Make an Easter Egg Pocket Pouch Craft

Easter Egg Nest, made from paper plate pocket.

       Young students can make these easy paper plate, egg pockets a day or even a week, if they are in Sunday school, ahead of time. Then teachers can fill them with a chocolate treat or two for the Easter egg hunt later. Once children have participated in egg hunts, Sunday breakfast and service etc... they may take the extra surprise home!

 

Supplies Needed:

• two paper plates
• one brass fasteners
• colored markers or pencils
• green construction paper or tissue paper
• Easter grass
• Easter eggs or chocolate candies
• white school glue
• scissors
• white construction paper

More Paper Plate Crafts for Sunday School:

• Noah's Ark paper plate pocket...
• Easter sunrise made using paper plate
• Noah's spinning ark paper plate craft here!

Left, see how the brass fastener is positioned. Right, see how the pocket looks when closed.

 

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut a large egg shape from the white construction paper. This egg shape should be smaller than the diameter of the paper plates, but very large, leaving approximately one inch from each end of the paper plates showing.
2. Draw repeating patterns across the egg shape. Then coloring the patterns in using either markers or colored pencils.
3. Cut strips from the green tissue or construction paper. Using scissors cut ruffles or 'blades of grass' along one long length of the stripes. 
4. Glue the paper grass behind and around the large patterned Easter egg. Let dry.
5. Mount the egg and grass onto the center of one of the paper plates using school glue. The plate should be inverted, because you want it to form a hollow pocket when attached to the second plate.
6. Use a green marker to color the background edge of this paper plate if you wish.
7. Now turn the paper plate over and use a pencil to draw a 'cracked' jagged edge down the center of the egg and plate lengthwise. This will be the opening of the egg to find treasures stored inside of the Easter egg pocket.
8. Attach only one side of the egg decorated plate half to the edge of the back paper plate half. Use glue squeezed along the rim to do this. let it dry completely before proceeding to the next step.
9. Poke a small hole using the tip of your scissors or a hole punch, right at the edge of the back paper plate where you want the upper part of the egg pocket to attach and move open and shut to reveal the contents of the pocket.
10. Insert the brass fastener.
11. Now fill the paper plate pocket with Easter grass and treats for each student when they come back to class to show off their crafts to parents, brothers and sisters. This is the teacher's surprise for a party...

Decorate Your Easter Table With a Zoo!

Mrs Marchand puts the finishing touches on a porcupine. 
On the table stand a finished ostrich and deer.

      Berthe Marchand used her ingenuity. Needing something original for the Easter table—something for the children to admire—she hit on the idea of making an entire zoo of animals, using colored Easter eggs and other odd bits of material easily obtained for a few cents at any stationer’s.

      Why don’t you do the same? It just takes patience, nimble fingers, and extreme care in handling the eggs— which can be dropped only once!

More Animal Shaped Easter Eggs:

• Birds from Russia
• Easter critters by Lia Griffith
• Owl painted Easter eggs
• Octopus Easter Eggs
• Four little bird egg ideas
• Eggs painted like farm animals: cow, pig, chicken and bunny 

More Fun Egg Video:

• Screaming Eggs and Scared Eggs 

Far left, Making a porcupine. A paper-shell nut is inserted into a clay neck on an egg. Next, the peanut legs are being carefully affixed to the roughed-out figure. Head feet, and all parts of the body not covered by clay are painted. And last, after he's got his paper eyes and comb, "Porky" receives his quills.

The finished porcupine with toothpicks for quills.

Left, Mr. Penguin. Egg, peanuts, clay, felt toothpicks. Center, The giraffe
has neck and legs of red soda straws, of course. Right, The kangaroo,
above, has a yellow-painted-egg body, a cotton pouch, and peanut legs.

The swan, just above, is made of egg, cotton,
paper fringing, and colored pipe-cleaners.

Left, The ostrich--with egg body, pipe-cleaner legs and nick, ad a
ball -with-a-hole head. Right, The most fee-ro-cious lion ever made.
Walnut head and peanut feet.

What to Do With Left Over Easter Eggs

What to do with all those hard-boiled eggs?

       All the traditions connected with the Easter egg, its decoration, cooking and eating, are, of course, decidedly old world, and yet there is some myth among the legends of the Inca Indians which tells of a magic egg and how it may be found in some mysterious spot, and of its wonderful power. Whether or not this is one of the superstitions of the far east which Manco Capac brought with him from the other side of the Pacific is altogether unknown, but certain it is that in Asia, Africa and Europe feasts were kept in most ancient times when the egg played a prominent part. The Jews used eggs in their feast of the Passover long before the coming of Christ. In Persia colored eggs are presented at the celebration of the Solar New Year's, and extremely ancient custom with this people.

