Easy DIY Mod Podge Glitter Sand Easter Eggs Craft

Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for providing the glitter sand and additional craft supplies for our Easter craft tutorial.  All opinions expressed are my own.

If you've dyed and decorated hard-boiled eggs before, then you might be familiar with the slight feeling of sadness when it's time to discard your beautiful works of art.  On the same note, you might wish that you could display your beautifully decorated eggs all throughout the Easter season instead of hiding them in the fridge.  Having felt this way many times year after year, I decided to decorate some eggs that can be left out to be enjoyed during this year's Easter holiday and can be used again for years to come.

Today's Craft Project:  Mod Podge Glitter Sand Easter Eggs

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

basic plastic Easter eggs (any size)

glitter sand assortment

Mod Podge

craft sponge or brush

shallow trays or bowls (one for each color of sand)

wax paper (optional)

Step 1.  Be sure your plastic eggs are free of dust and hair (they tend to hold a lot of static).

Step 2.  Apply Mod Podge all around the edge of an opened egg.  Then close the egg tightly and hold in place for a minute or two until the glue sets.

Step 3.  Pour one color of glitter sand into a clean empty tray or bowl.

Tip #1:  For a uniform effect, use sand that is similar in color to the plastic egg you wish to coat.

Step 4.  Holding your egg with the tips of your thumb and index finger, apply Mod Podge to the entire exterior of the egg.

Tip #2:  Cover as much of the egg's surface as you can, then place the egg on its side into the tray containing the sand.  Carefully apply Mod Podge to the two spots where your fingers were holding the egg.

Step 5.  Using your finger tips, gently roll and turn the egg until it is completely coated in the sand.  Then place it on wax paper to dry.

Tip #3:  Your finger tips will get coated in glue and sand, but that's a good thing.  Once your fingers are coated in sand, you will be able to hand the egg without taking sand off the surface of the egg while the glue is still wet.

Step 6.  Once the glue has dried, gently brush any excess sand off the egg.

Once you have enough eggs, you can display them however you like.  I used a large silver tin pail decorated simply with ivory jute cord and a glass butterfly pendant.  They would also be perfect to display in your favorite basket, on a mantle, or as part of a tablescape.  You could even use them in an Easter egg hunt or as party favors.

I should also mention that I experimented with mixing the remainder of the blue, yellow, and light green sand together with white sand.  I used the mixture to coat a variety of different colored eggs.  The results varied depending on the color of the bare egg.  I was happier with the results using the lightest colored eggs.  If you experiment with this, be sure to let me know what you think!


If you like this easy Easter craft, be sure to Pin It for future reference:

My Photos: W/E 4-7-12

It's Easter Sunday!  Doesn't it feel like it was just Christmas?  What are your Easter traditions?  We usually leave out baskets for the Easter Bunny to fill.  Then I try to get a photo of the Easter Bunny in our house to show the children in the morning.  After we have a small breakfast and they see what's in their baskets, we head to my cousin's house to have Easter brunch with her family.  I'll be sure to share our Easter day photos later on this week.

Happy Easter everybody!!!

Click here to view all my past favorite photos.

3 New Low-Mess Paas Easter Egg Dying Kits

There is less than one week until Easter Sunday.  You may be planning on decorating Easter eggs this week, so I wanted to share our experience with some of the new Paas Egg Dying Kits for 2012.  There are actually 8 new kits this year, but I chose the 3 that I thought my children would enjoy the most and would make the least amount of mess.  It is one of my ongoing goals to find low-mess children's craft projects that still have an end result they can be both excited about and proud of.

The 3 kits I opted to try are the Paas Deggorating Doodles, the Eggstra Terrestrials, and the 3D Eggsplosion kit.  The Deggorating Doodles kit came with four markers and two strips of wax paper stencils.  The tips of the marker were soft, making them more like a cross between a fine-tipped marker and a paintbrush.  The Eggstra Terrestrials kit came with six eggarounds and one sheet of glow-in-the-dark foam stickers.  The 3D Eggsplosion Kit included 3D chalk, 3D glasses, a sheet of stickers and six eggarounds.  All kits came with a pack of dye tablets and a wire egg dipper.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

One thing that is cool about having more than one kit is that you can look for one kit that has the standard dye colors and the second one can have the brighter neon colors.  Also, with 3 children, there was less waiting because we had set up more cups of dye this year.

My favorite parts of the 3 kits were the eggarounds, the 3D chalk, and the glow-in-the-dark foam stickers.  The eggarounds were so easy to use.  You just slip one around a dyed egg that is already dry and drop it into boiling water for 2 or 3 seconds.  The eggaround shrinks right up and creates a beautifully decorated egg.  Although the eggarounds looked very cool in the end, there was not much hands-on fun for the kids when using those.  Also, the eggarounds do not fit over eggs that are especially round.

The glow-in-the-dark foam stickers were mess-free and looked very cool.  They actually did glow in the dark slightly, but it was difficult to photograph.

I thought the 3D chalk was easy to use and it looked extremely cool when looking at the decorated eggs through the 3D glasses.  My children, however, seemed to have trouble using the chalk.  They all complained that the chalk would not show up for them like it did for me.  I still have yet to figure out what was causing the difficulty for them.

