Oh, What to Do with Those Plastic Eggs?

It's Eastertime and those bags of plastic eggs are everywhere.  So apart from putting candy into them for your children's Easter baskets, here are two other ideas for you to ponder.  So put on your crafter's hats, ladies, and here 'ya go:

Resurrection Eggs

Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are fun and exciting to some and I grew up in a household that celebrated both.  Who wouldn't love a big furry bunny giving you an entire basket of candy or a jolly old man who brings you a satchel of gifts?  I mean, come on!   However, now that I have kids of my own, we do still keep the surprise of these magical characters going in our household (until they start school and, I suspect, will discover the truth), but we also want them to understand that these holidays are about so much more than Santa and an overgrown bunny.

So this Easter I discovered from some friends this coined term of "Resurrection Eggs," which are 12 plastic eggs that each dislay a different station of the cross on the path to Christ's Crucifixtion and Resurrection.  I became curious and Googled and well, one thing led to another.  Next thing I knew, I had craft materials spread all over our kitchen table and I was gathering items from around the house to put together a set of these special eggs for both our family and a friend's family as a gift.  This seemed like the perfect visual for my children to memorize the details of Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection.  It's like the ultimate Bible story in an egg carton and to us, this is so important for my children to learn so they can understand the real meaning of what we’re celebrating at Easter.

Resurrection Eggs are available at your local Christian bookstore for about $15, but making them yourself is less expensive, more personal and so much more fun.  It took me about 2 hours to make two sets of these eggs from start to finish so this is not a long-term committment.  Even if you are not a usually crafty person, I suspect you will be able to tackle this one.  Trust me, they are easier than making dinner on some days with a few fussy kids underfoot :).

A web site I had found created this PDF with the verses so you can print them out easily for your own use:  Resurrection Egg Verses

On the night before Easter, my family all sat around and opened all 12 eggs, one by one.  We read the verses, let the kids look at the visuals inside each egg and discussed what was happening in each verse.  Since our children are so young (5, 3 and 1), we actually used their Easter story book as an aid for several of the longer, more tedious verses and instead read that page of the book to them.  For other verses, we used The Message so that it would be easier for them to understand.  All in all, they really enjoyed them and the five year old, especially, was asking questions and seemed to recall parts of the story afterwards since he could relate it to the object inside one of the specifc eggs.

Enjoy!  I pray that you and your family find value in this project so that you, too, can enlighten your little ones on the amazing story of Christ's Death and Resurrection!

Here are our eggs:

Day 1: Palm branch. I cut up an old fake ivy leaf that I had around the house.
Day 2: Perfume. Put some perfume on a cotton ball.
Day 3: Towel. Cut a piece from an old towel.
Day 4: Little piece of bread or a cracker (matzo, Carr cracker, etc.)
Day 5: 3 dimes because Judas was paid 30 silver coins when he betrayed Jesus. And a sword, which can be made with a toothpick and foil.
Day 6: Crown of thorns. I just used a rose branch from our yard.
Day 7: Dice and a little robe cut out of a piece of cardstock or fabric.
Day 8: Cross and nails. I just used 2 little sticks and bound them together with embroidery floss.
Day 9: Sponge with a little vinegar. I soaked it in vinegar and then squeezed it out. The smell remains, but your sponge doesn’t stay wet.
Day 10: Spices. Use whatever whole spices you have. Cloves, Cinnamon sticks.
Day 11: Rock. Any small pebble will work.
Day 12: Leave empty so symbolize Jesus' body not being found in the tomb.



Easter Egg Topiaries

Well, here we are at our church's Easter fair amidst all of the splendors of Spring...live baby chicks, giant Easter eggs on the walls, carrots and Easter Egg Topiaries.  What?!?!  What is that, you say?  Well, if you are in need of an elegant decoration for your house that won't break the budget and will be complete in a few hours, then here you go.  Unfortunately, I do not have step by step photographs of the process, but these are very easy so I'll just attempt to explain it.

