Paper Mache Easter Eggs: Non-Wreath Door Decor

Paper Mache! A bunch of you smart people guessed correctly that we were working on a paper mache project from my Crafty Sneak Peek yesterday!

**************

We started our project with some old newspapers, glue, and a giant plastic Easter egg that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. That was the only thing I could think of to use as a mold for our paper mache eggs, so I used a 40% off coupon and got it and two smaller eggs for around $12. Henry helped me tear up the strips of newspaper, then all three boys got their hands {and the rest of their bodies} dirty helping me cover the giant plastic Easter egg with the strips of newspaper coated in a mixture of water and glue. We put on about three layers of newsprint, then they got bored and ran off:)

After the newsprint layers were dry, I added a layer of torn up white printer paper....that way I could just glitter right over the white paper without painting, but the white paper also makes painting a little easier too.

After drying for two days, Jason carefully cut all the way around the egg with a blade and popped the two paper mache egg halves off the plastic egg. Now it was time to pretty up my eggs:) I got out some Martha Stewart glitter, glue, a foam brush, and a few pieces of wax paper to catch the excess glitter.

I poured the glue onto the egg, spread it around with a foam brush,and then sprinkled on the glitter as evenly as possible. I worked section by section and let each color dry well so that when I was shaking off the excess glitter the colors didn't mix.

After the eggs were pretty well coated with glitter I took them outside and sprayed them down with a clear coat to protect it from moisture and to keep the glitter from getting on everything!

After the clear coat was dry, I used my hot glue gun to add some decorative rick rack between the different colors of glitter.

The last thing I did was poke a small hole through the top of the egg to add a piece of ribbon for hanging. I tied a bow at the top of the ribbon and then tied a double knot at the end of the ribbon inside the egg to keep it in place.

And here they are fun and sparkly hanging on my front door!

I love that they are different than a normal wreath and I love that my kids actually got to help me make them...they just didn't get to help with the glitter part {it was messy enough without them helping}!

How do you decorate for Easter?