Paper Mache Easter Eggs

By Kate Riley March 24, 2010

My friend Lindsay is having a crafty little contest on Thursday and I thought I’d throw my name in the hat.  I consider myself pretty thrifty, but when you are forced to stick to a $5 dollar budget in this contest, you must get very resourceful.   

So I got my craft on the other day and made some paper maché Easter eggs using what I already had in my house – which is tricky when you only have brown eggs and very thin tissue paper.  But my kindergartener and I managed to hatch a fresh batch of blue eggs on the cheap. 

paper mache easter eggs 

Disclosure:  I was completely unsure when I started this project if it would be a disastrous waste of time, so I decided to invest nothing beyond what I had on hand, which meant using brown not white eggs.  Or you can just use store bought plastic eggs, but I’m cheap.  Unsure of the outcome, I refused to brush my hair, my teeth, or get dressed out of my flannel plaid pajamas to make a special trip to the craft store or grocery store.  In hindsight, white eggshells would work better to save time and several layers of tissue.  Just saying. 

First things first.  Poke a little hole in your eggshell to drain your egg whites and yolk.

little hole in egg 

I used a martini pick.  See, they’re not just for my cocktails.  They multitask. 

drain eggs

 

Rinse out your eggshells and allow them to drain in a very scientific contraption involving a strainer and a bowl. 

drain egg shells

Once the eggshells are dry, mix your glue with a few tablespoons of water to make it sort of glazy.   Yes, ‘glazy’ is a word just in case you were wondering. 

craft glue and water

 

Cut up a bunch of strips of tissue paper in strips about 3/4 inch wide.  Or so. 

tissue paper

At this point, channel your inner fourth grader because you’re about to paper maché.  Or maché paper.  Whatever is grammatically correct.  Do not look back.  Do not pass Go.  Do not collect $200. 

Gingerly paint your eggshell with the glazy watered down craft glue with a small paintbrush, then start applying your layers of tissue paper.  Glaze and glue, glue and glaze.  Layer, layer, layer. 

I’m gonna guesstimate it’s about 15 to 18 strips of tissue per egg and it takes about five minutes to cover each one.  Maybe more.  With a kindergartener, I can guarantee a solid fifteen minutes per egg.  And very gooey stubby fingers.  And frustration and drama at the end of egg #1 which requires Mom to take over and finish the project that was supposed to be a bonding experience but has become a tedious craft. 

Your eggs will get all wrinkly in some parts.  The texture cannot be avoided due to curvaceous nature of an egg when you wrap tissue around it, but you can minimize with more moisture and thinner strips.  

tissue paper layers

For more vivid color, you could ‘kill two birds’ and add some craft paint to your glue – they do blend rather nicely.  This also will give you colored eggs if you only have white tissue paper on hand. 

craft paint and glue

 

Allow to dry on plastic for several hours and arrange in a charming little nest. 

paper mache easter eggs

 

Total cost: half dozen eggs $1.50; tissue paper $1.50

= $3.00 total.   

If you’ve got a great Dollar Store craft, link up to Lindsay’s Dollar Store Challenge, scheduled for Thursday March 25th, finalists to be selected by three great bloggers. 

lindsay challenge

The final burning question is what do you do with all of your egg whites and yolks ?  Why you make a gourmet scramble of course.  Mix in some cheese, tomatoes, and fresh herbs and float away to brunch heaven.  

scrambled with cheese herbs tomatoes 

In conclusion, any craft that has an edible ending certainly has my vote.  :-)

Bon Appétit !

.

43 comments

  1. “And frustration and drama at the end of egg #1 which requires Mom to take over and finish the project that was supposed to be a bonding experience but has become a tedious craft. ”

    Haha, oh, that’s my favorite part of the post – that just may be my favorite part of ANY post in 2010. Soooo true, and so funny. Thanks for starting my day off right! I love the project, the coloring turned out perfect, and it captured the delicate nature of the eggs so well. Love it!

  2. I was looking at our paper mache eggs we did 20 years ago..yes I said 20 years ago..they are really quite durable!! It was such a fun..no that’s not the word…..experience…better, but still not the word..mmmm oh yeah absolute messy free-fer-all..yep that would describe it. 5 homeschool children..most under 6..who had to HELP..me..by myself..with gluewater…tissue..sticking to anyone and everywhere..and eggs ..what was I thinking 7 each. Lets just say now….glue water and eggs in the same room….shudder!!
    But hey..those eggs have gone to their owners homes now and the girls actually mentioned doing this with their children..apparently it didn’t scar them!! lol
    We used white and painted them like easter eggs. Your idea look better..and cleaner..lol

    Thanks for sharing this memory with me..the nightmare is now imprinted to your mind..tee hee

    Cindy from Tx

  3. Thanks for the idea! I remember blowing out eggs years ago and i think we painted them.
    I’m going to make these tonight with my 4 year old. This should be interesting!

