Make Decoupage Easter Eggs
Fun Egg Craft Using Cutout Applique Paper Flowers, Bunnies & Chicks
Instructions for making an Easter egg with paper decoupage. An easy Easter craft for kids, schools and adults. Includes a variation Easter craft for very young children.
The Victorians loved the craft of decoupage, which they also called japanning. This is the craft of gluing cutout paper pictures onto a surface to decorate it. Here’s how to make pretty, easy Easter eggs using decoupage.
Supplies:
- Eggs
- Paper with pretty pictures, especially spring flowers, birds, bunnies and other seasonal images in pale pastels like light yellow, pink and violet. Seed catalogues, gardening/design magazines and wrapping paper are great choices. Old greeting cards maybe have nice images, but if they are printed on stiff card stock, they may not lie flat on the rounded surface of the egg.
- Lepage’s white glue or an equivalent craft glue that dries clear. (Note: Avoid glue sticks; they have a tendency to lose strength over time and the paper simply falls off.)
- Scissors
- Cotton swabs, sponges or rags for cleaning
- Clear nail polish or craft varnish that dries clear.
- (optional) Easter egg dyes
- (optional) Gold or silver ink pens or paints designed not to spread or bleed when used on paper. (Test on similar paper before using.)
- (optional) Small stickers with pretty Easter-theme images. (Be careful to choose their location well. Once you stick them on, you may not be able to change the location, and bigger ones may be hard to apply without creases.)
- (optional) Colour printouts or photocopies of images you like (if these are for your own use only – not for sale – consider scanning and printing favourite images from children’s books like Beatrix Potter’s famous Peter Rabbit, The Velveteen Rabbit or Mother Goose Rhymes.) Use lower-grade, non-coated paper stock for best results.
Instructions:
- (optional) Using the instructions that came with your dye, dye your eggs in a base colour, especially pale pink, pale yellow, baby blue or mauve.
- Blow out your eggs, cleaning as much of the inside out as possible. (For this craft, you can cut quite big holes in the egg, as you’ll be able to stick paper right over the hole to close it. It won’t even really matter if you crack the egg, since the process of decoupage will strengthen it again.
- Search through your paper to find an array of images that look nice together. Roughly trim out the ones you like best and arrange them on the egg without glue. In some cases, you might wish to use just one or two images (a rabbit on one side and a chick on the other, for instance). In others, you might wish to cover the whole surface with paper (an all-over collage of flowers, for example).
- Note that larger images and thicker paper will tend to crease. Also, any paper stuck to the curviest parts of the eggs (the end points) should be stuck on in small pieces, or it will certainly crease and pull away from the surface.
- When you have selected the images you want to use, you can begin to apply them. Before you glue, test the glue on any double-sided images, such as magazine cutouts. Will the back show through? Trim each picture out carefully. (If you’re good with scissors, some cutouts inside the picture can look pretty.) One at a time, cover the backs lightly but completely with the glue and apply them. Trying to keep them glue off your fingers, smooth the pictures down evenly. Use a wet cotton swab or a damp sponge or rag to wipe away any excess glue.
- (optional) Apply stickers.
- Allow the egg to dry completely, then consider adding decoration with a gold or solver ink pen or paint and a fine brush. For example, a fine gold outline might look nice around each cutout.
- Apply one to three coats of clear nail polish or craft varnish. (You may want to varnish half the egg first, let it dry, and then do the other side, so you can lay the egg down without damaging the wet finish.
Variation for very young children:
- Boil eggs.
- When the eggs are cool, have kids apply stickers directly to them.
- Give them crayons to add decoration, or write "Happy Easter!" or their names.
Display your finished eggs in a bowl as a centrepiece, give one in a pretty box as a gift, or stand them in egg cups to mark places at a dinner table (in this case, you might make special ones with the name of a guest on each one).
See other instructions for decorating eggs, embossed eggs, perfecting your techniques with Ukrainian Easter eggs, as well as making chick-and-bunny eggs, Easter wreaths, heirloom Easter baskets and fluffy baskets. Happy Easter!
The copyright of the article Make Decoupage Easter Eggs in Scrapbooking & Paper Crafts is owned by Sarah B. Hood. Permission to republish Make Decoupage Easter Eggs must be granted by the author in writing.
