Karen Kormondy: Hi! My name is Karen Kormondy with Ipso Crafto in Washington D.C.
and today, I am showing you how to decorate Easter Eggs. In this video
clip we will be showing you how to make small wooden eggs into more
natural painted designs, something a little bit closer that you would find in
a bird's nest in the woods rather than an Easter basket. So the basic
materials for this craft are plain wooden eggs that you can find in the
wood aisle of your craft store. They are usually very smooth so there is no
sanding needed. You are going to use a variety of paints in whatever
colors you would like; a paintbrush and maybe a toothpick or a very fine
liner brush to make little dots and things.
You might want to do some research before doing this, if you have a
specific -- if you want to have a very accurate egg to make. For instance,
Robin's eggs or a very basic blue then there is probably thousands and
thousands of other kinds of eggs that you can make and of course, you
don't need to be scientifically accurate for this. You can make an egg that
doesn't exist in nature, but it's fun to at maybe get little kids involved with
learning about nature using this craft and then they can see these eggs and
learn about them rather than trying to find eggs in the wild which is a little
bit harder and also, you don't want to be messing up any nest for our
future birds. So let's get started.
I like to use two colors of paint when I am working like this. Sometimes
the effect is a little bit more unique. Of course, you can always use just
one color, but I will show you how to use two. You are going to just put
out a little bit of each color next to each other on your little palette or a
Styrofoam plate and these should be post colors, ones that mix relatively
well and just take a little bit of each color and paint it on and you can
blend right on to the egg. We are using acrylic paints which clean up with
just regular water and they mix extremely well. So as you can see, there is
a little bit of a lighter spot. I really want to highlight that and then I am just
mixing it with the darker color just to get a little bit of variety because in
nature, nothing is the same color. The same egg might have three shades
of blue on it depending on the -- any kind of number of factors and you
probably only be able to do half of it at a time. Wait for that to dry and
when you have the whole egg coated, it will be something like this and
then you will want to start putting on spots if the type of bird egg that you
are doing has spots.
Again, I like to use two colors because I found that using just black by
itself is a little bit too harsh even if it looks like black spots on the egg.
You don't need too much paint for this and then I like to lighten it up just a
little bit with some brown and then you are going to take your toothpick,
mix it up just a little bit and then just start putting on little spots. You can
also go ahead and use an old toothbrush to splatter the eggs. I would
probably test out that on a piece of paper first just to see how your splatter
is going to look and you just make spots and little marks until your heart's
content and again, don't worry about them being all exact or perfect
because nothing in nature is and that's the beauty of it. So then when you
are all finished making all your spots.
This one I did with the toothbrush, an old toothbrush that I am never going
to use again for brushing my teeth and you are just going to -- now you are
going to seal it. I like to use decoupage medium when it comes to sealing
even painted things and because it dries clear and it comes in matte and
glossy textures, it's also cleanable with just regular water and soap. So it's
easy for kids to clean up and you are just going to brush it on and even
though it's white right now, it will dry clear. Just brush the whole thing
again, probably in two coats because you will only be able to paint about
half of it and then wait for that to dry. Just get a nice even coat. Try to
brush out in neat streaks. Let that set and then when you are finished, you
have a lovely little egg which is great for Easter, but you can also keep it
out in a little nest all year along as decoration. Now after we clean up, we
will be going to our next video which is sealing and preserving your eggs.
So stay tuned for that.