       From Germany comes the singular connection of a rabbit with the Easter eggs. It is believed that this little animal steals into the house when all is quiet and hides a store of pretty eggs in most impossible places, giving the children, who must search for them, a great deal of trouble and excitement in finding them. The house mother prepares by procuring a quantity of eggs and colors them herself by wrapping them in colored calicoes, some plain and some figured.

       To the country boy or girl of America Easter or "Paas," in rural vernacular, resolves itself first and foremost into a contest to see who can accumulate the greatest store of eggs, and secondly, who can eat the most.

More Egg-cellent Recipes: Video: 

• Dyed Deviled Eggs - use very pale pastel colors only!
• How to make Easter Chick Deviled Eggs - These eggs look like little chicks still in their shells!
• Red Hot Deviled Eggs - Make sure to use eggs that have been dyed red or purple previously for this one
• Scotch Eggs make marvelous use of left over eggs for any holiday
• Baby buggy deviled eggs? 

Clownish Egg Heads

Faces flanking Bulf's are grade-A eggheads and cream of clowntown--each is the face of a real
clown. The wigs go on last as Bult finishes a head from a sketch on the far right. Never a clown
himself, Bult used to be a professional magician.

      The drollest collection of painted eggs in the world probably belongs to Stan Bult, curator of a London museum. Bult’s hobby is living part-time in the world of circus clowns—a habit he got into as a boy when a troupe of friendly clowns lived next door. The faces he paints on his eggs are authentic copies of those belonging to members of the International Circus Clown Club. As secretary of the European division of the club Bult keeps a file of faces so that clowns can avoid copying each other. Each clown’s make-up is his professional, jealously guarded property.

More Photos of Clown Eggs by Stan Bult:

• Clown Eggs
• The Clown Egg Register
• Clown Egg Registry

The Clown Face Registry of the United Kingdom...

How German Prisoners Passed the Time In 1917

Apparently, during WWI, German prisoners were easier to pacify than during WWII. These pictures of their craft activities were taken whilst they passed the time in a French prisoner camp.

PASSING THE IDLE HOURS German captives in France, in order to puncture the deadly monotony, spend their time making toys out of egg shells, paper, and bread crusts, for the peasant children.

THREE EXAMPLES OF OVO-ART On the left we have a Russian soldier ogling a bottle of vodka—the label on this bottle had to be translated twice in order to appear in English. On the right is the brother-in-law of Lewis Carroll’s March Hare.

GERMAN SOLDIER AND FRENCH PIG The censor has interfered with the explanation; we can only guess whether the artist would have called this pleasant scene “Pals” as a satire upon his living condition, or merely “The Commissary’s Delight”.

GERMAN SOLDIER WITH FRENCH CAPTIVE

BRITISH WARSHIPS BEWARE! This fiend of the seas is constructed of eggs, ink, paper, slue, and similar deadly materials.

 GENERAL JOFFRE, SIR EDWARD GREY (Note the horns), CZAR NICHOLAS

 A GERMAN AIR SCOUT

Eggs with Paschal Greetings and the Colors of Lent

      The Paschal greeting is an Easter custom among Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Christians, as well as among some Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians. Instead of "hello" or its equivalent, one is to greet another person with "Christ is Risen!", and the response is "Truly, He is Risen" (compare Matthew 27:64, Matthew 28:6–7, Mark 16:6, Luke 24:6, Luke 24:34).

      In some cultures, such as in Russia and Serbia, it is also customary to exchange a triple kiss on the alternating cheeks after the greeting.

      Similar responses are also used in the liturgies of other Christian churches, but not so much as general greetings.

 

The "He is Risen!" Easter egg is simple to craft, all you need to
 make one is some festive trims and a prefabricated, fancy butterfly sticker!

      The Paschal greetings Easter egg is made from a Styrofoam half egg that was papier-mâchéd with bright, festive tissue paper and a decorative butterfly purchased from the local paper craft store. I added a little gold tinsel to the interior of the egg to emphasize the gold papers used on the butterfly and then the expression "He is Risen!" in which case a brother or sister in Christ would respond in kind with, "He is Risen Indeed!"

These Lenten textile eggs are made of Styrofoam wrapped with delicate silks and metallic threads.

        In the Christian church, the color purple has long since been used during the time of Lent to symbolize the royalty of Christ, who is King of Heaven and Earth. It is also the color of penance and repentance associated with the suffering of Christ for the transgressions of mankind. Because we no longer pay these penalties, a Holy God requires Jesus to pay them instead on our behalf. Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to do away with or undo the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo but to complete and fulfill them." Matthew 5:17

Craft An Empty Tomb Easter Egg

The finished empty tomb Easter egg, front and side.

    I crafted this empty tomb Easter egg with air dry clay, a half shaped, Styrofoam egg and paint.      The egg form also has a hollow interior and I will post a photo of what these look like just as soon as I can take a picture. 
      For those of you who may be a bit intimidated by shaping your own stones from clay, there are shallow molds for sale in craft and hobby shops for the very purpose of crafting stone walls. The results are so nice that the purchase of one of these is an excellent investment. 

