggs, go hunting for them later in the grass outside, or receive baskets of sweets. I remember eyeing with great envy my friend's plastic yellow baskets filled with trinkets, sweets, and plastic green grass. My parents are of Jewish descent.

In 2005 I converted to Catholicism. I did it for me. I did it because it felt right. It just fit. And now, as a wife and mother I am beginning to create family traditions that make the Lenten season and Easter meaningful and beautiful to our young family.

This simple colorful craft project actually didn't include the children. I just slipped into the kitchen and let my crafty fingers fly around a bit and came up with these polka dot dyed Easter eggs.

Materials

• Eggs (raw and intact, and at room temperature.)
• Food coloring (just the regular kind from the supermarket) (Goodness, does calling the grocery store a "supermarket" date me a bit I wonder?)
• White vinegar
• Paper towels (or a rag you don't mind turning a couple of other colors)
• Plastic disposable, or rubber gloves (optional if you don't mind getting your fingers a bit dyed)
• Contact paper (about a 6"x6" piece or so.)
• X-acto knife
• Hole punch

How To



1. Use the hole punch to punch out dots from the contact paper. Separate the dots from their backing and stick them to the eggs. (An X-acto knife helps here. I held the dot between my forefinger and thumb and then carefully "sliced" the side of the dot with the X-acto knife to separate the two layers.) Firmly press the edges of each dots to adhere. Be a bit random here with your sticking pattern. Or not and create a geometric pattern if you wish.



2. Mix dyes according to package directions:
1/2 C boiling water + 1 teaspoon white vinegar and 10-20 drops of food coloring (I used teal, dusty rose and yellow.

3. Submerge the egg covered with sticky dots in the hot liquid colors and let them sit for as long as you'd like. The longer you let them sit the more intense the color will be in the end. Mine were in the liquid for only a minute or so. I used plastic gloves to protect my fingers from the dye.

4. Remove the dyed egg and rinse the excess dye off and pat dry with a paper towel. Let dry for 20 minutes or so, before removing the circle stickers. (An X-acto knife helps here.)

5. If you intend to display these, poke holes in the ends and blow them out. I used mine for breakfast the next morning.



Outtakes

• If you don't firmly adhere the dots to the egg shell, they come off.
• Blue seems to seep into the little craters in the egg making a speckled effect.

Inspiration
Tissue Paper Decoupage Eggs - How To by Martha Stewart
Scrambled Lines and Letters Easter Eggs - How To by Martha Stewart

Glittered Egg Ornaments for Easter

I am lunch parent at my son's Montessori class a couple of Tuesdays each month. I get to hang out with Pie Pie in his Ergo and one of the teachers, and help open lunch containers and remind the children to talk a little less, and eat a little more.

The teacher and I began chatting about the wonderful craft projects the kids are creating to prepare for International Day. Tote bags displaying green stenciled Celtic knots and colorful German-like paper towel tube nutcrackers decorate the walls in the classroom. I mentioned that my daughter's pre-school doesn't do "real" crafting projects and how nice it is that Mini Mister gets to dig in and be crafty a little bit. 

The teacher was telling me when she returned home from a stint in Germany years back that she didn't have much money, (having spent it all in Europe,) and that she kept her crafting fingers busy stitching projects found at home. 

That got me thinking about what craft supplies I have saved up, stored up, and put away. That was when "glittered eggs" came to me. What a simple and easy decoration for the Easter season! (As I found out, it maybe a simple idea, but not necessarily one so easy to execute.) 

So I blew out some eggs (and made an omelet for breakfast) pulled out my glitter and glue and got to work.

Materials:

• Glitter (I used Martha Stewart Crafts Fine Glitter in Fire Opal, Brownstone, and course glitter in Florentine Gold.) 
• Glue (use one that is a bit runny, like Elmers multi-purpose glue)
• Old paint brush (one with a flat brush, not a pointy one. And one that you don't care about too much, in case you forget to wash the glue out like I did.)
• Painters tape, or other low-tac tape
• Scissors
• X-acto knife (this is one of my favorite tools, though not shown here; and the blade need not be sharp)
• Eggs that have been blown out, rinsed, and dried (see below for pointers on how to do this)
• 6" lengths of 18 gauge black wire (though this could be any color you like)
• Wire cutters and needle nose pliers
• A piece of computer paper
• A Ziploc baggie, or bottle top as shown above

Stats:

• Blowing out eggs isn't as tricky as it sounds. Just have a tasty quiche recipe handy for leftovers.
• If you are buying glitter, it is a bit expensive but a little goes along way. Brownstone is currently $8.61 for 1.5 oz; Florentine Gold is $5.19 for 1.5oz; and the Fire Opal is $11.34 for 1.5oz, on the Martha Stewart website. Glitter sets can be more economical and give you an assortment of colors, though in smaller quantities.

