Eggs Decorated with Embroidery Floss

A basket of striped embroidery floss eggs displayed.

 

 

 

        I used a very tacky white glue and embroidery floss to wrap these Styrofoam eggs for Easter. You can use as many colors as you like. I twisted a variegated, monochromatic colored floss on top of my Styrofoam eggs in order to get them to look like this.
      Above, as you can see, I've also glued onto this Styrofoam egg, pom-poms. Use the eraser end of a pencil to press a slight indention into the foam egg where you wish to position a pom-pom. Then fill this indention with white, tacky glue and firmly press the pom-pom into it. It will take approximately 24 hours for the pom-poms to dry onto the egg. After these have dried, twist embroidery floss around each pom-pom on the egg until it looks the way you like it.

• A yarn painting of a butterfly made with similar materials used in making these examples of Easter eggs found here.
• Yarn wrapped star for our family Christmas tree.
• Yarn used to decorate hands and a dove here 
  

Cardboard eggs made with ribbon.

       You may also have left over ribbons or yarn in your craft stash that could be used to decorate flat cardboard eggs like those shown on the left. 

       First, cut out the shape of an egg from a folded piece of paper to make an Easter egg with two identical sides. Then trace around that paper pattern on top of cardboard to make a durable template. 

       Reproduce multiple, flat cardboard egg shapes by tracing around the template on top of an old recycled box. Cut the eggs out and cover them with white typing paper and glue so that the ribbons you use will provide a sharp and colorful contrast against the decoupaged surfaces. Glue the ribbons on using the same white school glue. Let the ribbons dry completely before trimming them off around the cardboard egg shapes. You can make striped eggs or even plaid versions using all kinds of ribbon or yarn. Glue a ribbon at the top of each cardboard egg in order to hang these from an egg tree.

Create a Butterfly Yarn Picture

      Not only do yarn pictures have textures and colors that fascinate young and old students, these kinds of projects use up all the scraps of materials that you feel guilty about throwing away.  So why not put all of that stuff to a fun and creative use? 

      First you will need to give your students some newsprint so that they can practice cutting out butterflies. After they have made a stencil that they are happy with, have them trace it onto black paper or poster board with a white lead pencil. Every student will then need a bottle of white glue, scissors, and a pile of yarn plus odds and ends. I pasted chenille stems and pom-poms onto my butterfly yarn picture as well. Follow your butterfly outlines with a line of glue, pasting down the yarn in uniform lines a little at a time.

      Have fun experimenting. This project is best completed by students in 3rd grade and up. It can be done by younger ones but they may not have the patience to complete it. It takes quite a long time to finish a yarn picture so spread the activity out over several days. 

      If your students truely love the activity you may wish to give them sturdier wood boards to work on. Yarn paintings can become quite elaborate and decorative. There are several indigenous folk artist groups  that have mastered the art of yarn pictures. Exhibit a slide show of some of their work to inspire your students before starting the project. I will link to some of these folk artists below.

Left: My butterfly stencil, Right: I've traced around the butterfly stencil
 with a white lead pencil so that I can see my design on the dark
background paper.

My finished butterfly yarn picture has many textures and colors.
This project took me approximately three hours to complete.
The project measures 8 x 11 inches.

Examples of cardboard Easter eggs covered with yarn 
using the same methods at the yarn picture above. This 
is a thrifty way to use up your yarn art supplies!

History Behind Yarn Art:

• Yarn landscape painting inspired by the Huichol of Mexico
• Huichol yarn painting on bone...
• Huichol yarn painting tutorial by jennifercxo