      After pressing the air dry clay into a mold, (shown below) simply adhere the printed clay to the Styrofoam egg with tacky white glue. You will then need to continue working while your clay is still wet. Use a toothpick or a fork and work the clay surface a bit by pushing deeper crevices between the stones to create a more three-dimensional stone wall surface.      I let my stone tomb egg dry over night then I painted it's interior with black acrylic paint. Next, I painted the exterior stones with shades of grey and pale browns. Being satisfied with my final results, I then pasted a cross shaped sticker to the interior of the egg shaped tomb and gave my entire Easter egg a coat of acrylic varnish.

• Color The Women at the Sepulchre
• "He Is Risen Indeed!" Butterfly Coloring Page
• Color The Pieta

How To Decoupage a Picture On To An Easter Egg

Here is an obvious question. "How do you decoupage a picture or a scene onto an egg?" Obvious question, rarely answered. Above you see a sweet example of this from a manufacturer of Easter novelty.

Here is my version of the same process, only, I've used an elaborate patterned design.

This lovely pattern was taken from a fancy dinner napkin. You need to separate the layers.
 Only use the top one.

Measure the length of your egg and cut rectangular strip from the napkin or tissue paper to fit neatly around it. Now you will need to cut at regular intervals, slashes into your design. Notice how I do NOT cut all the way through the rectangle. I leave about an inch uncut. This uncut central part of the rectangle is the continuous, uninterrupted part of the design that wraps around the mid section of the egg. The larger your egg the wider this section will be. After cutting this napkin thus, apply Mod Podge to the surface of your egg and carefully paste down the napkin, starting first with the middle part of the design. The fringed parts of the napkin will overlap some but the design will be preserved for the most part.

After cutting and gluing this first piece of the napkin, I then cut out parts of the design that I thought the most attractive from left over napkins and pasted these on the top and bottom parts of my egg where the design did not cover. This is because I used very large eggs for this project and my napkins were quite small.

This is the wider, bottom half of my egg that needed additional
 decoupage to cover it completely.

In order for your eggs to look professional, you need to use very thin
tissues for this project. This insures that the design will appear uninterrupted
 and hand painted. Also, I was very particular about the colors of eggs that
I used for the design. Had I used dark blue or purple plastic eggs,
this design would not be as attractive. The napkin is very thin and the
colors will show through the glue and tissue, so be selective. This egg was
yellow. The one below was pink.

Decoupage Easter Eggs:

• DIY - Decoupage Easter Eggs and here with a photo
• Kids Craft: decoupage easter egg
• Paper Napkin Decoupage Eggs
• Paper Fabric Wrapped Easter Eggs
• Read more about this process here

Free Vintage Patterns for Easter Eggs

Painting patterns from left to right in order: An Old-Fashioned Calico Egg,
A Design Taken From Bright Ribbons, Czechoslovakia flowers in bright colors,
A row of yellow ducks on a batik egg and flowers/bow-knots from an old silk.

      Above are very old illustrated patterns for painting eggs, below are vintage patterns for sewing eggs and carrots. The egg templates include five sizes. 

       Select the size you prefer and then make a cardboard template by tracing around the size selected. 

       Cut four copies from fabric to sew together for one egg. A 1/4 seam allowance is included with the template. 

       I suggest sewing the eggs by hand instead of on the machine because the seams are so very narrow.

       After leaving an opening of one and a half inch, turn the egg right sides out and stuff tightly. Close the opening with an invisible stitch and then apply trims and fancy embroidery.

5 egg sizes. See two sizes made up in bumble bee flannel fabric at colorthebible.blogspot.com.

 

       To make fabric carrots, select the size, cut it out and trace around for the cardboard template. Cut just one triangle from orange fabric. Fold in half, sew down the side and turn right side out. Stuff with cotton filling up to the top of the carrot. 

       Sew a straight stitch around the top opening to gather it shut. Then attach a green ruffled ribbon or ruffled felt around the top gathered edges to cover and mimic the greens on top. You could also attach green lace alternatively for a folksy looking carrot.

 

See my vintage veggies in red-orange velvet with tassel tops;
 these are made with the simple pattern below.

3 carrot sizes

Very Vintage Easter Egg Designs

      This little violet dyed, Easter egg is perhaps the oldest egg I hang on my Easter tree. It was made sometime in the 1940s or 30s. My mother-in-law hung it on her childhood Easter tree. I think the lavender food dye has lasted far longer than anyone could ever had anticipated. The violets are made from molded velveteen.

• How to make vintage millinery flowers by Ilona Millinery in England
• Shaping tulle flowers with MiLena
• Anjurisa demonstrates how to use flower shaping tools 

Just Lilla shows how to make ribbon violets.