First, gather a tall container or display pot of choice.  Fill with floral foam and poke with a medium girth dowel, which you can paint brown or white if desired.  Fill the containers up with fake Easter grass and poke a 6-10" styrofoam ball on the top of the dowel.  Gather MANY Easter eggs; this takes more than you think.  I believe we had about 50 of them for each topiary and we used the 6" styrofoam balls.  Heat up your hot glue gun and begin placing the eggs around the styrofoam with hot glue, about 1-2 inches apart.  Once all of the eggs are on the ball, you can place a blob of glue between two eggs and then press a small handful of Spanish moss between the eggs.  Repeat until the entire surface is covered with eggs and filled with Spanish moss in betweem them.  Voila, that is it and now you have a lovely decoration for your home.

No-Sew Blankets

I am certain that I am not the first person to ever make a no-sew fleece blanket.  In fact, I may actually be the very last person on earth to attempt making one, given the number of individuals buying fleece in 1.5 yard lots at Jo-Ann fabric when I was there. Now that I know how simple they are to make, I can only surmise that anyone buying fleece must certainly be making one.Or three.  What started out as a homemade Christmas present I'd give to my 1-year-old daughter this year, since she really doesn't have an ultra-warm blanket bigger than an infant size, turned into me deciding to make a blanket for each of my boys, too.  Our house gets so cold in the winter since it's 160 years old, so tucking them in at night with a double-layer fleece blankie sounded like a great idea.

So, about $10-$15 each for material and approximately 1.5 hours each later, I now have three no-sew fleece blankets to wrap up for my children for Christmas in fun patterns that I think they will all enjoy. 

Now, I certianly was familiar with these blankets before this week.  My friend Amy had actually made me one for my baby shower in a fun frog print.  We still use it regularly in our playroom, as a blankie to crawl around on, cover each other with, put babies on, etc.  It just never occured to me to find out how to make them myself before, until I started thinking about some useful items I could give the children for Christmas this year.  All of a sudden, I found myself at Jo-Ann fabric, deciding between flowers or polka dots, pirates or baseballs. 

What really enticed me, however, was the "no sew" tagline.  Granted, I do know how to sew and I do own a sewing machine.  However, my crafty skills lie elsewhere and sewing is usually not my first love.  I love the project ideas you can make by sewing and have vowed to look into more of them this year, but for now, my bobbins remain empty.  So, without a doubt, the fact that I can make these blankets with nothing more than a ruler, some masking tape and a pair of scissors is very exciting to me!

In case there is someone out there who, like me, has always wondered how to make these blankets but has never tried, or someone who is maybe hearing about them for the first time, I am including instructions below.  There are several weeks left until Christmas and each of these blankets took me less than 2 hours to make.  So, it is definitely a doable homemade gift idea for someone special on your list.  Just don't go showing my children this photo before December 25th, ok? :)

No-Sew Fleece Blankets
2 pieces of fleece, 1.5 yards each. 
scissors
ruler
pins
masking tape

Cut the seams off of your fleece pieces and line up, with right sides facing outward.  Pin together as best as possible.  Do one "clean up" trim around the edges of both pieces of fleece together, so that they are the exact same size.  If they are slightly off, no worries!  The nice thing about these blankets is that the fringe will mask any slight indescrepancies in measuring. 

Cut out a 4"x4" square from both pieces of fleece together, at each corner.

Pull one long piece of tape across the entire side of the blanket, to make a line of masking tape across your entire project.  Line the bottom of the tape up with the top of the 4" square in the corners and continue an inch or two past each end of the blanket to secure it to the table.

Trim 1 inch wide slits into both layers of the fleece on the taped side, going from the edge right up to the masking tape line.  Continue until the entire side is cut into slits.  Tie the corresponding slits together in double knots, this will be one top piece and one bottom piece of fleece.  As you tie them into knots, your fringe will be forming.

Continue on all sides until all sides have been slitted and all slits have been tied to make fringe.