Clay Nameplate Earrings

Materials:
*Gold clay
*Small letter stamps
*Knife
*Rolling pin (or suitable substitute)
*Toothpick
*Ear wires
*Round nosed pliers

Directions:
*Roll out clay to make a thin, flat sheet.
*Stamp the desired name or word into the clay sheet twice.
*Using the knife, cut out a rectangle around the words, leaving a little extra clay at the top of each rectangle.
*Poke a hole into the top of each rectangle with a toothpick.
*Bake clay in the oven according to the directions on the packaging.
*Once the clay is cool, add ear wires.

Bottle Cap Refrigerator Magnet

     These magnets are adorable, easy to make, and are a great way to use up any bottle caps you have kicking around.  It's a great craft for all ages.  I used to make them with my mom when I was a kid.

Materials:
*Bottle caps
*Patterned paper
*Mod Podge
*Self-adhesive magnetic backing
*Pencil
*Scissors
*Paintbrush

Directions:
*Place the bottle cap onto the patterned paper and trace around it to form a circle.
*Cut out the circle.  Check to see if it will fit inside the bottle cap.  If not, trim it a little more until it fits.
*Coat the inside of the bottle cap with a layer of Mod Podge to even out any unevenness in the bottom of the cap.  Set it aside to dry for 24 hours.
*Once it is dry, dab some more Mod Podge across the bottom of the bottle cap and add the picture.  You can then either coat the photo with a layer of Mod Podge or leave it as is.  Set it aside to dry.
*Once it's dry, add a piece of magnetic backing to the back of the bottle cap.

Whimsical Spring Floral Arrangement

It's finally starting to feel like spring here in Maine!  I got the idea for this bouquet from this post from Fave Crafts.

Duct Tape "Dandelion"

Materials:
*Duct tape
*Measuring tape
*Thick gauge floral wire
*Scissors
*Wire cutters

Directions:
*Cut off a strip of duct tape about 18" in length.
*Fold it over (the hot dog way) almost in half so that about 1/4" of tape is left unattached.
*Cut slits in the tape almost all the way down to the unattached portion to create a fringe.
*Cut off a length of floral wire and wrap the duct tape around one end.
*Gently push on the petals to open the flower.

Large Sequin Flowers

Materials:
*Large sequins
*Medium sequins
*All purpose adhesive
*Wire

Directions:
*Take three large sequins and glue a medium sequin into the center of each one.
*Cut off three sections of wire of varying lengths and attach a large sequin to each one.
*Twist together the three wires to create a branch.

Sparkly Pom Pom Flowers

Materials:
*Sparkly pom poms
*All purpose adhesive
*Thick gauge green floral wire

Directions:
*Cut off a length of floral wire.
*Glue a pom pom to the top of the wire.

Hearts and Flowers Branch

Materials:
*Artificial floral branch
*Patterned paper
*Heart punch
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Punch out hearts from the patterned paper and glue them to the artificial floral branch.

Glittery Flower

Materials:
*Artificial flower
*Glitter
*Glue

Directions:
*Coat the tops of the petals of the flower in glue.
*Pour glitter over the glue.  Set aside to dry.
*Once dry, shake off any excess glitter.

Butterfly

See my Spring Butterfly Bookmarks post to find out how to make this lovely butterfly.

Putting it All Together:

Materials:
*Oversize plastic cup
*Cone shaped Styrofoam
*Mini pinwheels

Directions:
*Fit Styrofoam inside cup.  Mine fit perfectly as it was, but depending on the size and shape of your cup, you may have to trim the Styrofoam some.
*Stick flowers and pinwheels into the Styrofoam.
*Glue the butterfly to one of the flowers.

Spring Butterfly Mobile

Materials:
*Cardstock in a variety of colors
*Butterfly template
*White paint
*Pipe cleaner
*All purpose adhesive
*Thread
*Hole punch
*Patterned cardstock
*Scissors

Directions:
*Create the desired number of butterflies using the template and instructions from my Spring Butterfly Bookmarks post.  You will need twice as many butterflies as the number you want hanging from your mobile.
*Glue two butterflies back to back, with a piece of string sandwiched between them.  Repeat using the remaining butterflies.
*Cut out two strips of 12 x 12 patterned paper about two inches in thickness.  You can create the scalloped edges by tracing around a rounded object, such as the bottom of the glue bottle, a small drinking glass, or a bottle cap.
*Glue the two strips together to form a ring.
*Punch out holes from the ring and tie on the strings the butterflies are hanging from, varying the height of the strings as you go.
*Punch two holes on opposite sides of the ring and tie each end of a piece of string to one of the holes.  Use this string to suspend the mobile from the ceiling.

Non-Candy Easter Egg Surprises

     Looking to surprise someone with an Easter egg hunt, but want something more personal than candy and little store bought trinkets?  Here are a few crafty ideas:

Mini Origami

     What could be more adorable than tiny origami critters?  For this craft, resize your origami paper to a fraction of its original size and then make your favorite animal as you normally would.

