It's been whirlwind busy at our house lately. Phee and I haven't had time to do any fun projects in a few weeks and I think we were both wondering if we'd ever have time again. So, I came up with a couple of quick and easy projects for Easter. Each has minimal prep time and doesn't take too long to complete either. Perfect for my hectic schedule and Phee's often short attention span.
First, the good old cotton ball sheep project. I'm sure we've all done this before, either as a child ourselves, or with kids. It's so cute, though, it's hard to pass it up! Cut a sheep shape out of card stock or thin cardboard (cereal box or packaging), gather some cotton balls, glue and googly eyes. All you have to do is pour some glue out for your kids to dip the cotton balls into and then let them go to town plopping them down all over the sheep form. Add the googly eye last and let it dry before you hang it up or play with it.
Moving on to Easter eggs! Cut up strips of scrapbook paper (plain construction paper, glossy magazine pages or even the comics would work, too). Draw egg shapes on both sides of pieces of construction paper (holding the sheet up to a window helps so you can line the outlines up). Grab your glue again and put a layer of glue all over the egg on one side of the paper. Let your little one lay strips of paper across the egg. Once it dries, cut out the egg shape on the back and flip it over to see your fantastic striped Easter egg!
Next, a mosaic chick. I printed out a black and white coloring page of a chick in an eggshell. Then, I cut up a few strips of construction paper into some random shapes and sizes. Cut a triangle beak out of orange paper, grab your googly eyes and glue and you're ready to tackle this fun mosaic. Start by spreading glue on the chick and let your kid use yellow bits of paper to cover it. Then, move to the shells and the other paper colors you've cut up. When the mosaic is finished, add the beak and googly eyes and you've got an adorable little baby chick!
And finally, a tasty treat for everyone. We used to make these cupcakes with my mom every year. You need a cake mix, frosting, green food coloring, shredded coconut, jelly beans and pipe cleaners. Bake the cupcakes as usual. Color the frosting and coconut green. Spread the frosting on the cupcakes, add some coconut and then put three or four jellybeans on top as Easter eggs. Then, cut your pipe cleaners in half and attach one half to each cupcake to be the Easter basket handle. Super easy and adorable Easter dessert!
Ooh, a bonus project! I picked this up in my daughter's parent pocket at school this morning. The basket is made out of a file folder. The spine of the folder is the bottom of the basket. After the kids decorate the card stock eggs, they're tucked inside the basket and the two halves of the folder are glued together. Such a genius idea! I love the projects Phee's teachers come up with.
What sort of decorating do you do for Easter? Do you have some fun family traditions, like our cupcakes, that you've introduced to your kids?