An Egg-citing Easter Idea: Posting Letters in the Egg

Last one month our home has been humming with theme crafts. First, it was for the festival of colours – Holi, then some spring crafts when Pari made a caterpillar and a rose mask, followed by recycling craft for Earth Day and now – over the last two days – Easter crafts.

Though we don’t celebrate Easter in the traditional sense of this spring festival, I like to capture the spirit behind the festival by telling related stories to Pari and doing Easter-themed crafts.

For those readers who are not familiar with Easter traditions – Easter is celebrated, among Christians, as the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. You can read more here.

The egg is widely used as a symbol of the start of new life, just as new life emerges from an egg when the chick hatches out. It also conveys a message of spring, fertility, new life, rebirth.

So, Pari and I painted a few eggs by blowing them out.  Well, I never knew, until a few months back, that we can blow out the ‘content’ of the eggs to decorate them and use them as show pieces for ever. This knowledge was a blessing because decorating the hard boiled eggs would mean we should eat them later on. And, we being vegetarians, we eat eggs occasionally.

We were having much fun with the egg blowing and painting etc. But, I wanted to do something radically different with the egg. And luckily I came across this unique idea that got me totally excited, or should I say, egg-static!

Step 1: Blow out the egg

• • Give the egg a nice rinse with water
  • Pierce holes on the top and bottom end of the egg. Do this by placing a nail and hitting it really really gently so it gets a grip. Then, screw the nail inside – even more gently. You might get tiny cracks around the nail the first time but with little practice, you can perfect this art. It IS an art, I must tell you.
  • Place your mouth on the hole and start blowing. (Make sure there’s a bowl underneath.) And blow and blow and blow – till the stuff inside the egg is blown out into the bowl.
  • Now that your egg is all empty, you can wipe clean and get ready for the next step

Step 2: Dye the egg and decorate

 

• • I used liquid food colours –red, green and orange. You can use natural dyes, too (beet, turmeric, henna)
  • Place the egg in a colander
  • Sprinkle some white vinegar on the egg. Give a shake
  • Using an eyedropper, drop a few drops – one colour at a time
  • Give a shake in the colander so that the colours are nicely smeared
  • Pat dry lightly on a paper napkin
  • Embellish with stickers/petals/bindis
• • 

What do you think, friends? I love to hear from you. So, connect by leaving your brilliant comment below!

 

• Step 3: Insert letter/s into the egg

  • Write anything you want on a very narrow (1/2 or max 1 inch width) strip of paper
  • Roll the paper
  • Insert it into the egg through the hole
  • You can insert more letters if you want to. I did 5!

  

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  Step 4: Pack the egg like a parcel and surprise your kid!

  • Affix a stamp on top of the box and write “to” and "from" addresses (this is just to give it a realistic look)
  • Stick the egg inside the box – at the bottom – with a Fevicol Glue Drop or a double sided tape
  • Write – “crack open” or anything else you wish – on the inside of the cover flap
  • Surprise your lil one and capture her/his egg-citement on her/his face!
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