Egg of Quotes

     This craft is basically a miniaturized version of the quote jar idea that I had heard of, wherein you make a jar of funny or heartwarming things people say.  Brian says many silly and bizarre things and I make sure to jot down the best of them.  I printed off a bunch of his quotes, cut the paper into strips, with one quote per strip, and then folded them up and stuffed them inside the egg.  Alternately, you can use some of your favorite quotes, or perhaps write up a short story and cut out strips with one sentence per strip, then see if your recipient can piece them together to figure out the whole story.

Mini Paper Doll Set

     Draw your own paper dolls or find a pattern and shrink it so that the dolls will fit inside the egg.  I created these "paper dolls" using Paint.  These are the Happy Candy Corn and their various friends and foes.  They're from a comic strip that I drew for Brian.

Things I Love about You

     All you need for this craft is a heart template, colored cardstock, and a pen.  Cut out a bunch of hearts and write on them various things that you love about the recipient.

A Puzzle

     Draw or print out a picture, cut it into pieces, and hide the pieces in the eggs.  Alternately, you could buy a puzzle and place the pieces inside the eggs.

Customize Toys with a Message

     Want to make a store bought item feel more personal?  Write a personal note to go with it.  If it's an animal or something else that tends to be treated anthropomorphically, come up with a personality for the toy, one that will match your recipient's.

For the Jewelry Lover

Spring Pinwheel Earrings
Clay Owl Earrings
Rose and Crystal Drop Earrings
Easy Earrings
Duct Tape Rose Ring
Clay and Button Pendants

Other Ideas

 Note: some of these might be a little large to hide in a standard sized Easter egg, but could still make nice presents for an Easter basket, so I decided to include them anyway.

Pom Pom Chick
Dollhouse Miniatures
Spring Butterfly Bookmarks
Fuse Bead Spring Magnets

Spring Butterfly Bookmarks

     Supposedly there is this thing called "spring" that is on its way.  As a Mainer, I'm a bit skeptical,  *Glances out window to see swirling white oblivion.*  But it sure sounds nice.  Anyway, I guess you're supposed to summon it by bedecking your home in butterflies and flowers and whatnot, so I figured I would give it a try.  I got the idea for the butterflies from this site and thought they would make nice bookmarks.

Materials:
*Solid colored cardstock
*Patterned cardstock
*Butterfly template
*White paint
*Popsicle stick
*Pipe cleaner
*Mod Podge
*Paintbrush
*All purpose adhesive
*Headpin (optional)

Directions:
*Print the below butterfly template onto the sheet of solid colored cardstock.

*Using the "head" of the head pin, add dots of white paint along the edge of the butterfly's wing.
*Set aside to dry.
*Glue on a piece of pipe cleaner to form the butterfly's body.
*Cut out a section of patterned cardstock and decoupage to the popsicle stick.
*Glue the popsicle stick to the butterfly and set aside to dry.

Treasure Rock Dinosaur Eggs

     This craft combines ideas from two of my favorite childhood things: Treasure Rocks and Quaker Dinosaur Eggs Oatmeal.  A couple months back, one of my friends posted a question on Facebook asking if we could remember turning four and all I could remember was that I got these rocks that turned into gems when you put them in water.  I could not remember what they were called, so I started Googling and learned that they were called Treasure Rocks.

An add for Treasure Rocks.  There are more videos on YouTube, but for some reason my YouTube search for linking on Blogger is not the same as my regular YouTube Search 

Me rockin' my Treasure Rocks ring on my fourth birthday

     I also found out that you could make a variation on them with some baking soda and water.  I needed an excuse to make some.  I was planning on throwing my sister a dinosaur themed birthday party, so I realized that instead of putting rhinestones inside I could put plastic dinosaurs inside and call them dinosaur eggs.  This brings me to the Quaker Dinosaur Eggs Oatmeal, which, if you have never had it, is totally worth it to buy if only to watch the eggs "hatch" into dinosaurs.

     So these Treasure Rock Dinosaur Eggs are basically a combination of these two ideas.  They're easy to make and you can hide whatever you would like inside them.  You can retrieve the treasure/dinosaurs inside by pouring some vinegar over the rocks/eggs.

Materials
*Baking soda
*Water
*Food coloring
*Vinegar

Directions:
*Pour some baking soda into a bowl.
*Add a couple of drops of food coloring in a color of your choice.
*Slowly add water until the mixture has a consistency which you can easily mold.  If you add too much water and it gets runny, add some more baking soda.
*Mold the baking soda mixture around the treasure item/dinosaur.
*Set aside to dry for at least 48 hours.  Rocks/eggs should be firm and not flaky when they are done drying.
*Remove treasure with vinegar.  I found that squirting them with a spray bottle filled with vinegar works pretty well and saves on the amount of vinegar you have to use, but alternatively you could just pour vinegar over them or you could dunk them in a bucket of vinegar.