The Easter Collection

Eggs: They're not only a symbol of new life connected with spring and Easter, they 're also perfect little blank canvases for creating tiny works of art.

If you're like me, you can't get enough of egg decorating. During our annual family egg-decorating party I'm the biggest kid of all, dyeing my quota of eggs in record time. When my allotment of eggs is used up, I dye them all over again, using a piece of candle to make wax-resist patterns.

If you're willing to venture beyond the tried and true, try gold- and silver-leafed eggs or "collage" eggs made with art tissue paper. Or buy cardboard eggs from a craft store and dress them up with colorful paper or paint, paint pens and ribbon. And if you're truly adventuresome, make a moss-covered egghead or try HGTV craft queen Carol Duvall's method of inserting tiny pictures into an egg.

Preparing Eggs for Decorating

Eggs can be hard-boiled so they can be eaten, or blown out while raw. Blowing out an egg involves removing the yolk and white while leaving the shell mostly intact . The traditional methods of egg decorating, such as Pysanky--Ukrainian Easter egg decorating--use raw eggs. The contents of the shell eventually dry up completely over time, and symbolically the traditional raw egg is the best type of egg to keep , as the "might" of the egg remains in the shell. If you choose to decorate raw eggs , remember that they are fragile, and if they break before fully dry, they will release those noxious, rotten-egg fumes.

Blowing Eggs

For this technique, make a small hole with a needle at either end of the egg, being sure to pierce the yolk. Place your mouth over one end and blow gently until all the contents are out. The USDA says because some raw eggs may contain salmonella , you must use caution when blowing out eggs. Use only eggs that have been kept refrigerated and are uncracked. To destroy bacteria that may be present on the surface of the egg, wash the egg in hot water and then rinse in a solution of one teaspoon chlorine bleach per half cup of water. Rinse well in warm water again.

Art Tissue-Paper Collage Eggs

Cut or tear small pieces of art tissue paper (it won't bleed when wet) and stick them to hard-boiled eggs with Mod Podge or diluted white glue. We used a 1/2-inch brush to cover the egg with glue mixture and then set the tissue-paper pieces in place. Brush glue on the stuck-on pieces, then add more pieces, overlapping as you go. Seal the finished egg with two or three coats of Mod Podge. This process can also be used on foam, wooden or cardboard eggs. The cardboard eggs shown on the Easter feather tree were covered with paper (the trick: cut slits at each end of a rectangular piece of paper the length of the egg. Glue one little strip at a time, overlapping as you go). Cardboard eggs can also be painted and decorated with markers.

Fun Family Photo Eggs

Gaze into a teenie-weenie egg to view a beloved family member or pet. Thanks to HGTV's Carol Duvall (see CDS-568) for perfecting these gazing eggs. We covered them with art tissue-paper collage. The outside of the egg is decorated first, then the egg is drained and the snapshot is affixed inside.

Tips for selecting photographs: The photo image should be small enough to fit inside the egg with extra room at the top. If the selected image is too large, use a copy machine to reduce it to the proper size. Original photographs are sturdy enough to stand without support. If you use a photocopy, either laminate it or glue it to an index card to give it more body.

Materials:

raw eggs at room temperature
decorative materials for outside of egg: art tissue paper, decorative napkins or metal leaf
decorative materials for inside back of egg: art tissue paper, craft paint or small scenery photo
scissors
Mod Podge or diluted white glue
flat brush about 1/2 inch wide
cuticle scissors
snapshots
small piece of cardboard
strip of card stock for stand

Steps:

1. Decorate the outside of the raw egg. We used the art tissue-paper collage method. Thin layers of decorative napkins are an alternative to tissue paper. Gold- or silver-leafing is also an option. Note: If gold- or silver-leafing the outside of the egg, cut the hole and rinse out the egg (steps 2 and 3) before painting or attaching the gold leaf.

2. Using cuticle scissors with blades closed, poke a small hole in one side of the egg, then open the scissors and cut an opening. Follow the outline of the egg when cutting the opening; it should be large enough to easily accommodate the photo image inside but small enough to give the illusion of looking inside something.

3. Thoroughly rinse out the inside of the egg with running water. If you plan to paint the inside of the egg instead of covering it with a picture or tissue paper, remove the membrane so it will not flake out later.

