Eggsperiments 2014

This year I only did a few eggs, unlike last year's eggstravaganza of different techniques.  I found some new dyeable plastic eggs at Walmart so I went that route to see how they'd do with the dyes.  Despite my best efforts, I made a huge mess in the kitchen.

And yet I still wasn't able to dye the entire dozen in an afternoon.  They don't seem to take the PAAS kit dyes very well.  The pink one on the far left was done with 2 red PAAS tablets dissolved in just vinegar.  They don't recommend dissolving the dye tabs in water at all, or else the results will be very pastel.  The green one behind the pink was done by squirting green food colouring right on the egg.  That resulted in the deeper green shade, but it also didn't dry evenly.  The yellow & pale purple were done with gel food dye in yellow and blue.  I cut out that one egg, painted it with green acrylic paint and added the Santa.  That one on the end is dark purple acrylic paint.  One not show is painted black with a coat of red glitter paint.  It should be noted that paint takes a wicked long time to dry and requires multiple coats.  I was rapidly losing interest.

Then I broke out the drill and drew a half assed design on the egg and drilled it out.  This took awhile too because of my elbow tendonitis and the weight of the drill was making it very painful to do more than just a few holes at a time.  

Next time I'll take the time to make more even holes! 

Then I made a couple of sugar eggs that I let dry for a few days before decorating them.  The recipe for these makes enough sugar for 2 eggs.  I forgot that and realized after I coloured it blue that I had to figure out if I wanted to make 2 blue eggs and make a whole other batch for purple or what.  I decided to just throw purple dye into the blue sugar, mixed it well and it ended up coming out a nice shade.

I also decided to make the recommended royal icing which dries fast and hard.  Last year I used regular store bought icing in the can and it never truly dried all the way.  My piping skills leave much to be desired and I'd probably work out the kinks with practice.  They are pretty fun to make.

Remember the tiny pagoda I found at the flea market?  I painted it blue and went for a blue willow type design for this egg.  

And a wee chick with bunneh ears in the purple.  Those are candy flowers and candy pink pearls.

I forgot how time consuming it is, decorating these things.  Took me a couple of hours one afternoon to decorate just four of them.  I used yellow liquid food dye on this egg and loved the deep shade.  

Went a little nuts with the rhinestone strips but I just knew those crystals would look awesome against the yellow.

Here's the Santa egg, finally finished.  I painted the inside with silver glitter paint (that took 3 days to dry too, I might add)

Here's one I made for Lady Axe.  I'd gotten that red and black Jolly Roger when I won the "Talk Like A Pirate Day" Artbeads giveaway.  I painted the egg black then covered it with a thick layer of red glitter paint.  The skull piece fit perfectly against the back of the egg.  Then I glued heavy silver chain around the edge (mostly to hide my raggedly cutting job!).

A little bunny on felt grass with some candy flowers glued to it,

Including the egg with the holes drilled in it, I have completed only 5 of the dozen!  Again the big question is, what the heck am I going to do with all of these eggs?  Including all the ones I made with real shells last year!! Could I have been a Faberge' egg artist in a past life!

Updates

 Since A-Z took up all of April, here are some pics of the highlights from late March to May.

The furkids remained goofy.

My bff/sister Michelle up in Maine told me she sent an 8 lb package to me.  What could be in it? OMG! It was my DREAM package!  Full of marbles, flat back glass blobs, tumbled glass, a glass etching kit and a huge bag of embroidery/cross stitch floss.  Plus 2 wire wrapped pieces of beach glass and a handful of abalone shell, tear-shaped pendants.  She's all about the fibre arts and knitting now and wanted to give her craft supplies a good home.  The marbles in particular are fabulous.  One of her friends did the glass tumbling and they look like beach glass.

In late March, I took my stepdaughter to Falmouth to pick up the awesome new ride she's leasing. These new cars are like Knight Rider "Kit" cars with all the touch screens, a back-up camera and futuristic key!  We had to wait for it to be registered, so we went to lunch and then for cupcakes at Cupcake Charlie's in Mashpee.  She had the lemon, I had the carrot cake and they were deeeeeelish!  I haven't yet obtained her permission to put any pics of her on my blog, so all you get are the cupcakes.  :-)

Years ago in CA in the 1990s, I'd made a sugar egg and always wanted to try another one.  I decided to do it kind of late: The day before Easter.  I had the wrong frosting and my toys weren't that good. I should have done it with vintage Easter ephemera images and next time I will.  I will also be sure to make the royal icing recipe because that will dry faster and much harder than the canned buttercream.

I also shouldn't have used pink sugar because the bunny was also pink.  Then I tried to dot frosting flowers on the back wall with limited success.  My icing piping bag sucks.  I need a better one.  It's been a month  and the icing points are breaking off, rather than hardening, so I may have to salvage the toys and scrap the eggs.

A baggie of Fimo clay canes surfaced when I was reorganizing my craft room for the umpteenth time.  I got them in about 1996.  I'd made a bunch of beads back then, but moved onto other projects and the canes got bagged & stored.  They have now dried out, so making beads with them was next to impossible.  The canes split down the center.  However, I was really delighted with what they looked like!  Reminded me of "Fordite", a faux gem made from layers of automobile paint that accumulated in chunks in the old auto factories.  

I was only able to make a few beads, which all had to be thick and all split when I ran a headpin through to make the holes.  But I love how the flat cross section pieces came out.

My stepdaughter also spent a great Sunday afternoon at my house, making cupcakes and watching 'Shawshank Redemption' and 'Erin Brockovich'.  I made her homemade mac & cheese and broccoli for dinner and of course we nommed the cupcakes for dessert!  It was her idea to make the batter purple.  She is the one who did all the work with them, including piping the frosting.  I was in charge of sugar.  I love that she likes to spend time with me. 

My job at the Wareham schools in the cafeteria is really pretty good.  I was dreading it at first but I like the fact that it's so fast paced and the time goes by wicked fast.  I've been called a few times now and it seems that I'll get called a lot as the school year comes to a close; I expect the kitchen will be brutally hot when June gets here. I also did my very first photography job for a friend of mine who had remodeled a cottage he & his wife bought last year.  It'd be cool if I could pick up more shooting jobs like that.  

After the snow finally melted, I scavenged some acorn caps from my mom's yard and made some more acorn capped beads.

And sprayed some shells silver. 

And made a supply caddy for my craft table out of a metal paint bucket covered w/ paper and ribbon, with a soup can covered with paper, and hot glued to the bucket.

And made a beaded bubble blowing wand, that works so-so.

In baking news, I attempted my first pineapple upside down cake, sans maraschino cherries because, well, we don't like them.  The way to my man's heart is through his stomach and I've been doing a lot more cooking and baking.  He lights up like a Christmas tree when I cook for him, too.  He mentioned liking this kind of cake and I decided to make it for him, from a Duncan Hines mix.  I was afraid of the flipping part but it worked without breaking.  It was so freakin good too.

This was another quick project.  Just use a punch on coloured tissue paper and decoupage to a votive cup.  I used the decoupage on the glass too because I thought it was supposed to dry with a matte finish but it didn't.

The year started off with some bad luck, but things have evened out for the time being.  Let's hope the rest of the year goes well!