I am collecting egg shells at the moment. Instead of breaking the eggs in the middle, I break them nearer the top. That way I can make some into Easter vases by placing one into a slosh of plaster the size of a fried egg.
When the plaster has drh out, I paint the paster green with some flowers on it and paint a few "grass blades" up the egg. The egg shell can then be filled with water and a few small flowers and green twigs can go into it.
For the kids I often add chenille chickens and wooden ladybirds or something like that.
The remaining egg shells are used for cress and mustard cress eggs. You can either place a small ball of cotton wool directly into the egg or onto a plate and then wet it with water and sprinkle it with cress seeds or mustard seeds. After five days the cress/mustard cress is ready to eat and to adorn your Easter table.
I usually place the eggshells into an egg-box with some eggshells planted up with daisies or other flowers.
And since I make many cress egs I usually place the cotton wool in Kinder Surprise trays that I pick up in the supermarket for free. Once grown they can be transplanted into the egg shells.
The shells can be dyed, painted or left as they are.
Ostergarten by natterjack3, auf FlickrIn Central and East Europe Easter is big and they really go to town on decorating their eggs with wax and dyes.
One can either use normal molten wax and a pinhead (stick the pin into a cork for easier handling) to apply the wax to the egg. Once the patter is on the egg, it can be dyed in a cold dye bath or a cooled down natural dye bath until the desired colour is achieved. The egg can then be cooked or blown out.
I did not make these, but they are ever so pretty.
This technique can be stepped up by applying wax and dyes several times to make multi-coloured eggs.
Another way is using coloured wax which is applied to the boiled or blown out egg. (Crayons can also be melted and used this way.)
What do you do for decorations?
