Easter Surprise Eggs

Hello friends! I'm back today to show you how I decided to send off my bunnies...in surprise eggs! Surprise balls are old-fashioned children's gifts, where little trinkets are wrapped up in layers of crepe paper. I decided to modify the surprise ball idea to make surprise eggs. 

First, I found large (six-inch) plastic eggs and fun goodies to fill them with. 

Once the egg was filled, I attached crepe paper to the bottom of the egg with washi tape, and began winding the crepe paper around the egg. 

It doesn't look super great at the beginning, but you just keep winding. 

As you go, you slip little trinkets in the layers of crepe paper, so that they will fall out and surprise the recipient when it is unwrapped! 

Once I finished wrapping the egg in crepe paper, I taped the end of the paper down with more washi tape, and then decorated the egg with a sticker. 

Check out our Instagram feed for a video of the unwrapping of one of the surprise eggs! Happy Easter everybody! 

Hippity Hoppity Easter's On Its Way

Hello friends! After looking out at the non-stop pouring rain the last few days, I was inspired by the gorgeous pastel hues that I associate with Easter eggs to brighten up my dreary weekend. Since it's too early to dye eggs, I decided to make some egg banner decorations. Random family fact...we only ate egg salad once per year as a result of the post egg hunt hard boiled egg surplus. It wasn't until my adult life that I realized the amazing egg salad sandwich truly is available year round. I regularly order it for lunch at work since I was so deprived as a child.

I started with my Cameo Silhouette, and using the trick from my St. Patrick's Day post to trace remove portions of images, ended up with the perfect Easter egg in a variety of sizes.

I always enjoy playing with different color patterns. It reminds me of Elementary School art class.

I used my trusty hot glue gun to affix the eggs to scraps of ribbon.

I'm so excited to be heading down to New Orleans and San Diego this week. Trip highlights to come in future posts! I'll be reading up on Martha Stewart's 2015 Easter tips on the plane. Have fun with your Easter preparations!

Easter Bunny Tutorial

Little bunnies are multiplying in my craft room! In preparation for Easter I have been making bunnies for some of the kiddos in my life. This attachment has all of the template pieces needed to make a bunny of your own. This pattern is a tweaked version of my rabbit softie pattern, which makes a shorter, chubbier bunny. 

First things first, I cut all my pattern pieces out. I traced the templates onto my fabric with a disappearing ink pen. I also tried tracing with chalk and my Frixion pen, but due to the stretchiness of the jersey, the disappearing ink pen worked best. I traced and cut out the following pieces:

• two head pieces 
• four ear pieces
• two body pieces
• four arm pieces
• four leg pieces

The first pieces I sewed together are the ears. I sewed two pieces together with a scant quarter-inch seam, turned them right side in, and then topstitched an eighth of an inch or less from the edges. 

Then, in preparation for embroidering the rabbit's face, I sewed the ears on to one of the head pieces, aligning the base of the ears with the top of the front of the face, and taking just a few stitches to hold them in place. Then I drew on the face with the disappearing ink pen, and embroidered the face.

Next, I sewed the arms and legs together, leaving the base of each appendage open. I use the same pattern piece for the arms and the legs. Here's one of the arm/leg pieces in all the stages from cut pattern pieces to stuffed arm/leg. 

Then I attached the body pieces to the head pieces.

Then it was time to tack the arms and legs in place. I made sure to position the arms and legs facing in on top of the body when lining up the arm/leg raw edges with the raw edge of the body. Otherwise, when I turned your rabbit right side out, the arms and legs would have been facing the wrong way.

Then I sewed the head pieces together, right sides facing each other, and ears tucked in. I started and stopped stitching at the head/body junctions. 

Next I tucked the arms in. I sewed from the head/body junction down just past the armpit of one arm. Then I switched over to the other side of the body, and stitched from the head/body junction down the side. When I got near the bottom of the body, I stuffed the legs inside the body, then stitched around the bottom of the body past both legs. I left an opening between the leg and the armpit to turn the bunny right side out.

Side note...when my dear sister Lauren proofread this post, she compared me to a serial killer for talking about turning poor little bunnies inside out.

Seriously guys, I swear I'm not a serial killer of anything. I don't even like to kill real live spiders. I'm just a...serial bunny maker? I've got about 6 of these little guys going right now.

Serial killer comparisons aside, the next thing I did was turn and stuff the bunny. The last step is to sew up the opening. I like to use a ladder stitch. 

Hooray, you have one pint-sized Easter Bunny! 

St. Patrick's Day Snail Mail

St. Patrick's Day is quickly approaching and I've spend the last few weeks creating a snail mail surprise for the special kiddos in my life. The process involved a number of learning experiences, and I'm happy with how they turned out!

At Craft Day I was inspired by rainbow colors, and started playing with my circle and heart punches in all the beautiful hues. 

I tried hole punching and stringing the pieces together, but wasn't happy with the overall effect. Jen encouraged me to try sewing them together for my own paper garland, and guided me through the process. It was much easier than I expected, and I absolutely learned from my mistakes so I know how to make them straighter next time. Hopefully the recipients won't look too closely.

Next I started playing with my Silhouette Cameo to make clouds for the top of the rainbow. I was able to teach myself how to use the trace feature to edit and cut out portions of google clip art images.

I wanted to make it obvious which shape to start with to showcase the full burst of colors when the rainbow was pulled out of the box.

I stopped by our local Party City and was able to find the gold coins, black pots, green goodies, and treat boxes thanks to the help of our cousin Brianne.

Here's the full effect in stages.

I also chose to enclose a leprechaun note for each kiddo.

This project was so much fun, and I loved looking at all the rainbow colors. I can't wait to mail them off this week. Next Tuesday, I hope you find a gigantic pot of gold at the end of your rainbow. Have fun celebrating!

Craft Day

Lauren and I got some friends together for a craft day. It was so fun! We served brunch and everybody brought over their crafty projects. We had knitting, crocheting, lots of paper crafts, photo book making, painting, and even button making!  

I have to stop here and tell you about this beautiful quilt. We were absolutely floored a few weeks ago when our dear friend Grayce gave us this quilt! She did such a beautiful job, from the ruched clouds to the ombre raindrops and the absolutely perfect letters. Grayce is a true craftswoman and as a fellow quilter I understand how much time and love goes into a gift like this. We will always treasure it!  It was fun to show it off to everyone at craft day. 

My craft day project was finishing some embroidering. I finally cut into one of my my precious pieces of Ghost Wing linen by Anna Maria Horner.  I cut a full repeat of the wings off one side of the extra-wide linen and embroidered the outline of the wings with a running stitch in perle cotton. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Right now I'm planning on embroidering the same repeat for the other two Ghost Wing colors and then I'll hang them all side by side on my wall!