make your own floral Easter eggs

What’s better than flowers and Easter? Flowers ON your Easter! Easter eggs, that is.

Every year, artist and painter Riley Sheehey creates the most beautiful painted floral Easter eggs. I decided last year to try my hand at painting flowers on eggs and quickly realized it was looking more like someone left the kitchen gate open and a toddler got their hands on a marker and a carton of eggs. They were so pitiful! So this year I discovered an even easier and much better way to get those beautiful floral Easter eggs that I so desired: decoupage!

This project took less than 2 hours and cost only about $15. And you’ll never guess the most important “ingredient” to this project. Napkins! Paper cocktail napkins are perfect for this project as the designs are just about the size you would need for your egg and once you remove the second ply layer of the napkin, the paper is just thin enough to manipulate perfectly onto the egg with glue or Modpodge.

For this project you will need: one or two cocktail napkins with your desired print, a dozen eggs, Modpodge, a pair of small sharp scissors, and a paintbrush.

I decided to go with these Meri Meri English Garden napkins as the floral prints were a mix of spring blooms and wildflowers and it was exactly what I had envisioned. But you can use a floral print, animals, Easter bunnies, your favorite characters, or trucks and trains. The options are endless. And it turns out you only need about two or so for this project, so you will still have plenty left over to use for your next garden party or to save away for another craft. Now here is how it is done:

Here are the 3 easy Steps:

STEP ONE:

Gather your supplies and prep your eggs.

If you are using real eggs and you have little hands involved in helping you, you may want to hard boil the eggs first to prevent a mess. .
You may also want to consider using neutral color cardboard or white plastic eggs that way your designs can be saved and reused year after year. I love these white faux eggs.
Make sure your eggs are dry and ready to go before placing the cut outs.

step TWO:

Cut the napkin

Simply go along and cut out as many little images as you can
I suggest using a pair of small sharp scissors since you will be doing precise cutting.
Keep your cut outs about an inch or two in diameter at the most. Any bigger and you will have a harder time getting it to lay flat on the egg.
Your napkins might be two ply. So you can remove the inside napkin layer either before or after you cut. I found it was easier to cut if I left it in place and removed afterwards.

STEP THREE:

Use Modpodge to secure your cut out onto the egg

With a small paint brush, add a little Modpodge onto the egg to hold into place
Add another layer of Modpodge on top, spreading in an outward direction so the sides don’t curl back up
Allow several minutes to dry
And enjoy!