 

Enamel Easter egg containers are still as popular as they were 100 years ago!

       In the collection illustrated above at the far left on top is a vintage aluminum egg that opens to reveal a secret message and perhaps a chocolate too. It was made almost 100 years ago and belonged to my mother-in-law. The larger eggs are reproductions only manufactured within the past twenty years. I filled them with jelly beans and other sweets for our daughters to discover on Easter morning among other toys inside of their baskets.

Easter Eggs That Imitate Wedgwood Blue Earthenware

Typical wedgwood blue
plate with white decor

      I have always been in love with Wedgwood blue earthenware. It is very expensive, however, so it is not likely that I will ever acquire much of it. I did find some "Wedgewood" look-alikes  in a hobby shop many years ago and adhered these medallions to Styrofoam eggs. Then, I covered the back half of my eggs with blue paint, glitter and some vintage lace. I strung my blue, "Wedgwood"eggs on glass bead hangers. These eggs are my favorites and I hang them on one of my Easter egg trees every year.
      In 1765, Wedgwood created a new earthenware form which impressed the then British Queen consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz who gave permission to call it "Queen's Ware"; this new form sold extremely well across Europe. The following year Wedgwood bought Etruria, a large Staffordshire estate, as both home and factory site. Wedgwood developed a number of further industrial innovations for his company, notably a way of measuring kiln temperatures accurately and new ware types Black Basalt and Jasper Ware. Wedgwood's most famous ware is jasperware. It was created to look like ancient cameo glass. It was inspired by the Portland Vase, a Roman vessel which is now a museum piece.. (The first jasperware colour was Portland Blue, an innovation that required experiments with more than 3,000 samples). In recognition of the importance of his pyrometric beads (pyrometer), Josiah Wedgwood was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1783. Today, the Wedgwood Prestige collection sells replicas of some of the original designs as well as modern neo-classical style jasperware. Read more . . .

Easter eggs featuring Wedgewood look-alike medallions. Push the medallions gently into the foam egg before gluing these in place with a tacky white glue.

Authentic Wedgwood Eggs:

• English Wedgewood Egg 

Wedgwood Look-alike Eggs:

• Crochet Wedgewood Eggs
• Simple Delft Blue Easter Egg Cookies
• Where to purchase Delft Blue Eggs?

My family has visited here during the summer months.

This makes for a relaxed, family friendly trip.

Craft a Humpty-Dumpty Easter Egg

The Humpty egg from different view points.

    This Humpty-Dumpty Easter egg is much easier to make than he looks. I used a small face mold and a bit of Sculpey clay to make his face. Although, some of you who do not like to paint, could use a bit of flesh colored polymer clay instead. After un-molding the clay mask, I then pressed it onto a wooden egg with a generous amount of wood glue sandwiched between the clay and wooden surface. Then I baked the entire egg in an oven for only a few minutes at recommended temp. on the package. If I had to make the Humpty egg again, I would probably opt for air dry clay. 
      I then let the egg cool and glued on a simple white collar and a bow tie, after I painted the head in flesh colored paint and lower portion of the egg in blue to suggest his shirt.
      Humpty-Dumpty named after a famous nursery rhyme was actually a relatively popular character to craft during the mid to later half of the 20th century during Easter and also for nurseries. I've included more examples of this funny egg fellow below.

Above are examples of face molds from my vast collection.

More Humpty-Dumpty Eggs:

• 4th graders craft Humpty on walls for fun
• Humpty Dumpy is sitting on the wall

Include Tiny Vignettes Inside Easter Eggs

Here are a few more examples of decorated, flocked Easter eggs. These have been decorated by
cutting out an oval portion of the egg and gluing a tiny vignette inside the egg. Many hobby stores
 sell tiny vignettes; these are not difficult to locate. I covered the inside of my eggs first with glue
 and transparent glitter. I also added a bit of Easter grass to cushion my Easter miniatures.

After decorating the egg on the inside, I glued rick-rack, laces and bows to the outer shell and edges
 to cover flaws and to add interest to the surfaces of my Easter eggs. I used hot glue for this particular project.

More Scenes Inside of Easter Eggs:

• A fun Easter egg to display
• Ann Wheat Pace's Trunk Show
• Egg With a View

Stuffing Easter Eggs

      I purchased these dessert shop Easter eggs shaped like ice cream cones, cupcakes and petit fours. I loved the unique shapes. However, as you can see, appearances are all that I paid for; I will need to stuff them a bit more than I thought.

      I also purchased a pack of Squinkies to stuff into the little people's Easter eggs, just for fun. Extra candy, a few toys, coins and printed scriptures will make up the contents of these eggs for my family's Easter egg hunt this year. Why not swipe of few of the Easter scriptures below and print them out for your little ones?