Friday, March 27, 2009

Easter Eggs!!! (and Chenille Chicks)



With Easter coming, and my love of this season of rebirth and renewal and of course chenille chicks, I thought I would share with you our family tradition of egg decorating. You’ll see we’ve got a couple of different styles, more of a generational thing. I adore them all completely!!!



My mom passed these along to me when she downsized a couple years ago. They’re made by my sister Pam, little sis, Missie glued to her side watching every single delightful crafting moment! If you want to make your own for Easter, now’s the time to find the chenille chicks, though sadly they are no longer as festively dressed as they were back in the day. I have been toying with the idea of fashioning little outfits and accessories for the no frills chicks sold these days… back to the directions, the egg, when you pierce the eggshell to remove the egg, use a pair of curved cuticle scissors to cut the hole. It makes a nice round cut. Also do this (enlarge the hole) when the egg is still wet or it will shatter into a million pieces. The paint she used was the little bottles of enamel paint that they sell near the model kits in craft stores. It dries quite hard and shinny, she usually painted the inside a different color. I’m not sure if you can tell from the picture, and these cuties have been around for AWHILE, but there is flocking on the outside. So if you’re going to do something like that, you’d want the undercoat of paint to match the flocking, which was applied by painting the egg with white glue (now-a-days I would go for the acid free/non-yellowing type) and then rolling the egg in the flocking.



You can see a detailed view of the trim used to cover the edge of the egg opening. It should also be noted that while I have them all nested here to photograph them, you may notice some are made to hang like a little basket, others have a bail at the top, but they are all meant to be hung from a little tree or branch as a center piece or on a side table. If you really love this craft, like we do in our family, you can take the same idea and make really beautiful Christmas ornaments. They’re lovely with a simple nativity scene or angel nestled inside.



These beauties were made by my Aunt Millie, she really had an elegant flair. It’s times like this when I wish I had a video clip to really show you the detail of these eggs. Nearly all of them are hinged with little doors. They’re all lined with fabric and there are all these special touches, cherubs dangling from a delicate chain, a blue forget-me-not nested in the bottom of velvety richness, everything elegant. Not too much, just the right amount.


I hope you enjoyed looking at our little nest of eggs, now I’m off to go fashion tiny top hats out of felt!!!


Blessings Friends!

Melissa

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I'm a crafter, knitter, tinkerer, who always seems to have a project or two on the launch pad. I love to share what I'm working on and I love to see what other folks are working on too, so please comment and let me know where I can see your latest creation!