How To: 

1. Here is how I blew out my eggs: First make two small holes by poking the point of the X-acto knife gently into the top and into the bottom of the egg. With the tip of the knife blade make each hole round and large enough to fit a tooth pick. Don't twist the blade, this will crack the egg. Instead keep poking with the blade tip to enlarge the hole. Try to place the holes on the exact top and bottom and try to keep the holes smaller.

Then insert a toothpick into the bottom end hole and wiggle it around, pushed it in and out, and up and down to break up the egg inside. Then blow through the top end and let the egg slowly come out the bottom.  Each time a little gets stuck, insert the toothpick again and "beat-up" the egg inside before continuing to blow. 

To clean the egg, submerged it in a bowl full of vinegar water (1 part vinegar, 10 parts water) with one hole facing up and let the air bubbles come out. Don't totally fill it up with water. Then hold your fingers over both ends and shake the vinegar water around inside.Then blow into the top hole and blow out the vinegar water through the bottom hole. Repeat the rinsing process a few times and then set the empty clean egg aside to dry. 

This YouTube video does a pretty good job of demonstrating what I wrote here. I don't use a drill, but you could if you have one. My knife did just fine and I didn't break a single egg.

2. Cut a 6" length of wire with the wire cutters. Use the needle nose pliers to create a spiral in the wire as shown above. Insert the straight end into the egg, and again use the pliers to shape the straight end into a spiral. Glue the wire to the egg at the bottom end and set aside to dry.

3. Cut strips of painters tape with the scissors and tape a cross onto the side of the egg. Press the edges of the tape to the egg to make sure they adhere. Or create what ever motif you wish with the painters tape and press edges to seal.

4. Place a piece of computer paper on your work surface. Holding the wire, with the paint brush cover the entire egg's surface with glue. (Even over the blue painters tape and try to ensure that the glue is even, thick and smooth, not bumpy.)

5. Pour glitter over the glued egg. Shake off excess glitter onto the computer paper. (Pour glitter at a right angle to the surface of the egg. Don't roll the egg in the glitter, don't pour some on the top and then tilt the egg so the glitter falls down to other glued parts of the egg. These two techniques don't provide the best glitter coverage. Don't worry about getting a ton of glitter on the paper below. The paper will catch it and you can return the glitter to its container.)

6. With the X-acto knife take off the painters tape while the glue is still tacky. You can touch up the edges of the cross as noted above. Set aside the egg so that the glue will dry. It is best to hang the egg by its hanging wire so that the glitter and glue will not get marred. 

7. With a paint brush apply glue to the cross shape, making sure to cover all the corners. Apply a contrasting  glitter in the same manner and gently bump the excess off onto the paper. Hang the egg so the glue will dry. And that's it! Try different color combinations and try different motifs to create a neat Easter collection.

Outtakes:
My daughter wanted to glitter something too, so I quickly put this little project together for her. Popsicle sticks with a little tape, glue, and glitter. Super quick and easy. And she got tired of it after just three sticks, leaving me to finish putting together this tutorial in relative peace.



Inspiration:
Here are a couple of the images that inspired me to create this craft tutorial.
Martha Stewart glittered eggs
"Jesus" Easter Eggs by Jeanne Winters

Stenciled Tile Coasters for Lent - Tutorial

Lent is here. I half dread this time of the year. The sacrifice, formal confession, and self examination to prepare seem daunting and overwhelming. I've only been Catholic for a little under seven years now. The confessional still gives me butterflies. I can't eat until afterward. Shaking hands with a priest is intimidating to me. And the new responses at Mass...well I am already feeling anxious typing these words.

I take Lent day by day. Baby steps is what it takes to keep that Lenten promise. Getting back on the horse when you fall off brings you closer to getting it right the next time. Courage and asking for help keeping my faith through the unknown gives me strength to get through to Easter. Practicing my faith in my own way is something I am learning every day.

Since I am a doer and I work with my hands, I decided to do just that this Lenten season. I will craft.

I've found so much Easter crafting inspiration on Pinterest. And I've found inspiration from God himself. No kidding, this craft came to me as I was praying. Just in a flash really. I think it was God mixing a bit of all my loves together. My love of color, love to try a new technique, and my new love for typography all flowed together to create these stenciled tile coasters for Lent.

Materials:

• (4) 4"X4" white ceramic tiles (I got mine at Home Depot in the tile-flooring section for 16 cents each.)
• enamel acrylic paints in different colors (or the same color) These paints are by Folk Art, and cost about $3 a bottle. The ones I used here are: 4028 Purple Lilac; 4003 Baby Pink; 4120 Soft Apple; 4017 Lemon Custard 
• medium flat paint brush (the tip should be square, not pointy.)
• (1) sheet adhesive mailing labels 2"X4" or larger (and maybe another for mess-ups and printer jams, I used Avery 18163)
• A computer printer (and the computer to go with it...and a word processing program,) or you could hand draw your own letters
• X-acto knife (with sharp extra blades)
• masking tape
• A thick magazine you don't want to read (or you could use a self-healing mat if you have one of these nifty things.)
• An oven, like the big one in your kitchen
• (16) adhesive felt circles 1/2" diameter or smaller (or alternatively you can use some Fabri-Tac glue and felt scraps and make your own.)