  4. I remember doing this back at school and loving it! I agree that crafting with littluns does become a leetle tedious when handling delicate objects though! I’ve yet to start any Easter decorations, I must hop to it :D

  5. Your kids will have memories of making tissue paper Easter eggs with Mom! They won’t remember that you took over:) Love the martini pick comment! & yes you have increased my vocabulary: glazy! Love it!

  6. How fun! I’m sure I would end up being the only one finishing this project, but at least it started off fun!

  7. These turned out great and I am so glad to read about someone else’s bonding craft experience turning a little not-so-bonding! This happens to me a little too often but I soldier on… lol.

  8. So pretty, but the last picture made me hungry! I’d love to know the color name of the blue paint you used. I think that your daughter will always remember this day.

  9. I tried papier maché once and promised myself “never again!” but you made me wonder…

    Maybe this time I WILL “channel my inner fourth grader” just to see! :)

  10. “Guarantee a solid 15 minutes.” Priceless!!! ;)

    I happen to love your blue eggs. They look great, and what’s even better is that you didn’t have to put make-up on to leave the house and shop for supplies. :)

    I forgot about that party…wonder if I’ll have time to come up with something. :s

  11. I was totally distracted by the Spanish label on your glue: ‘colle inelegante’. Is there an elegante version as well?? I will wonder about this all morning.

  12. My mom, grammy, and I used to do Pisanky/Pisanka (depends on where you’re from, I guess) eggs. Sometimes we had huge goose eggs, sometimes we used just plain chicken eggs. We didn’t hollow them out, though. After a few years, the insides had dried out and you can shake the egg and hear/feel the yolk bouncing around on the inside. :) It was great fun, but a meticulous and long process of inking, dying, removing wax, dying, inking, and etc… Just don’t ever break the egg open after it’s been sitting for a year+. It SMELLS AWFUL!

    images results of pisanka eggs http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1DVCC_enCA360CA360&q=pisanki&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=K0GqS8_FD4mStgP8osXhBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQsAQwAA

  13. Hi Kate! I’m a new reader of yours and absolutely love everything you do! You make me want to move to California and buy a huge house and visit flea markets every day! We reblogged this today for our own site (yaydiy.com) because we love it so much – it’s so spring. Can’t wait to see what you do next, really do love everything you write on here!

  14. I LOVE this idea. It’s the perfect things to keep my “too sick to go to school but not sick enough to stay in bed” kids busy today :)
    Thanks!!

  15. Those are so sweet. I love blue eggs. My chickens lay them that color so I don’t have to do a thing but blow them out and enjoy them. :) Lisa~

  16. Yummy craft idea and yummy scramble! :)

    I love the blue eggs. Your instructions made it look so simple. Perhaps even I can master it..?! :)
    I am very geared up to try this now (and it has nothing to do with my passion for a good scramble..) :)

    xCharlotta

  17. i love this idea! A few years back on a trip to Mexico for Spring Break we saw beautiful eggs being sold in the bakery…they were filled with confetti….the same idea as above but the eggs are filled with the confetti then paper mached…the children then celebrate easter by breaking them open …a shower of spring colored confetti everywhere…my kids had so much fun with them…thanks for the spring idea!

  18. I just tried this! well, kind of. I used Mod Podge and plastic eggs, and they’re really cute! Not as nice as yours though. I think I’m going to put some wrapped candies in before I paper mache them so they will be a nice surprise for my husband come Easter. thanks for the idea!

  19. So did you get dressed and brushed your teeth by the time you did this post? :). I like the blue you chose and the egg sandwich looks yummy.

  20. These are lovely! And the brunch looks so good it made me hungry. (Not good. It’s almost 1:00 AM while I’m typing!) :)

  21. Great post – great idea! Love your beauty shot… makes me want to get out the glue and tissue paper right this minute.

  22. This is perfect for an art project for my daughter and I!
    Thank you!
    She is about to turn 10 and is focusing now on less mess more detail (yay!)

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