Easter Egg Paper Craft Tutorial for Kids!

 After school the kids had fun doing a messy Easter egg paper craft:

We used shaving cream to create custom marbled designs on paper Easter eggs.

First we cut out a bunch of egg shapes from card stock. 

They each had a glass pie plate and a can of shaving cream in their station

After filling the plate with shaving cream, use toothpicks to swirl drops of food color around.

Press the paper egg flat into the cream, pressing down to remove air pockets.

 Here's what it looks like after squishing the paper into the design:

Carefully peel up your egg keeping as much cream in the plate or bowl as possible. Here are some of our paper egg patterns drying:

Once they're dry, take a dry napkin or paper towel and wipe off any remaining shaving cream residue. Then you can turn your masterpieces into Easter cards, place setting accents or home decorations. We'll be stringing ours together on a pretty ribbon to decorate!

BUT ... while your pretty designs are drying ... fill another pie plate or glass bowl with clean shaving cream for the kids to dig in and play with!!

Celebrate Christ! Easter Decorating With Meaning

Our living room mantel features our traditional candle representation of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross - the real reason we celebrate Easter. Only one without sin could pay the penalty for our sins, so the white candle is symbolic of Jesus' purity:

(And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. II Corinthians 5:15)

The three pieces of wood, of course, represent the crosses upon which Jesus and the two sinners [red misshapen candles] were killed. The vines are a picture of the crown of thorns. Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice! Praise God for an empty tomb!!

Happy May Day!

Have a wonderful May!!!!

Breakfast Surprise for my Sweeties

Quick little pick-me-up surprise for my sweetie pies in the morning:

Sometimes school day mornings can be rushed. OK, MOST school day mornings ARE rushed. They eat breakfast while I finish packing lunches, then wrangle shoes while brushing teeth and fix hair while zipping backpacks. Before I know it they're walking into the building – just as I fully awake and realize I'm going to miss them all day! I want to run after them and fit in one more squeezer hug!

So, last night I planned ahead. My kids love to smell and notice the daily crop of blossoms on our assorted rose bushes. I snipped one of the nicest blooms to set by their breakfast setting today. I quickly cut a sun out of bright yellow paper and added in colored pen "U. R. My Sunshine." A fun swirly paper clip holds it to a leaf.

Oh, I can't wait for summer vacation! How about you?

Embellish a Flower Pot with an Uplifting Verse for Spring

The flowers and fruit trees are so beautiful right now! The warm spring air is such a treat. I'm enjoying having all the doors and windows open with no bugs or too much heat. Today I'm posting a simple idea from my book. An idea for embellishing a flower pot with an uplifting verse:

I printed a scripture "You will be like a well-watered garden," from Isaiah 58:11, on a nice smooth white paper. Trimmed it into an oval using decorative edge scissors. Glued it to the crackle ceramic pot. Then decorated it just a touch with a small strand of pearl beads:

Add an encouraging word to a little potted flowering plant to gift to someone who's in the hospital or home ill. You can hand write or paint a favorite phrase or scripture. But this shows you even black and white can make a simple statement. Depending on your style, this would be cute all glittered up or even give your child a small oval to draw or write something on. Have a great week!

Paper Easter Egg Gifts Tutorial

I just made these paper Easter eggs for my kids:

They are 5-6 inches high with little gifts tucked inside, like gum, trinkets and lovey messages.

Instructions:
Fold a sheet of pretty pastel-colored patterned paper in half.
From the fold, cut up and around in an egg shape.
Punch 1/4" holes all the way around.
Choose a coordinating thin satin ribbon or string.
Beginning at the top, loop your ribbon through the holes.
Stop about two-thirds of the way around to tuck your Easter treasures inside.
Complete your ribbon's trip around the egg and tie a cute bow at top.
String into the bow: a gift note, cross, child's initial, etc.

I think I might tuck a little invite to Easter service and a treat and give to our neighbors!

Daisy Art on Sale!

Hey! Just received a sale notice from DaySpring:

They're featuring one of my art prints - "Everything Is Beautiful In Its Time" on sale in March for 30% off! Available in framed canvas or gallery wrapped canvas! Visit DaySpring.com to get yours - use my affiliate link below for FREE SHIPPING too!!! WooHoo!!

