I see these in the stores every spring. I think they're beautiful and always wish to buy a package for myself, but they seem kind of expensive, at about $15 for a dozen. Well this year, I'm making my own. I have acrylic paints in a variety of shades -- blues, greens, brown, black, and white. And I've begun saving whole eggshells. I've been blowing out the contents of eggs as I've needed them.
So far, I have 5 intact shells. I am working toward a dozen speckled eggs. After blowing the insides out, I wash them out with hot soapy water, shaking up the water inside the eggs to get them clean. I've set the carton next to a heat vent to dry them thoroughly.
Once I have enough, I'll seal the holes with paintable caulk, then paint and speckle. I hope to have these done by mid-March. I'll share photos once I get them painted.
Supplies needed for making speckled decor eggs: intact hollow eggshells, painters' caulk, acrylic paint, paintbrush, toothbrush.
Updated:
To blow eggs: wash the exterior of the egg and dry; use a pin or needle to poke a small hole (like in the above photo) in the pointed end; in the flatter end, poke a slightly larger hole, using a small nail to enlarge the hole made with a pin (if it cracks just a little -1/4 inch long cracks, that should be okay as it will be covered up with painter's caulk); blow through the pointed end, every so often using the pin/needle to break up clogs and the yolk through the flatter end hole. Blowing eggs with smallish holes can be troublesome. The trick is to get the hole size just right. You could try slightly a slightly larger hole than what I've pictured. I wanted minimal caulking to perform on my eggs, but will experiment with a larger bottom hole in the next one I blow out.
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| this is the size of hole on the flat end of the egg |
You love artistic challenges, don't you? These should be so pretty.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteI think what I enjoy is proving to myself that having some things that I find to be beautiful is doable on a zero budget or near-zero budget. I'll let you know how they turn out.
I don't think I've blown eggs for a couple of decades ago when I did it with my kids. Yours are going to be very pretty and I look forward to seeing the end product. I think my speckled eggs would be a bag of candy that they sell at Easter time that look like that. And if they're made from malted milk balls, I wouldn't be tempted to eat them since I don't like malt. However, I will probably won't do that. I will just enjoy pictures of yours.
ReplyDeleteHi live and learn,
DeleteI love those speckled malted milk balls! I also love candy hummingbird eggs, but I don't see those any more.
What did you do with your blown out eggs that you did with your kids when they were younger? When I was a girl, we painted them with my mom. Hers always turned out beautifully. Mine were what you'd expect from a 9 or 10 year old.
I think we mostly dyed them just like the others. Although, we did also make designs with crayons. The main difference between these and the hard boiled ones were the blown eggs could last a lot longer if you were careful with them.
DeleteUsing blown-out eggs instead of the hard-boiled variety for indoor Easter egg hunts leads to fewer odor situations, should one not be found in time, too!
Deletegreat idea! Do you just poke holes about the size you have shown on both ends and blow? I've never done that, but I'd love to try.
ReplyDeleteHi Ruthie,
DeleteI updated my post above to give instructions for blowing eggs. Obviously, the larger the bottom hole, the more easily the egg's contents will pass through. I wanted the bottom holes to be small so I could caulk them easily. But you may want to experiment with slightly larger bottom holes, as I will likely do for the remaining 6 eggs. Blowing out through such a small hole took a lot of time per egg (15 to 20 minutes, maybe?). Have fun with it!
My mom used to blow out eggs to paint when I was a girl. The finished eggs made beautiful Easter table decorations.