Of all three kits, our children liked the messiest one the best . . . the Deggorating Doodles kit.  They loved it even though the tips were soft and were not as precise as they would have liked and they got ink all over their hands.  The ink from the markers did not dry immediately, so it would transfer onto other things when the egg was handled or put down.  Also, the ink would still be wet on the stencils and would transfer onto the egg of the next user.  Even when I was trying my hand at using the markers and stencils, I had a hard time being neat even though I was ever-so careful.  Still, my children loved using the markers, which really were not that messy when compared to using paint and glue.  I guess when you are choosing your kits, you will need to consider that what is fun for an adult is not necessarily fun for a child and vice versa.

Visit PaasEasterEggs.com and PAAS on Facebook to view the entire line of egg decorating kits.  They usually retail for $2.99 and up and you can find PAAS kits at your local supermarket, drug store, and big box stores.

Thank you to PAAS for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.

Ruby Tuesday: Easter Eggs-To-Be

Two weekends ago, we decorated Easter eggs like we do every year before Easter.  I always hard boil two dozen eggs the day before.  I usually get one or two that crack or get fissures, but this year, I lucked out and none of the eggs were damaged during boiling.  The eggs stayed safe in the fridge in my red collapsible colander.  I couldn't resist taking a photo.  White eggs always look so pristine to me.

If you'd like to see more Ruby Tuesday photos, go visit Mary at Work of the Poet!

Free Printables: Easter Bunny, Easter Egg Car, and More Coloring Pages

These are some adorable Easter-themed coloring pages that I will be printing out for my three children plus a friend who will be coming over for a playdate tomorrow.  All these Easter images can be found at ColoringPages24.com along with many other themed coloring pages.

My favorite is the one with the pile of eggs.  I think both my sons will love the Easter egg mobile.  My daughter will love the girl with the Easter basket of course.  Which one is your favorite?

TO PRINT: Click on any image to enlarge. Then right click and select print. Hit the "back" arrow on your browser to return to this page to print another color page.

The above images were provided by Coloring Pages 24.  No compensation was received for sharing these images with my readers.

Creating With Colors: 3 New Paas Egg Decorating Kits

Last year, we had the pleasure of trying out two new Easter egg decorating kits from Paas.  This year we actually were able to experience three new kits.  Our children are one year older and the twins have quite a bit more patience than they did last year when it comes to sitting down and completing a craft project.

Like last year, I hard boiled two dozen white eggs in advance.  My husband made sure to use vinegar with the tablets and we made sure there was at least six cups of dye, so each child could have two eggs going at once.

Of the five new Easter egg decorating kits released by Paas for 2011, we received the following three . . .

• Pirate Princess
• Wild Wheels
• Fun Eggspressions

The children each were able to choose what color egg they wanted their eggs to be.  We even did some that were half one color and half another.  We did not use the wax crayon that came in the Wild Wheels kit to block out the dye on as many eggs as we did during past years.  I think the children were more interested in the themed stickers and also the fun extras included in the Fun Eggspressions kit.  It took about 20 minutes for the eggs to dry before we could decorate them.

Both the Pirate Princess and the Wild Wheels stickers were a big hit.  Although they seem gender-specific, our daughter did enjoy trying to make a car out of her egg to give to one of her brothers and the boys did use some of the pirate-themed stickers.  The stickers in the Fun Eggspressions were gender-neutral.  I think the whole family can agree that our favorite part was the glue and sand that came with the Fun Eggspressions kit.  Even when the design did not come out as the children had first envisioned, the effect was still very cool to look at.

You can learn more about these and other Paas products at PaasEasterEggs.com.  You can find Paas egg decorating kits at most major retailers who carry seasonal Easter decorations and toys.

Thank you to Paas for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.

My Photos (W/E 4-16-11)

This week for Weekly Winners, I have an odd assortment of photos to offer.  This is what happens when I try to be creative and not only take photos of my children.  I hope there will be at least one that you like.

"Double Paws Mean Double the Cuteness"

"Girl Meets Boy"

"Ready For Transformation"

Thank you for taking the time to view my photos this week! If you'd like to play along or see more great photos, stop by to see Lotus a.k.a. Sarcastic Mom.

Easter Egg Hunt & Sunday Brunch (2010)

By mid-morning on Easter, we were headed to my cousin's house to take part in an Easter egg hunt and to enjoy brunch with her and her family. It turned out to be a beautiful day weather-wise . . . like summertime.

When we arrived, the eggs were already hidden. The twins seemed to remember what to do from last year's egg hunt and Jake didn't need any instructions at all either. I've never seen my children move so quickly. I wish they were this speedy when it came time for cleaning up their toys at home. There were enough eggs for each child to collect fourteen and the hunt was over in about ten minutes.

Ready for the hunt . . .

On the move . . .

Enjoying the beautiful weather . . .

Dessert time . . .

Spending time with their cousin . . .

It was really a fun and relaxing day for the most part. We were all tuckered out even though we were only there for about three hours or so. I think we successfully created some very happy memories that Sunday.