4. If you line the interior of the egg with tissue paper, use the same method as used for the outside of the egg, and extend the tissue paper over the edge of the hole to the outside to create a finished edge. If using a paper scene for the background, first create a pattern by placing the egg, opening side down, on a piece of paper. Draw a line around the egg about 3/4 inch from the outer edge. Cut this out. Draw a second oval inside the first about 3/4 inch from the outer edge. Cut many slashes from the outer edge to the drawn oval. Push it into the egg. It should fit reasonably well with most of the inside of the egg covered. Any protruding paper can be snipped off. This will be your pattern.

5. Place the pattern on the background photo, trace around and cut it out. Slash around the outer edge and push it into the egg. It should hold snugly without any gluing.

6. Cut the selected image and fit it into the egg. It should look as if it is on the ground and not floating in the air. Experiment to see where the image looks the best. It will give the illusion of most dimension if it not placed too far to the front or the back. When you've determined the placement, glue the image into position using a small folded strip of cardboard glued or taped to the back of the picture as well as to the inside back wall of the egg.

7. If grass is desired, cut many tiny pieces of green tissue paper and place them inside the egg.

8. Make a small stand for the egg with a ring of cardstock or lightweight cardboard. Cut a 1/2-inch wide strip about six inches long. Cut a slit at each end of the strip on opposite sides, about an inch in from the end, and interlock the slits to form a ring. Glue the ends flat.

Eggs-cellent Eggheads

Glue a photo of your favorite pretty face to a wooden egg and surround with a headful of sheet-moss "hair." Use white glue to attach the photo to the egg and hot glue to attach the moss.

Wax-Resist Dyed Eggs

Dye eggs the old-fashioned way with food color and vinegar. The directions on the food coloring package make it easy: add one teaspoon of vinegar to 1/2 cup boiling water and add 20 drops of the desired color. You're not limited to the red, yellow, blue and green enclosed; follow the recipes on the back of the package to create lots of great colors like orange sunset, jungle green and teal blue. Make patterned eggs by drawing on a dyed egg with a piece of wax--a candle stub about three inches long, quartered lengthwise and sharpened works well--then dipping the egg in another color. The waxed area will resist the new dye color, making your drawn design visible . Create a complex surface design by overdyeing two or three times, drawing a new pattern between each dye bath. If you end up with eggs the color of mud, just rinse them off and begin again.

A Tisket, a Tasket, a Cardboard Basket

Our grass-green Easter basket was another Carol Duvall inspiration (see CDS-568). Ours is made with corrugated cardboard salvaged from an old box, then painted with acrylic craft paints. Make your own using recycled cardboard, or buy new corrugated with the flutes already exposed. For a glimmery look try metallic corrugated paper, available at art supply shops.

Materials:

corrugated cardboard
ruler
pen or pencil
craft knife
scissors
medium - and fine-grit sandpaper
white glue
acrylic craft paint and paintbrush
Mod Podge or polyurethane sealer - optional

Steps:

1. Determine the size you want your basket to be. Ours is 8" x 10" with 4-inch-high sides. Draw a square or rectangle the size of the bottom of the basket in the middle of your piece of cardboard. Draw another square or rectangle around the first one to correspond with the height you want the sides of the basket to be. In our example, this line is four inches from the first rectangle, to correspond to the height of the sides. Draw another line 3/4 inch beyond the outside line all the way around.

2. Draw a line from each corner of the inside square to the corresponding corner on the outside square. Draw another line on each side of this line from the inside corner to the outside edge (figure A). The lines should be the same length .

3. Along one of these lines in each corner, draw another line about 1/2 inch away from the first line and parallel to it (figure B).

4. Cut out as indicated by the dark lines in figure C.

5. Peel the paper off one side of the cardboard to reveal the fluted corrugation . If the paper doesn't peel off easily, use a craft knife to cut slits in the paper in the valleys between the flutes before peeling it away. If necessary, use sandpaper to remove any bits of paper backing that remain on the fluting.

6. Turn the cardboard over and use a ruler and a pencil to score along the fold lines.

7. The corner tabs will hold adjoining sides of the basket together. To join each corner, fold the corner tabs to the inside. Apply glue to the corrugated side of each tab, then fold adjoining sides upward and hold in place.

8. Make a handle for the basket with a long length of corrugated cardboard folded in half. Cut the piece of cardboard double the width of the finished handle with the flutes running across the handle. If the flutes run along the length of the handle, it will not be flexible. Peel the backing off one side of the cardboard, draw a fold line lengthwise down the middle of the other side, score the fold line, then fold to form handle. Glue the two sides of the handle together.

9. Paint the basket and handle with acrylic craft paint.

10. Glue the handle in place on the basket.

11. Seal the painted surface, if desired, with Mod Podge or polyurethane.

A Heavy-Metal Easter!