Look what we've hatched up - a variety of keepsake eggs for putting in baskets or using as decorations throughout the house. Some are adorned with bits of lace; others are painted with speckles, dainty flowers or glistening butterflies.

Note: For most of the following decorated eggs, it will be necessary to use blown eggs. To blow an egg, allow egg to reach room temperature. Use an awl or a large darning needle to make a small hole at each end of the egg. Blow out the insides. Hold egg underwater until it fills up, then blow out the water. Drain and air-dry.

Wedgwood Eggs

Directions
1. With the small paintbrush, paint the eggs light blue-violet, thinning the paint with water as needed. Let the paint dry.

2. On transparent paper, make two or three tracings of FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. Lightly tape tracings onto an egg (slashing the paper as needed in order to space tracings evenly). Lightly draw a few guidelines on the egg underneath tracings before removing tracings, one at a time. A central stem and a small dot at the center of each circle are all you need; draw the rest of the design freehand.

3. With white paint, paint one repeat over the guidelines, using the sable brush for the leaves and the small dots; use the stencil brush for the large dots. Apply paint thick enough to be opaque.

4. Draw guidelines underneath the second tracing, remove it and paint in the same way. Repeat as needed.

Floral Eggs

Materials
- Blown eggs
- Acrylic paints (violet, blue, yellow, green, orange, red, white, magenta)
- Transparent paper; pencil; small paintbrush; kneaded eraser

Directions
1. Trace the broken outlines of paisleys in FIGS. 3 and 4 onto transparent paper; cut out. To transfer outlines onto egg, scribble pencil on back of tracing, tape the tracing onto the egg (scribble side down) and go over the tracing lines again, then remove paper
Draw additional paisleys around the outlines, leaving room for scattered leaves between paisleys (photo).

2. Within the paisley, painting free-hand design similar to one shown in
FIGS. 3 and 4. Make a pink shade of paint by combining magenta and white. Make two shades of light green by adding yellow to green. Let each color dry before you apply an adjacent color, to prevent smudging.

3. When paint is dry, gently erase any pencil marks.


Lace-Trimmed Eggs

Materials
- Acrylic paints in white and assorted colors
- Blown eggs
- Scraps of lace
- White craft glue; paintbrushes


If you make this project we'd love to see it! Just send your photos and comments to the editor and it may get published on this page!

What you do 1. Add white to colored paints to achieve the pastel shades desired. (We used peach, blue, violet, rose and green.) Paint the eggs and let them dry

2. From the lace, cut small motifs, such as hearts and flowers, or strips of border. 3. Glue lace motifs onto and around eggs (photo).

Sponge-Painted Eggs

Materials
- Small makeup sponge
- Acrylic paints in assorted colors
- White paper
- Aluminum foil
- Blown eggs

Directions
1. Tear off a piece of sponge. Dip it into some paint, then dab it onto white paper to see what kind of pattern it will make. Try different bits of sponge until you like the pattern.

2. Pour a little paint onto a piece of foil. Dip the sponge into the paint, then dab the sponge onto white paper to see if the sponge carries too much or too little paint. Correct as needed.

3. Sponge-paint half of the egg; let dry. Sponge-paint the other half of the egg; let dry.

4. Add layers of other colors, if you like, in the same way. Some of our eggs have two to four different color applications.

'Little Peepers' Eggs

Materials
- 1 large and 1 small egg for each peeper
- Scraps of ye I Iow, orange, red and blue paper (or white paper and felt-tip markers in assorted colors)
- Scrap of heavy white paper
- Paper punch; craft gIue

Directions
From the large eggshell, break off the smaller end (about 1/3 of the eggshell) and wash out both pieces. Break the small eggshell in the same way; discard the small piece and wash the other.

Peeper: With a paper punch, cut out lots of yellow dots and two blue dots. Using glue, cover the small eggshell with yellow dots; then glue on two blue dots for eyes.

Chick Beak: Cut a 1/2" X 1/2" orange square and fold it in half diagonally. Glue the edges to the eggshell, spreading them about 1/2" apart at the bottom to make a beak (photo).

Duck Bill: Fold a 1/2" X 1" orange rectangle in half (to 1/2" square). Draw a curve at each of the two open corners and taper the corners back to the fold, about 1/8" from side edge. Cut out through both layers. Cut a 1/4" X 112" red rectangle. At each side, taper from one short end to the center of the opposite end; cut out the resulting triangle. Glue it to the orange bill along the inside fold between the two layers. Glue the folded end of the bill to the eggshell.

Cut out a piece of heavy white paper (or piece of eggshell) about the size of a dime. Glue this to the bottom of the larger white eggshell. Glue peeper inside. Lap the other half of the white eggshell over the back edge of the bottom eggshell and glue it. Break away more eggshell, if needed, to reveal the little peeper.

Butterfly Eggs

Materials
- Blown eggs
- Gold or silver fine-point marker
- Felt-tip markers, assorted colors
- Pencil; transparent paper; clear acrylic spray

Directions
Lightly draw a butterfly design on an egg with a pencil. Draw it freehand or trace one of our drawings (FIGS. 5, 6 or 7) onto transparent paper, then turn the drawing over, facedown, on the egg and draw again over the outlines to transfer the pencil marks onto the egg. 2. Trace over the lines on the egg with a gold or silver fine-point marker and let dry. Fill in butterfly design with felt tip markers according to colors indicated in FIGS. 5, 6 or 7 (or use colors of your choice) and let dry. Apply a second coat and let it dry. Paint the surrounding area and let it dry. Retrace the metallic lines for extra sheen. When completely dry, spray on a light coat of clear acrylic spray.

Did you enjoy this article? Rate It!