Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Mini Paper Mache Egg Diorama

This is one of my prototype eggs for the Egg Swap hosted by Shara. I am completely in love with how this turned out, but alas, it is not what I will be sending out. Why? Because my eggs of another design are already done and in the mail! Whoo! Hoo!
Finished Egg

There are several steps to make these, but overall easy and fun. I am going to do these with my fourth and fifth grade craft club. 

Tutorial:

Supplies:
plastic eggs that open
colored tissue paper
white paper towel
Elmers glue
quilling supplies
hot glue gun/ glue sticks
scissors
marker
Easter stickers or candy
Easter grass
small pebble

Step 1-
Take apart the plastic egg and tear up tissue paper into small bits.
Using glue with a little water to thin, apply the tissue paper right on top of both the top half and the bottom half of the egg. Be sure to overlap pieces so that the egg is completely covered. This will make the inside colorful. You can get creative by layering different colors or adding stripes of tissue, dots, etc.. Allow to dry for a bit. It will dry fairly quickly. It doesn't need to be fully dry.
Using Plastic Egg as a Mold
This egg has the tissue layer and one layer of paper towel on it.

Step 2- Next, rip paper towel into bits and soak them with the glue and water mixture. Completely cover the first layer with paper towel. You want to add a few layers of paper towel. This will dry and give your egg a surprising amount of strength. Allow this to fully dry overnight.

Step 3- Remove your paper egg from the plastic mold by gently running your finger nail under the edge. I also used a toothpick to get into the edge and separate the paper layer from the plastic.
Inside
When you remove the paper egg from the plastic mold, you will have a smooth and colorful inside!

Step 4. Hold both halves together and draw a circle so that both halves of the circle line up. Use scissors to cut out each half circle.
Hot Glued Together
This is the egg hot glued back together. You can see the gap at this stage, but it won't show later.

Step 5- Hot glue the egg back together lining up the circles. There will be visible gaps, this is OK.
Cover with Tissue Paper
The outer tissue paper layer covers up the hot glue and the gap.

Step- 6- Cover the outside of the egg with another layer of colorful tissue paper and let it completely dry.

Step-7- Now decorate edges with quilled flowers or other embellishments.
Fill With Grass
 I got all my quilling supplies from Quilled Creations and the flower patterns came from the book Paper Quilling for the First Time by Alli Barkowski. You could really decorate the edges with anything though. Puff paint would look very similar to the frosting used on sugar eggs. Glitter would be nice too. Get creative!
Finished Egg
Step 8- Add grass and a small image or candy inside.
Images from Magic Cabin Catalog
I used an image from an old Magic Cabin catalog because that is what I had on hand at the moment. I cut out the tiny image and glued it to a small pebble for a stand. However, I saw the perfect vintage Easter stickers at Michaels (similar to these images) and may have to go back and get them. To use stickers, stick to the pebble stand and add a little baby powder to the back to take away the rest of the exposed stickiness.

Quilled Easter Egg
I put a tiny quilled bunny in this egg. You can click on the photo for a better look. Another great filler would be those beautiful Cadbury mini eggs. Yum! That would be much better!

Reminder:
I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.  ~Edward Everett Hale


Have you checked out the Kind Words and Warm Feet Sock Drive for Comfort Socks?


Hope you have a wonderful week!

13 comments:

Shara said...

Well, these are adorable so I can't wait to see what you are sending for the swap! (I'm going to send some socks in your egg swap box.)

Unknown said...

The 'Crayons' will love doing this project.
I've got something similar in mind, though I'll be making my egg shape using a balloon and some Paper Mache. I don't want my little daughter to have a pile of chocolate for Easter, so I thought I'd make an egg that she can open up and find a few little toys inside. I can pretend I'm back at school again whilst I'm making and decorating it.

Flowers said...

WOW!!!! This is stunning! Thank you so much for the tutorial! Keep on posting :)

Ann said...

Neat way of shaping the molded egg - thanks for the tutorial! I bet the kids will love making them.

sara said...

These eggs are so cute!!!

Rebecca said...

Very cute! I'm still working on my eggs. I'm just moving so slow lol. But I hope to have them in the mail by this weekend if my Mom will drop them off. LOL Still housebound in her care. Thank goodness you're never too old for Mom to take care of you?

Christianne @ Little Page Turners said...

Love it! Probably too difficult for a 5yo, but this 30yo might just give it a try. :)

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

Aww, I love this! So, so cute. Thanks so much for the how-to, I'll be linking.

jodi said...

What a cute idea!! I've always loved those eggs.

Paula@SweetPea said...

I love this project! It reminds me of eggs my grandmother made for church in the 1970's. I really want to try this. Thanks for sharing!

Wendy @ Ramblings from the Sunshine State said...

Those are so cute! Im still trying to get mine finished up!

littlemissmk said...

wow- so stinkin cute! you are so crafty!

Term Papers said...

Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.