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DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Paper Maché Easter Egg

My three year old made this one, so you'll have to excuse the fact that it looks a bit like an egg with Chicken Pox.  Older children can, of course, add more easter egg-ish designs to it.

If you make it extra big you can use it as a pinata!

This egg is hollow inside.  You could put all sorts of goodies in and give it as a gift to a friend.

Materials:

• balloon
• newspaper
• ONE OF:  white glue, mod podge OR paper mache paste (1 part flour to 4 parts water... boil about 3 minutes stirring constantly, add 2 ice cubes and let cool) -- See our "How to Mache" section
• scissors
• poster or tempra paint
• paintbrush
• glitter or sparkle glue
   

Instructions:

• Prepare your paper mache paste right away so it has time to cool (if using the boil method).  I like boiled paste as it's smoother and takes a lot less flour (the REDUCE part of the three R's!).
   
• Blow up a balloon.  You should use one that's blown up all the way to get a good egg shape, but we always end up playing with ours until they're somewhat deflated which makes the egg a bit rounder than it likely should be.
   

• Tear strips of newspaper about 1 " wide and as long as you want.
   
• Dip in the paper mache paste, but then remove excess paste (I run it through my fingers to do this)
   
• Cover the balloon in no more than 4 layers of paper mache (I always tell the kids no more than 2 as they always put on too much *grin*).  If you put on more than 4 it will likely mold before it dries.
   
• If you want to fill your egg with something, leave a space where the tied end is.
   
• Scrunch newspaper up and line a bowl with it.  Set the egg in that to dry.
   

• Let dry COMPLETELY.  It goes faster in a warm breezy place.  If it's a nice day, just stick it outside (just don't forget it if it starts to rain).  It takes a day or so to dry.
   
• Put whatever goodies you want into your egg.  Put them in a plastic baggie first so that they don't get any paper mache goop on them.
   
• Apply a second layer of mache.  This time covering the opening.  The more layers you add, the sturdier it will be.  We applied a second layer, but we only did two layers, not 4 this time.
  

   

• OPTIONAL:  we always use scrap white computer paper or toilet paper (don't laugh) for the final layer of all of our paper mache projects.  
  • It takes less paint to cover. 
  • I find newspaper needs two coats of paint, whereas the white paper only needs one. 
  • Toilet paper gives a rough texture which is nice for some animals. 
  • We used computer paper for our egg.
    
• Paint the whole thing a base color (we used pink and mixed the red and white together ourselves)  Kaitlyn LOVES mixing her own paint.
     
• Use paint or markers to add easter egg decorations like stripes, dots or flowers.  We used a carrot cut in half to stamp on our purple dots and then circled them with sparkle glue.
     
• Let dry.