How To:

1. Wash tiles with soapy warm water and rinse. Wipe dry. 

2. Using a computer printer, print on the adhesive mailing labels the words "love," "hope," "faith," and "Jesus." (Do a couple test prints first and see how large your words come out, and where they lie on the page. I was able to get each word, except Jesus, to fit on it's own label. This makes it easier later. Using MS Word, and Garamond font in 100 pt. with 24 pt spaces between each letter, I got something that fit well on the 4" tile. My left page margin was .5" and I didn't use the label wizard.)

3. Place the labels sheet on the thick magazine and use an X-acto knife to cut out the black letters. (A patient hand makes the best round corners. This will be your stencil. For the letters with middle parts, like, "o," and "a," leave a small part to keep the middle piece from flying around. See my "e" above.)

4. Cut a masking tape piece to fit along the bottom side edge of the tile. Place it on the side edge as below. Make one edge flush with the face of the tile and fold the tape to the back of the tile. If the tape peels up a little, this is not a problem since the stencil label will fold over the top of the masking tape in the next step.

5. Carefully peel off the label backing, align the label-stencil along the masking-taped edge of the tile and press all edges of each letter so that they firmly adhere to the tile surface. (Press with the round back end of the X-acto knife and not with your fingers, to avoid getting oils onto the surface of the tiles. This will help prevent the enamel paint from streaking.) Fold the bottom edge of the label over the masking tape edge. I took a bit of artistic liberty here and made the letters drop off the edge of the tile to make them look like they were peeking up.

6. Gently paint over your stencil with the color of your choice. And let dry for about 30 seconds before removing the stencil and the masking tape. I had a terribly difficult time with this step. In lieu of pouncing, I decided I liked the brush stroke look. After tons of streaky finishes, I deduced that you should use the smallest amount of paint to get adequate coverage, wait until it barely dries, about 30 seconds, and then give it another very thin coat. Keep your brush strokes light and all in the same direction. Don't forget to brush out the paint that bunches up and collects in the corners because it will just makes lines and smears in the end. Remember to remove the stencil before the paint dries entirely, or else risk your hard work coming up like a bad sunburn-peel. AND, most importantly, don't let your four-year-old-crafter-in-training take over with her gloppy paint-ridden paintbrush!

7. Use the X-acto knife to gently scrape off those smears, smudges, and imperfect lines, like the one on the "o" you see above. This part was so very satisfying. It was like cleaning, perfecting, and polishing all in one. Don't brush the bits of paint off the project. It will make your perfect lines peel. Carefully use the knife blade and point to remove the excess paint you scrape off.

8. And presto, a clean stenciled tile.

9. To set the paint, the container says that you can let your work dry for 21 days or bake it for 30 minutes. If you are like me and you need blog pictures, let the tiles dry for 1 hour and then put them in a cold oven. Set the temp at 350 degrees F, and let the tiles and the oven warm up together. Set the timer for 30 minutes, after which turn off the oven and let the whole lot cool off. Remove your cool tiles from the oven and they are  now handwashing/top-dishwasher rack safe.

10. Glue four felt circles to the underside of the tiles; one at each corner.

*    *    *

I am not really a coaster kind of person. I was thinking of attaching ribbon to the backs and hanging them up on hooks too. In the end I decided this might be best as a gift. And I have just the person in mind!

Outtakes:
This was one of the first times I've stenciled anything. It felt like rouge low-tack paint tape on dirty walls with all the seepage of paint under the stencil.

This paint stuff comes off the tile with some hot soapy water and a scrubbie. Near-perfection, was achieved after many, many re-do's.

My daughter decided to help mid-project. Not good. Too much paint. Everywhere!

I tried to re-use the stencil she used so I didn't have to X-acto knife the entire thing again. Word to the wise: don't do it. Do not reuse the stencils. Its messy, smudgy, and yucky.

I am not sold on the yellow in this color combo. Maybe its too spring-chick-like for me. And the green came out really, really light. I like the hue, but not the intensity. So if you are considering "green-apple" or "lemon custard" you might want to think again.

Inspiration:
If you've read this far...that's great! I thought I'd add in a couple of links to show my appreciation for some of the other artists out there who created the wonderful work that inspired this craft. Thank you!
Hand Painted Tile Coasters by Marangelie Caballero
Scrabble Tile Coasters LOVE by Terrills Tiles