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Pasta Easter Egg Craft

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Are your kids cooped up and looking for something to do? Don’t worry, we are right there with you, too!  In an effort to find things to keep minds busy and avoid more screen time (we already are doing extensive e learning), I found this SIMPLE idea to make Decorated Paper Easter Eggs.

Using items you probably already have, turn the kids loose with some construction paper and glue! Talk about colors, shapes, sizes, textures, and encourage them to cut their eggs and sort the pasta.  There are endless ways to incorporate learning opportunities with this one!

What you need

  • Ziplock Baggies
  • Pasta in Different Shapes
  • Food Coloring
    I prefer gel colors because less is needed to get deep, true colors, but ANY will work! One brand I like are THESE.
  • Rubbing Alcohol or Vinegar
  • Construction Paper or Card Stock
  • Glue
  • Scissors

To color pasta

  1. Put a small portion of pasta into a ziplock bag (about 1/3 c.) Add a few drops of rubbing alcohol to the bag and a few drops of food coloring.  You don’t need much alcohol to spread the color around.  Just enough to make it slightly fluid.  I would say about 1/2 tsp.
  2. Seal the bag up tight and shake it around.  Once pasta has taken on the color, pour it out onto a sheet of newspaper or parchment paper.
  3. Repeat for each additional color – be sure to space dyed pasta on the paper so they don’t run together until dry.
  4. After a few hours you can shake the paper around to turn the pasta to make sure it gets evenly dry.
  5. Allow to dry overnight.  The rubbing alcohol will evaporate and leaves the pasta a rich color and still completely dry and hard.
  6. If pieces stick together, gently roll with dry fingers and they break loose.
  7. Vinegar would also work in place of the alcohol, but will not evaporate as quickly.
  8. We used penne, bowties, stars, broken spaghetti, and a short cut tube pasta I had.

Make the eggs

  • Using construction paper or card stock, cut out an egg shape.
  • Paste the pasta onto the egg in any pattern you like.  Be sure to talk about the shapes and patterns as you work.  Encourage your crafters to be creative and spot the patterns whether a shape or color!
  • Note, we used q-tips to apply the glue to the paper and then placed the pasta on top.  Putting the glue on the pasta proved (1) hard to manipulate (2) made the color start to bleed.
  • OVERALL, this was nearly mess free.  If the pasta got too much glue, it did bleed a little but putting the glue to the paper first seemed to keep this under control.

 

Mess Free Easter Egg Coloring!

Easter Egg Pops

 

Mess Free Easter Egg Coloring!

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Mess Free Easter Egg Coloring!

There are a few things as a parent that I just can’t do.  To be honest, they mostly revolve around events with the probability of large messes. Playdoh, glitter, finger painting, and the horror that is EASTER EGG COLORING!

Yup, I am not afraid to admit it, my kids have NEVER dyed eggs!  It scares the daylight out of me.  Food coloring, liquids, eggs, all I foresee is chaos and disaster!

Well, my fears were faced when my sister in law found this idea using rice.  We boiled some eggs, put on our Pinterest Mom Pants and went for it!  OH MY GOODNESS was this amazing.  No messes, no liquid food coloring cups to spill, and no smelly vinegar.  NOTHING to worry about.

We had a mix of kids from age 3 – 13, plus lots of adults.  Everyone of all ages enjoyed this and loved mixing the colors and getting unique results.

When I say no mess, I am not joking.  After dying 48 eggs, we picked up a few random pieces of rice.  Not a single drip of food coloring, no sloppy newspapers on a table, zero ruined clothes – absolutely nothing to stress over.

📍 Pin HERE for Later!

What you need:

  • Sandwich Size Ziplock Bags
  • White Rice (long grain or instant works)
  • Liquid Food Coloring
  • Hard Boiled Eggs (check out our tips HERE)
  • Cooling Rack

Make the Eggs:

  1. Fill baggies with about 1 c. of rice (we did 15 bags; but you can do as many or as few as you want)
  2. Add 15 drops of color to a bag
  3. Add 1 egg to baggie
  4. Remove the air and seal bag
  5. Gently shake, knead, and toss the bag around until the egg is colored.  The longer you mix, the more color is on the egg.
  6. You can use tongs or just roll the egg out of the bag onto a cooling rack to dry.  If you touch with your bare fingers, you will get VERY colored fingers because the eggs are still wet.  Allow to dry for about 20 minutes.

  • You can put the egg into a different color of rice and get a beautiful mixed color egg.
  • We did mix some of the rice colors together in a bag and got very fun results.  The options are limitless.
  • About every 3 eggs we needed to refresh the food coloring with a few more drops to keep vibrant colors.
  • It is HIGHLY recommended to keep an adult on food color patrol to keep spills and over pouring at a minimum; plus making sure each bag is properly resealed is vital!

Note: Remember you are using undiluted food color.  Anything that comes into contact with the wet eggs will be heavily dyed!  We did have a few dyed fingers!

I would not cook and eat the rice.  With the volume of food color it would be quite the pot of gray!  You can dry the rice and use it for a sensory table activity.

Bird Nest Cupcakes – Perfect for Easter

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Bird Nest Cupcakes

When I purchased a mini bundt pan a few months ago, little did I know how much fun I would have using it.  I have found so many ways to bake & decorate with it!

These adorable nests take no special ingredients and can be done with regular cupcakes too.  I used a mini muffin tin to make bite size cakes and topped with egg shaped candy sprinkles to show the variation.

Mix up a cake mix, top with a 3 ingredient glaze, sprinkle coconut on top and add some jelly beans. DONE! How easy is that?  Plus, this is very kid friendly! They can help put cupcake liners in, shake the coconut, pour the glaze and add the jelly beans.

📌 Pin HERE for Later.

What you need:

  • (1) Box yellow or white cake mix
  • Oil, Water, Eggs needed per the cake directions
  • 2 c. powdered sugar
  • 1/4 c. heavy cream (or whole milk or half & half)
  • 1/2 t. vanilla (clear is best)
  • 1/2 c. coconut flakes
  • green food coloring
  • jelly beans, malted milk balls or sprinkles for the ‘eggs’

Make it:

  • Prepare cake mix according to the package directions
  • If using a mini bundt pan, carefully coat the pan with non-stick spray
  • If using a muffin tin, line with paper cups.  Spray the paper cups lightly with non-stick spray to ensure a clean removal
  • Bake cake according to package directions. (usually about 20 minutes for cupcakes)
  • Remove from pan and allow to completely cool

Prepare grass topping:

  • Add coconut to a storage container with a tight fitting lid
  • Add 2 drops of food color
  • Cover and shake until the coconut is green.  This takes a few minutes.  Add more food coloring if desired.

For the glaze:

  • In a mixing bowl combine powdered sugar, vanilla & cream
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: Add heavy cream 1 TBSP at a time until a pour-able consistency is reached.  You can add more cream if required.  Just add small amounts in at a time so the glaze does not become too runny.
  • Add a few drops of green food color to lightly tint green

Frost and decorate:

  • Put cakes onto a cooling rack that is set inside a cookie sheet to catch drips.
  • If using cupcakes, remove paper liners for a clean look, if desired.
  • Pour glaze over the tops of cakes so that it starts to drip down the sides.
  • Top with colored coconut
  • Add 3 jelly beans to the top of each
  • Allow for glaze to set

More Easter Ideas:

Bunny Butt Pretzel Treats

Easter Egg Pops

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