RED and WHITE Speckled COUNTRY EGGS

Today I thought I'd share how I make my Red and White Speckled "Graniteware/ Enamelware" Looking Country Eggs. I do both the white based with red specks and also the red base with white specks. I love them both!

I was thinking that some people may want to make these for display with Easter right around the corner. But as for me, I keep mine out all year long. They look awesome with the red and white speckled "graniteware/enamelware" themed other items I have in the kitchen also.

First, I start off with some basic, crafting plastic eggs. You can find these at Michaels or sometimes you get lucky and run across a bag of them at the Dollar Mart! These are not the type that you can pull apart, they are full eggs, in one piece. They are plastic and hollow inside.

I was lucky enough to find these in huge bags of 40 for only $1.19 at the Dollar Mart last year. My buggy and arms were full! And please note that I did buy them all except for one bag. Which I left in case someone really needed them. lol. Some of mine in the tote are dented due to being stored at the bottom of a huge stack in the garage. lol. But I am still going to use them.

The next step is to simply spray paint them with a base coat. I use the $3.00 red from the Dollar Store and the $1.50 white. The little bit higher red tends to cover better than the dollar kind. Do not try to paint them on something like a plastic bag. They will stick and get lines....I tried.

The best thing I found to paint them in was a cardboard box lid. The gift box type. Once painted they can even roll around and it will not mess up the paint too much. I do a box full of both white and red as the base.

Then let them dry a bit, roll them around and spray the other sides. Then just let it all dry again.

Now comes the toughest part....but don't worry, it's still not hard. It's the time to add the "speckled look." And getting it just right is not necessary. But here's a trick. Practice over something like an empty box until you get the hang of it. I just barely.....and I mean BARELY press down on the spray button on the spray paint to just make it kind of "spit" the paint out in little specks. And I hold it over top the eggs. Probably about 2 foot or so above. That way you will get the little dripping effects.

You can see some of the big drips that also fell in the box. It hit a few eggs to, but even they still looked kinda cool in the end.

I forgot to take a pic of the red based ones with white specks, but they are just the same as above, but vice versa colors.

And here's how I package them up to sell them in my Peddlers Mall Booth #555:

I put them in these clear bags and just add a label and sometimes a string of homespun to make them look super country. I do sets of 2 for only $1.59 or sets of 4 for $2.79. The sets of 2 go faster than the sets of four, I am guessing because of the $1.59 price. And that people may add them to their own groups of eggs they already have.

Here's a few more pics of them packaged and ready to go:

And here's how I display some in my own kitchen. They are all nestled inside of a wire chicken frame that I found at a yard sale for only $2.00.

I need to go back and add a touch of that fake nesting grass under the eggs. Ah, I'll get to it one day.

Well, I hope this gives you some ideas on what to do with those plastic craft eggs you may have laying around. I'm pretty sure this will also work on those left over Easter eggs as well. They'd just have the seam in the middle is all.


MORE IDEAS:
And if you are looking for a more primitive, country theme to do on plastic eggs, check out my recent post here: PRIMITIVE "COUNTRY THEMED" EGGS.

 

http://www.booth555.com/2012/08/primitive-bowl-fillers-country-eggs.html

CANDY CANE WREATH with Instructions

Here's a cute candy cane wreath I made and the instructions are below.

I first saw this idea when my Aunt sent me a link on fb. Then I did a quick search and found it on Pinterest here. It looked super cute to be so simple that I just had to try it!

And here's how I did it.

First I headed down to the Dollar General Store to buy the candy canes, it takes 22. So I had to buy two boxes. And I needed something roundish to decorate the center and try to hide where they all come together. I didn't see anything I loved so I drove over to the Dollar Mart. And there I found the cute, clear and silver snowflake! It is simply PERFECT!

 

Then I got all my stuff together when I got home. 

You will need:

1.scissors

2.Hot glue gun and stick

3. Twenty two candy canes

4. A centerpiece (round is perfect)

5. Ribbon

6. And e6000 glue (optional)

7. White sparkly glitter (optional)

Okay so here we go. First, I laid all the candy canes out in sets of two, to form a circle,  like this:

And then just shove them together to form a "wreath" circle.

And next you simply just take some ribbon, I chose white, and tie them all together in sets of two, like so:

Simple so far, right!

Okay, next, after doing all 22 of these like that. I arranged them all into a circle again, and took my hot glue gun and glued them all together at the inside center circle. Each one to the next, to make a tight hold. 

I also did this to the top outer parts, where the canes form a heart shape. Just to make a stronger hold.

And then I got my plastic clear, sparkly snowflake and glued it directly onto the center of the candy canes with my E6000 glue, found in the craft section of stores. I'm sure you could probably just hot glue the star on, but I wanted to make sure it wouldn't fall of soon.

(this wasn't the pic I wanted to post, but I couldn't find the correct one where my canes were tied with ribbon! But this one will due.)

Now this e6000 glue takes a while to fully dry, but when it does, it has a strong hold!

Now you could finish up here, if you didn't want to take it a step farther like I did with the photo insert.

But since my Aunt had sent me a photo wanting this, and she recently had a son to pass away in a car accident. I thought I'd add a photo of him in the center for her. It'd be a great way for her to have his photo around during Christmas. And he use to always steal her candy canes off her Christmas tree too. So this is extra special for her.

I chose a photo from when he was younger and printed it off.
I then glued the edges of the photo to the inside of the clear snowflake, from the back side. 
I also smeared some extra glue around the edges on the inside and sprinkled all kinds of sparkly, white glitter in it.
I thought it was a good way to hide the edges of the cut photo, since the center of the snowflake was clear.

Also, this is where I found some little red pip berries in my craft box, and hot glued them to the white ribbon ties.
You could use jingle bells, little fake presents or bows. Just about anything to dress them up a bit.

And lastly, the final step was to simply add a piece of ribbon to the top, to be able to hang it by.

I just tied on a piece like below:

And that is all there was to it!

My Aunt loves it and it is a great way for her to keep her son's spirit around at Christmas.

Hope ya'll like it!

And by typing out these steps, it makes it seem way more complicated than it is.

Believe it, it's simply tieing two candy canes together, hot glueing them and assembling it all.

Very Easy!

If you do give this a try, I'd love for you to send me a link or photo of it!

I gave this one to my aunt but I'm making more that's on the way to my Craft Booth #555 and Etsy where they can be purchased as a great, unique gift!

See ya'll next time,
~Lisa