Eggs are synonymous with Easter each spring—always a favorite season for gardeners.
Increasingly, homeowners in metro Denver keep chickens or at least enjoy farm fresh eggs.
You can make these festive, long-lasting, enchanting eggs using fresh eggs--or eggs that have lingered too long in your refrigerator.
For this project, you'll need eggs with the innards blown out, bits of fabric, and glue.
My mother, who celebrated all holidays with high style, taught me how to makes these eggs when I was in high school. With some supervision, this project works well as a holiday craft for your children or grandchildren. I did this project years ago with my Girl Scout troop of 4th or 5th graders; and they loved it.
Here’s how:
• Blow eggs: Using an ice pick, a nail or other sharp instrument, poke holes in both ends of an egg. Working over a bowl, blow out the contents of the egg. You can use the eggs for cooking, baking, or however you use eggs.
Note: This is the hardest part of the project. Blowing out the egg contents takes some breath power, and doing so without crushing the shell takes a delicate touch and is not suited for children.
Also, you might find that the egg causes larger holes when you blow out the contents. That’s ok: you’ll cover the hole with fabric. I’ve even salvaged some of the broken eggs and covered them, as is. They have a charming look, even when broken.
• Rinse out the eggs. You’ll have to hold them under water or run some water through them. Allow hollow eggshells to dry.
• Cut up pieces of fabric. To vary texture, I used everything from polished cotton upholstery material to flannel to cut-up floral ribbons. To keep the fabric separated, you might put pieces in bowls or a cupcake pan.
Note: I covered some eggs in soft paper, too. The fabric was easier to work with, more pliable.
• Glue fabric on hollow egg. Using craft glue or decoupage glue or just regular Elmer’s glue and a paintbrush, begin to coat the egg with glue. Then add a snip of fabric. Pant another area of the egg with glue, then cover with fabric. Repeat until fabric covers the egg.
• Glue suggestions: Egg cups can be handy when working with these eggs. I found it easiest to work on on half at a time so the eggs could rest as glue dried without getting stuck to a surface. Or you could stand the sticky eggs atop skinny jars or just let them lie on wax paper.
You might want to add an overcoat of glue to the eggs to seal the fabric. Again just be careful to do that one half at a time so the egg won’t get stuck.
Also, you might keep a damp sponge handy for wiping fingertips, which can get sticky with glue.
• Extra touches: I went a step further on a few of my eggs. Using a glitter pen, I added polka dots to a few fabric-covered eggs. Others, I rolled in crystals from a craft store to add sparkle. You might add a small silk flower glued to the top tip of an egg. Use your imagination to add your own touches.
But the eggs are fine with just the fabric--beautiful to behold, light to the touch, and a source of lightheartedness in this wondrous season of rebirth: spring!
••• "Cultivate your corner of the world.
You grow your garden; your garden grows you." •••
• Colleen Smith's gift book "Laid-Back Skier" makes a sweet Easter gift! This whimsical, inspirational book includes lots of ski bunnies and encouragement for life's ups and downs. Watch "Laid-Back Skier's" brief YouTube video here.
• Colleen Smith’s first novel, “Glass Halo”—a finalist for the 2010 Santa Fe Literary Prize — is available in hardcover or e—book.
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