Featured Friend Friday #4

Hi there, I'm Liz from Sugarplum Creations! When Kelli asked me to be her next Featured Friend I felt honored. And also unworthy. Kelli is a Crafting, Baking, and Bloggy Goddess, wouldn't y'all say?

Anyway, I am a stay at home Mama to three little girls {and another little princess on the way!}. And wife to Jeremy, my childhood sweetheart. We all live waaaay out in the country on twenty acres of land that we share with our dog {a hound}, cat, and some baby chicks and pheasants. We just completed a nearly year-long process of building our dream home, and are so happy to be moved in and semi-settled.

I signed up for a blogger account several years ago, but my poor blog sat neglected until my third daughter was born, two years ago. In all honesty, I wasn't really sure what a blog was for! I quickly found it to be a way to connect with other fabulous ladies for encouragement, support, and wonderful craft and home ideas, as well as a fantastic journal of sorts for my growing family.

In between homeschooling, my girls and I love to find spare moments for photography, shopping {you saw that coming, right? A house full of girls?}, creating snacks in the kitchen:

Crafting:

and jewelry making:

As if our days weren't full enough, I just opened my Etsy shop back up. At one time I had it stocked full of special gifts for babies and children, but have since switched over to photography ~ a passion I've had for years, and have just recently begun to make time for again. I love capturing moments and freezing them in time. I think it's so important to snap pictures daily. An otherwise ordinary grocery shopping trip deserves documentation too! :) Life's everyday moments are so special, yet often overlooked.

Thanks for reading, and please, stop by Sugarplum Creations and Sugarplum Dreams! And Kelli, thanks so much for having me! You're the greatest!!

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Liz is an awesome momma with some really cute little girlies! I would love to join them for a mani/pedi day:) Head over to Sugarplum Creations and leave some comment love for Liz and don't forget to check out her Etsy shop too!

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!

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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?

Wordless Wednesday: Crafty Sneak Peek