A Family Friendly Easter Project

Grab the kiddos for this fun and quick project to bump your Easter egg decorating to the next level. I designed this project to be quick, easy, and all ages friendly. In this sample, we’re turning our egg into a bunny. You could also try a chick, dogs, cats, pretty much anything with feet and ears.

Supply List:

• Creative Paperclay Modeling Material
• Eggs (I used paper mache eggs. Boiled eggs or wood eggs would work just as well)
• Hot Glue (grown-ups only please!)
• Any decorating supplies you have on hand

Start with the base of your animal on the wide end of the egg. In the case of Mr. Bunny, I made three balls of clay, two for the feet and one for the tail. I massaged the feet ball around until they had a rough foot shape with three toes and squished the tail around to look fluffy. Once the feet and tail have their basic shapes, press them against the egg to make sure they bend at the right places to be a perfect fit. When you’re happy with the shape and fit, set them aside to dry. 

Next, repeat the process for the ears and any face embellishments you want. I made Mr. Bunny two ears, two cheeks, and a nose. You may want just a nose or no 3D shapes at all. After you have fit your nose and face to the egg, set them aside to dry as well.

While the clay is drying, decorate your egg. (If you don’t want to wait for the full natural drying time, try the oven!) The sky is the limit here! If you’re using real eggs you could dye them as you normally would. Paint, crayons, stickers, and glitter glue are all options. I went with a classic spring paint job on my paper mache egg. 

Now that the pieces are dry and the egg is painted, I’m going to attach the feet, tail, ears, and face with small dots of hot glue...

... then paint them.  Painting them before you attach them is absolutely an option; however, I find that little hands work better when they have more to hold on to. Give it a try both ways!

These eggs come together so fast, you and your little ones could literally make 100s (OK, maybe 10s) for Easter Egg Hunts, Easter Baskets, table decorations, work gifts, or teacher gifts.

Thanks so much for checking out this project! Be sure to browse around this site for more projects and visit me, Susan, at TheBoredZombie.com for even MORE projects. As always, you if you make this, I want to see it! Send photos/blog posts/etc to susandowenby@gmail.com

Family Thanksgiving Project: Custom Board Game Pawns

Custom Board Game Pawns

Hi There! It's Susan from TheBoredZombie.com with my first Design Team project. I've cooked up a family project that is suitable for all ages and all skill levels and a perfect Thanksgiving day project for everyone to work on together between turkey and heavy napping!

Supply List:

• Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material
• Sculpting tools you have on hand
• Glue (My favorites: E300, hot glue, or Aleene's tacky glue)
• Finishing mediums you have on hand (paint, markers, etc)
• Small embellishments (optional)
  

Everyone's will be different, rather than step by step, here are some guidelines to get the family started:

■ Because your pawn is going to be very small, keep your shapes simple. For example, a little one might want to make a small red car, but probably doesn't want to attempt Lightning McQueen.

■ Small pieces attached by pressing on to the main shape will likely fall off when dry. That's ok! A little dab of glue will fix that right up.

■ When finished, It needs to sit flat on the game board. No balls, hot dogs without buns, or other round things that might want to roll right off the table.

■ LeeAnn recently posted an amazing set of getting started tips for handling the clay.  It's a good refresher and reference for the true newbies.

■ Your family might be the type that produces some professional doll house quality miniatures or you could be more like my daughter and me. We're not making masterpieces. Small cracks, imperfect shapes, glued on pieces, and simple shapes are not only OK, but celebrated! This project is all about the experience and family time - no perfection required!

After the sculpting is complete for the pawns, put them in the oven at 210 degrees for 8 minutes. Turn them so the bottoms are exposed and bake another 8 minutes. They will likely be ready for painting, but if they still feel tacky or moist, give them 5 minutes at the time until your satisfied they are ready to finish.

We finished ours with some metallic permanent markers we had in the junk drawer from an old school project.  The markers worked really well for the little hands - they weren't too messy and a bit easier to control than paint. You could use any sort of finishing medium though. Good kid friendly choices could be washable markers or washable paints. 

If you all are feeling adventurous, go for it! Add embellishments like beads, threads, rhinestones, or small trinkets.




For the curious - I'm the joystick, snowman, and bluebird. My daughter is the snake and sea turtle.

The sky is the limit! Here's some my daughter and I thought of but didn't make - palm tree, coffee cup, birthday cake, baseball cap, tennis shoe, piggy face, owl, mustache, and camera.What would you make?

Optional Side Quest: Instead of making your own pawns, draw names from a hat and make pawns for each other!

Thanks so much for coming by the blog today and taking a look at my project idea. If you want to hear more about the inspiration for the project, come on to my house, theboredzombie.com. I love to hear what you think! Please feel free to drop any comments you have right here on the blog. If your family gives the project a try I REALLY want to see it, send me pictures or link me to your site!