CFC #96 - Easter, But Not a Card

 

Has to be Easter, but not a card, for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week ... OK, let's make some Easter eggs with stamp supplies! 

There's a great prize package from Timeless Twine waiting for the winner!

Here's the first project. My husband's dear Grandma Griglione was a huge crafter, and in the 1970's made a ton of egg dioramas. Most were for Easter, but there were some Christmas ones too. When she passed away and we started dividing her estate, the one thing everyone wanted was her eggs. They held so many memories, and you could see a piece of Grandma G in each one of them. So the cousins all got together, and with the eggs in the middle of the table, took turns picking our favorites to display at home. Now as a crafter, I could not think of a better legacy when I pass, where my descendants would treasure and respect the things I made so much that they would prefer those over other material possessions. 

I wanted to honor Grandma Elaine Griglione with an egg diorama of my own. It's nothing like hers, but it uses my stamp supplies.

I cut right into the egg, yolk and all. 

 Then colored the shell, added trim around the opening, backed it with a shimmery wrapping paper, added some curly strips of paper, and fussy cut my only bunny image, from Papertrey's Tiny Treats Valentine's set.

 The sentiment that goes with that image is stamped on the top.

 

 I also made the stand from stringing seed beads on some fine gauge wire (I think 28) and winding it to make 3 rows. It's hot glued to the bottom.

For the rest of my projects, I made Easter eggs using my stamp supplies. Since I was going to be spending some time on these and wanted to keep them for future years, they needed to be blown out. Now nothing gives me a headache more than blowing out Easter eggs. So, since it's Spring Break and the kids are home, I enlisted my son and his friend Connor to do the dirty work. They loved it!!

Here's Logan punching a hole in the top with a needle. Repeat on the bottom side, and stick the needle inside several times to break up the yolk so it's easier to blow out.

 Then blow! The ooey-gooey stuff coming out was quite a hit. They wanted to keep going after we ran out of eggs. And, surprisingly, did a wonderful job!

For the coloring, I used Hero Arts Neon Inks because they have such great coverage.

These eggs all use masks. From left to right:

1. Sponge ink over a circle graph mask;
2. Sponge ink through a hole punched in printer paper;
3. Sponge ink around rubber bands on the egg.

These eggs all use stamps. From left to right:

1.  Stamp a tiny dot background stamp in pink, blue, purple;
2. Stamp a bunny on a brown egg, color with chalk and marker, stamp sentiment;
3. Stamp the Lawn Fawn border builder for a feathery look;
4. Stamp a grid pattern.

 

These eggs are all ombre using the Hero Arts Neon inks (linking to Moxie Fab's ombre challenge). I should also mention that burlap strands make great nests/holders for the eggs. You just wrap the strings in a circle and they stay like that!

 

Thanks so much for looking!

-Kelly

PS. For those reading this post Thursday night, I'm at the Green Day concert now with my friends!! It's the kick-off show for their 2013 US tour in Chicago! Yay for Billie Joe getting rehab and rescheduling the tour dates : ) SO EXCITED, I can hardly stand it. LOVE THEM!! Who else can release 3 full-length albums at the same time?!

Then, we're taking advantage of Mom staying overnight to watch the kids and will go to the gambling boat afterwards. Will be a long, fun night : )