Easter Egg Garland - How To

Over on Martha Stewart's site, you can see her instructions and how-to, but I made a few modifications to the products and tools so I'll walk you through this easy project.  This could be something fun to do with kids, but it isn't a one-day project because of the painting and the multiple colors involved.

Things you'll need for the Easter Egg Garland:

5 dozen (more or less if you want) paper mache eggs

spring color paint (I chose 5 different pastel colors)

paint brush (I used a foam brush)

5 or 6 feet of ribbon - pretty thin ribbon

A drill and a 11/16th inch bit (you can use any size bit that will allow your ribbon to pass through

wooden skewer (or beading needle) to push ribbon through holes

Martha calls for real eggs.  Yup.  Like blown out eggs that you would have on hand around Easter-time.  In fact, she calls for you to dye the eggs just like you would normally.  I figured there had to be a better way not just due to the fact that blowing out eggs, well.....blows, but also because those eggs would be so fragile and delicate.  Off I went to Michael's Craft store and found these paper mache eggs.  I bought 5 dozen of them because that's all that they had.  They're the same size/shape as real eggs, but a lot less delicate.

In order to be able to fish the ribbon through them to actually *make* garland, I had to drill each end.  With a 11/16th inch bit, I poked holes through.  I suppose you could just use something sharp and avoid the drill, but I didn't want to collapse the eggs by applying too much pressure so I went with the drill route. 

One hole on each end and the faux eggs are set to get their color.

Martha Stewart recommends that after you blow out 60 some odd eggs, you dye them with natural materials like beets and such.  Sounds fun, but because I went with paper mache eggs, I had to paint them.  I selected 5 different Spring shades that came in these little bottles.  I think they were like $1.49 a piece, so it wasn't a bank-breaker.  I only wish I would have bought a white primer to paint them all with a base before I applied the color. 

With five colors, the painting took longer than I thought it would.  I put a few coats on each egg and over the course of a week or so, I got them all colored.  I used a foam brush (it was cheap), but if I was doing more eggs, I likely would have sprung for spray paint because the coverage would have been better and more even. 

Once painted, time came to string them up so they are actually part of garland.  The holes were big enough for the ribbon to be fished through, but I couldn't get it through by itself.  I tried a flexible beading needle - as Martha recommended - but that didn't work to terribly well.  So, I went into the kitchen and fished out a wooden skewer.  Worked perfectly.  I placed the ribbon over the hole, poked the skewer through the bottom hole then top hole all the while pulling the ribbon through.  See it there popping out the top (the bottom of the photo, but the "top" of the egg)?  Just grab that and tug it through.  Do this for all 60 eggs. 

I used a regular pattern and sequence of the colors.  With 60 eggs, they begin to pile up at your feet while you work. 

Then off they went to be strung up on our living room mantle. The garland isn't quite long enough to go across the entire mantle, but with a little extra ribbon, it fits nicely.

Here's a closer-up photo of the Easter Egg garland.  If you decide to tackle the project, I hope yours turns out great!  Nat gave this the thumbs up, so I'm pleased with how ours turned out.