Receive free shipping on $25+ order. Coupon code: shipping25 through 06/09/2011  (Go to the Christian Art link on the lower left, then click "Everyday Inspiration for Your Home from Jeanne Winters.)

Spring Break Kids Craft Project

Spring is in the air! The kids are on spring break and our trees are blossoming! Woo Hoo! Let's do a craft to celebrate!

They each created their own spring tree with colorful flower blossoms.
First we cut little squares out of colored tissue paper. Then they each painted their own watercolor tree:

Using Elmer's Glue and the end of a pencil, we wrapped and dunked each little bit of tissue. Then carefully applied it to a tree branch:

One of the branches my son painted even looks like a little birdie!  :-)

Vintage Frames Portrait Arrangement

A bare part of a hallway wall in my home is now decorated with a collection of filled and unfilled picture frames:

A couple of family portraits taken during our church directory photo shoot fill 3 of the 5 frames in the arrangement. I hope to have some fun outdoor photos of the kids taken in the fall, but these shots will get some prime real estate for a while.

I dug through my stash and found two vintage 80s gold frames, two empty, older wood ones and another medium stained wood frame, not pictured.

One can of spray paint transformed the assorted frame styles into a unified collection:

I had to buy 2 new wide white mattes, and I even spray painted over the navy and gold matte I already had! Now, on to the next project! Happy Wednesday, all!  :-)

May Day / Mother's Day Flower Idea

My sweet daughter and I just had to pick some of our gorgeous backyard roses and bring them inside to enjoy. We selected the biggest pinkest blossoms we could find. And, of course, our pinkest vase. And also a pretty pink ribbon to match:

I decided to dress our flower vase up with a May Day idea - a green tag that reads "May God Bless Your May Day!" I printed the words with a green background design, then layered the paper onto some thin cardboard to make it stiff. With two small holes punched, it fit nicely onto the ribbon, which was wrapped around our square vase twice:

A simple touch like this would be lovely for Mother's Day, too!
(Sharing this post at DIY day at A Soft Place to Land.)

Mother's Day Giveaway!

In honor of mothers everywhere, let's have a giveaway! 

I put together several items from my Simply Inspiring gift collection at Hallmark:

One winner will receive all this: a pillow with felt and button flower accents that reads: "God made families for love, for laughter, for life."; a photo vase that reads: "I have you in my heart. Phil. 1:7"; and a glass bowl and stand that reads: "Your love has given me great joy and encouragement."

Visit Hallmark Gold Crown stores to see more of the Simply Inspiring gift collection!


ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:
1. For one entry, simply comment below.
2. For TWO additional entries, blog, twitter or Facebook about this post and link to it. You must leave another comment telling me you did so.
3. For another entry. FOLLOW ME on blogger and don't forget to come back and let me know in a separate comment!

Contest is open until midnight MT, April 26th. Winners must have a US address I can ship to. Leave your email or a way to contact you if you win!

Easter Cupcake Toppers - free download

I decided to make Easter cupcakes for my daughter's preschool tomorrow. I added "Happy Easter" and "Jesus" paper cupcake toppers to go with:

It's not a Christian school, so these toppers will really just be for our extended family and the preschoolers will simply enjoy a special treat in honor of the Easter celebration. (With assorted sprinkles, of course!)  :-) 

But ... I've uploaded the cupcake topper daisy artwork as a free download for you. You can use them on cupcakes, or any other cake/treat, or even string them into a spring-colored Easter banner. To go on cake or cupcakes, glue a "Happy Easter" back to back with a "Jesus" topper and a toothpick in the middle will stick it right in place. For a banner, glue them along a pretty ribbon and decorate your fireplace mantel or Easter buffet.

DOWNLOAD FILE

(This is a .pdf file. An 8 1/2 x 11 page that opens with Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Now, I have no idea how bunnies worked their way into the Easter holiday. It's not the focus at our house, but my little ones made these two adorable buck-toothed bunnies at a recent party:

They make me laugh and the kids had a ball making them. My wonderful friend pulled the whole thing together for a preschool spring break activity. Jelly beans poured into [clean] children's socks, cinched at the neck with a ribbon, rubber bands to top the head, then snipped at the cuff of the sock to create two floppy ears:

Now, I recommend dry beans or something other than tasty treats that your child may suck on THROUGH the sock in the car on the way home!  Note the interesting belly on the pink one! :-)

I do hope you have a blessed Easter, remembering Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, His gift of eternal life!

