Egg-Tastic Tree!

I am always on the hunt for another craft to make with Lydia (and eventually Vivian.) The other night I was on etsy and saw wooden eggs. I thought they would be fun to paint and showcase in an easter basket as decoration. Since they were wooden I thought we could take pictures every year and repaint them. Sadly when they arrived they are a little too small. The description does say they are about 2 inches tall but in my head so is a regular egg, turns out not so much.

Instead of going out and widdling the size eggs I had hoped for, I opted for another project instead. Similiar idea but just slightly less expensive. I found the inspiration on pinterest to make an Easter egg tree. I thought it was cute. It was easy to make.

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 water

I mixed it up in an average bowl and rolled it out. I used a circle cookie cutter but bent it a little to make an oval shape. It made an easy dozen eggs. Then, I used one the of the straws from Lydia's sippy cups and made the holes on top. The oven was set at 250 and I put them in the oven for an 1hr and 30 minutes. We have a gas oven so I took them out a little earlier than the instructions stated. They were great. I even forgot to add parchment paper and they didn't stick which I was so thankful for. I let them cool and stored in a baggie until we were ready to paint.

http://www.designmom.com/2013/03/diy-salt-dough-eggs/ This is the Easter Egg Tree link that inspired me.

The one thing to know going into painting with a toddler is that anything can happen. Lydia is pretty good at not getting paint every where but I still add paper underneath and make sure she isn't wearning anything I love. We have a set of smocks that I use too.

I let her paint them, any way she wanted. In my mind I had grand plans of going on a little nature hike at one of the many amazing parks in the area. Instead I walked outside of my house with the vine cutters and jumped up and cut off a branch that I thought would work. It wasn't easy because I am short and I am positive if my neighbors would have seen me they would have laughed at my nuttiness. Turns out that after all my trouble hacking at our tree, we have a giant bucket of twigs on the back yard so I grabbed a couple of those too. I had an empty planter and stuck the twigs into a piece of styrofoam. I tied ribbons through the holes and we hung them.

I think it turned out nicely and is now at the center of our mantel over the fireplace. I put the painted wooden eggs in a basket I had at the house and set it on the table, so not to waste any crafty efforts.