Mr. & Mrs. Egghead - Decorating Plastic Eggs

On the agenda for the weekend is to dye Easter eggs with my preschooler. But before we tackle real eggs, I thought it might be fun to decorate some plastic ones. I saw a feature in Disney’s Family Fun magazine of plastic eggs sporting a variety of hats and thought I’d follow suit.

May I introduce Mr. and Mrs. Egghead? These two are obviously Southerners, maybe Texans, given their headgear.

I made Mr. Egghead’s cowboy hat using a paper egg carton, a small piece of cardstock and a bit of twine. I made Mrs. Egghead’s Easter bonnet from a cupcake wrapper, felt trim and small paper flowers.

The couple is sporting border stickers from Echo Park’s This and That collection. I thought the red triangle border sticker looked a bit like a bandana and suited our cowboy. I used a scallop border sticker for Mrs. Egghead to mimic a dress collar. I also used stickers and paper from This and That to build the house. The roof and door are Cosmo Cricket.

They’re just about ready for Easter, I’d say. Have you decorated eggs yet this year? If so, feel free to link them in the comments here or on the Paper Issues blog. Our current theme is Candy Shop. We’d love to see your projects. Paper Issues also has a great giveaway on its blog.  Saturday is the last day to enter.

Altered Frame for Halloween

I love altering ordinary picture frames around the house, especially for the holidays. I looked around our den and spied a nice black frame in the den that holds an 8x10 family photo.  I removed the photo and ended with this.

This project was really easy to make. I started with a piece of white cardstock, cutting it down to 8x10 inches. I grabbed some of my favorite Halloween paper, Echo Park's Apothecary, adding in an orange pattern from EP’s previous Halloween release for a punch of color.  I used a square punch to make 20 squares, then moved them around in a grid with five rows across and four down, leaving a little white border between them. I also left a white border around the page so I would have some wiggle room for the image in the frame.  

I tacked the squares down lightly with adhesive, then used a sewing machine to make diagonal lines across the squares with black thread.

Here you can see the squares before I embellished them. And, yes, the project is shown upside down.  Hee! I didn’t realize that until I uploaded the photos.  I tried flipping the photo, but it looked weird. So, we’ll just go with this. J

To embellish the squares, I used element stickers from Apothecary and Happy Halloween. I backed the stickers with cardboard to give them a little dimension. You can also use pop dots but for large stickers, like the tree, I prefer to use cardboard as it gives a smoother look.

So, there you have it. A really quick, fun project that you can make for any holiday. This was my last project as guest designer for Echo Park. I uploaded this project to 2peas and was happy to look the next day to see that of 425 projects, it had made the daily top 3 most bookmarked.  

Teacher Gift: Candy Jar Pun Poem

Do you ever get news that has you grinning from ear to ear?  That's how I felt when I got word that Echo Park Paper had chosen me as its Fresh Face for September. I was giddy.  Yes, I was!  So, as I begin my role as EP's guest designer. I'd like to share the first project I made for the Echo Park blog: a teacher gift and card.

With the start of a new school year, I thought it would be a nice gesture to offer a little something to my son’s dayschool teacher. She is wonderful with the kids and provides such a warm and loving place for my little one to learn and grow. I wanted to remind her just how much she’s needed and appreciated.

This idea can be adapted to different teacher situations and can be used at the start of school, end of school or for teacher appreciation week. This is not my original poem. I adapted it from a version I saw online. It says:

You are such a SWEET TART for everything you do. You deserve 100 GRAND every PAYDAY. We know sometimes the kids act like AIRHEADS and NERDS. It must be hard to contain your SNICKERS when those little SUGAR BABIES tell you MOUNDS of NUTRAGEOUS stories. They can really come up with some WHOPPERS. I want you to know that I am grateful your work. You bring such (ALMOND) JOY to the classroom. You are the REISEN our kids are SMARTIES instead of DUM DUMS. Thank you for RAISIN (ETTES) our children to a higher level. You are a LIFESAVER and are worth a MINT. HUGS and KISSES.

To make this project, I started with a 32 oz plastic jar ($2.99 at Hobby Lobby). This size jar worked well because 12 inch strips circle around it perfectly. I used Echo Park's "Happy Days" collection. I cut a strip of striped paper and wrapped it around the middle of the jar. Then, I topped that with a piece of red cardstock which I border punched at the top and bottom and added the bottle cap icon strip.

To finish the jar, I added a black and white border sticker from Happy Days around the lid and punched a large red dot circle for the lid top. To make the hanging card, I printed the poem, backed it with black polka dot paper, punched a hole in the corner and used twine to hang the poem. Then I went to the store to look for all the candy in the poem and put that in the jar. To complete the gift, I made a card to coordinate with the jar using the Happy Days line.

Echo Park supply list:

Happy Days: Stripes, Bottle Caps, Border, Journaling Card, Element stickers, Alphas

Metro Stripes and Dots 6x6 pad: red polka dot and black polka dot

Playground: green alphas

Other supplies:

Border Punch: Fiskars

Ink: Ranger

Twine: The Twinery

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Thread: craft supply

You can find Echo Park's original blog post announcing me as its September Fresh Face here:
http://echoparkpaper.blogspot.com/2011/08/announcing-our-newest-fresh-face.html

I'm linking this here:

http://www.tipjunkie.com/homemade-projects-417/