Through the Seasons with my Footed Bowl

I'm decorating for Spring with my sweet little birdie and her two little blue eggs:

My friend gave me this large footed glass bowl at Christmas:

For Valentines Day I removed the large plum candle and potpourri and replaced with a red candle I already had. I added red ribbon and glass beads:

Now for Spring I shopped the house for my two little, yet heavy, cast iron birdies. One is resting in the bowl with two blue wood eggs and natural shavings nest from my Easter supplies:

As my kids say - "She's the mommy birdie caring for her babies in the eggs and the daddy bird is looking for food and keeping them safe from bad guys. Like Spiderman." Yeah, something like that.  :-)

Linking to: DIY Day, Get Your Craft on and Tip Me Tuesday.

Wall Art Shadow Boxes

I was doing some major cleaning of our storage boxes and found some art treasures hidden since our last move!

This set of scripture shadow boxes was included in my book Inspirational Home. You can easily create this look for your home, too. Use colors to suit your room, these neutrals go in my dining area. (How about pinks for a girl's room?)

Start with your faux flower. Find two coordinating ones of good "realistic" design that are also very flat. Then choose a coordinating background paper with a small pattern. Use it to cover the back of the shadow box to provide depth without distracting. Then type the scripture "The Lord is good" and "His love endures forever. Psalm 100:5" Cut these out and, using large pearl-head pins, pin them in place. If you can't pin into your backing, you can cheat by snipping the pins to shorten them and glue them in place:

To enjoy more ideas for making your home inspiring and unique ... check out Inspirational Home: simple ideas for uplifting decor and craft in my Etsy store where I have a special right now of buy one get one free!!

Next up: Easter!

Serving & Decorating

I mentioned my goodies from DaySpring a couple posts ago ... and today I'd like to show you one of the new treats – this rustic metal tray:
The cross design is actually carved right into the tray, giving it a cool, authentic finish:
I think it works with so many different styles. I set it on my coffee table with pine cones and leaves last week:
and now I'm seeing it with Christmas greens and candles. Of course, it's functional, too, so you can use it as a real tray ... but, hey, then you'd be covering up my design ..... :-)

Stay tuned ... hopefully tomorrow I'll have the Giveaway details!!!!!

(Update: Click to view or purchase
Rustic Metal Collection - Cross Serving Tray)

Patio Tablescape & Bucket Centerpiece

This is one of my favorite ideas from my book, Inspirational Home:OK, mostly because I LOVE LOVE LOVE peonies, but the stenciled bucket turned out pretty cute, too ... right? :-)

I picked up a hardware store plain galvanized bucket to use as a patio table centerpiece "vase." I stenciled "Faith Hope Peace Love Joy" in white using craft DecoArt metal paint - an indoor/outdoor paint. I've had many buckets that are actually not sealed good and leak water, so check yours first - you may need to add a liner.
Here's the whole tablescape at our old house. We had amazing climbing roses that had been planted decades before me and they bloomed for months every summer! Made for a lovely garden gatherings despite my two black thumbs!

If you'd like to see loads of gorgeous tablescapes from other bloggers, please visit Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch. If you'd like to see loads of fun DIY ideas, please visit Kimba at A Soft Place to Land. Happy Summer!!

May Day Basket

Happy May Day ... almost! Time to plan May baskets for neighbors or friends! I made a paper cone to hold some roses from my garden. The roses are really filling out and smelling wonderful this week! I chose a palest pink and a budding lilac. [I have NO idea what their real rose plant names are - here at the Winters we go by color!] :-)I created my paper cone with a sheet of card stock. I spray-glued purple tissue paper to both sides, then rolled into shape. Secured the roll with double-sided tape. Trimmed the top edge with scallop-decorative scissors. Punched two holes for the ribbon that I used for my hanging loop -- one purple and one white twisted together. Then I created a tag using my new-to-me-garage-sale-steal giant tag punch. [LOVE IT!] Added "Happy May Day." Inserted the flower stems into those individual water picks, pop inside and I'm all set for gifting!!