This is one of those crafts where I just totally love Pinterest! Three different crafts all rolled into one Easter activity? Yes, please! Paint filled egg shells thrown at tape covered canvas - it was a BLAST! It was a quick and messy and fun... and required a whole lot of egg eating before hand.
Supplies you'll need for this project:
Empty egg shells (one dozen per kid)
Water based paints in different colors
Fine grain glitter (optional!)
Tissue Paper
White glue
Measuring cup
Whisk
Funnel
Foam Paint brush
Canvas (one for each kid)
Blue painters tape in various widths
We had one dozen paint bombs for each kid, which meant RDB and I ate 6 dozen eggs in the weeks before Easter weekend (lots of scrambled eggs and quiches). As you're cracking open the eggs, you want to try to maintain as much of the shell intact as possible - so that you end up with as whole a vessel as possible for the paint. Like so:
Wash the eggs out well, then set them upside down in their container to dry. Six dozen eggs (lots of scrambled eggs and quiches later) you'll have a bunch of containers waiting for their paint filling.
I would highly recommend using water based paint for this project for multiple reasons: easier clean-up all around, and you can water-down the paint to stretch it. I used two pots of paint in each color, diluted with 2 cups of water, to have enough for each dozen to have two of each color (this will make more sense in a minute.)
So, dilute the paint - pour out each container into the measuring cup, then refill the bottle with water, give it a good shake, and pour that into the measuring cup as well. Keep refilling and shaking the paint bottles until you've gotten as much of the pigment out as possible. Use the whisk to give the water and paint a good mix, then add as much more water as you need to get to 2 cups.
I don't have an photos of me actually filling the eggs, but I'm sure you get the idea - use your funnel and fill each empty egg to about half way full. I found it easiest to use my gravy separator with its spout to pour the paint into the funnel that I had slipped into the hole in the top of each egg. It was so neat to see the finished paint filled eggs before we covered them up with tissue paper!
I mentioned that the glitter was optional (notice the two eggs in each container that remain empty). I'm honestly not a huge fan of glitter. And, yes, I know, I'll have to turn in my Crafting Club Membership card for saying that blasphemous sentence. It gets everywhere and on everything. But then again, thanks to Pinterest, this felt like an "I have to" kind of thing - we're flinging paint at canvas, and we're not gonna throw glitter bombs?! Oh no, I couldn't go that far. ;-) Those last two eggs got filled with super fine glitter in various colors before we sealed them up.
Again, sorry there's no in-progress picture, but here's how it goes: cut tissue paper into about 2" squares, no need to be exact, you just want them large enough to cover over the holes in the eggs. Dilute your white glue (1 part glue, 1 part water). Place the tissue over the top of the egg, being careful not to spill, and use your sponge brush to apply the glue mix and stick down the tissue paper. Repeat 36 times. (I used a different color for the glitter bombs, so we would be sure to throw them last - otherwise, the next paint egg would just wash it away.)
Next up: load 6 dozen eggs that are filled with watery paint and super fine glitter and covered with nothing more than one layer of tissue paper in the back of our car and drive out off the beaten path to a friend's property for the weekend! (No possibility for a mess in the back of my car, right? Right.)
We let the kids use the painter's tape to cover their canvas in whatever manner they wanted (like I said, let's put as many possible Pinterest project into one activity as we can!) It was neat to see the designs they came up with!
Once everyone had their tape applied, it was out to the picnic table to set up our paint throwing alley! Let the Games begin!
So, if you've been counting - there's 6 dozen eggs, but only four kids. What? Did you really think after all that work getting this set up, I would let the kids have all the fun? Yeah, right! My turn!
Of course, I ended up being the only one who managed to throw paint on myself! On my back, nonetheless! Go figure!
We left the canvases out to dry in the sun on the deck - it was so awesome to see how different each one was turning out - each kid had the same supplies, had the same instructions, and yet we had so many different interpretations of art.
Once they dried (and the picnic table was washed off, and all the leftover eggs shells were collected and thrown away) each kiddo took the tape off their painting. It didn't turn out exactly as I was expecting as the wet-ness of the watered down paint seeped underneath the painter's tape. But I've learned a lot doing projects over the years, and if there's one thing that I know, its that sometimes, the things that don't turn out perfect, are perfectly okay!
It was an awesome, fun absolutely do this outdoors kind of project. The parents all thought this was the best camping activity yet! And this Martha Jo will take that as the ultimate compliment!
