DIY Egg Carton Flowers & Egg Shell Crafts

Hello neighbors. Easter is coming up and I wanted to show you some cute things you can make with your left over egg cartons and egg shells. Here are the crafts we are making today on the show.

Here’s what you will need:

SUPPLIES

Egg carton

Egg shells

Acrylic paint

White glue

Mod Podge (or watered down white glue can be used for a sealer.)

Clear spray sealer

Sand paper

Decorative image (free downloads below)

Hot glue and glue gun

Hair dryer

Item to decorate such as a plastic plate, picture frame, pizza pan, cigar box, jam jar, etc.

Optional decorations: lace, pearls, glitter, etc.

INSTRUCTIONS

Here are photos to quickly show you the process. The detailed instructions are below the photos.

Remove the membrain from the inside of the egg shells. Allow them to dry.

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

EGG CARTON

This process is much easier if you lightly soak the egg carton in water for just a second to get it damp. You can also spray it with water if that’s easier. Cut the egg carton lid off. You’re going to use that for the leaves. Cut the egg cups out individually. Once you cut the egg cups out, you’re going to want to cut four large petals. The next one will be four smaller petals and the next move will be four or three even smaller petals.

Cut strips from the lid in a wavy pattern. That is going to make the rosebud center. You are going to roll the wavy pattern strip from one end to the other using your hot glue gun and gluing as you go. This will make a small rosebud. You can glue on a second strip if you want the rosebud to be larger.

Start with your egg carton cups and glue the large petals onto the second the smaller and smaller in as you go gluing them crisscross so the pedals are not centered. Then in the center we’re going to glue in the rosebud. Next we will paint them.

The paint can be acrylic or tempura. I suggest adding a few teaspoons of baby powder to your paint which will give you a stronger more opaque finish. Because the egg carton is made of papier-mâché it’s soaks up paint and you will probably need two coats.

For the metallic finish I added some ground up metallic eyeshadow into the mod podge glue. Regular white or clear school glue also works fine. You just have to water it down. Once the paint is dry, you can completely paint over the top of the paint with a gloss or matte mod podge or glue sealer. On some of the roses, I used a metallic gold paint pen from the dollar store to give it a gilded edge.

DECORATIVE TREAT TRAY USING EGG SHELLS

With eggshells you’re going to want to remove the membrane from the inside. The best way I have found to do this is to run the egg shell under cold water pulling the membrane from one side and pushing your finger underneath. It doesn’t matter if the egg shell breaks because we’re going to use it for a mosaic effect anyway. Allow the egg shell to dry.

Choose the container you’re going to use. I used a dollar store pizza pan, a wooden picture, a jam jar and a plastic plate. Sand the item first if it’s metal or glass, then spray paint it as a primer. Allow it to dry completely.

Coat with a heavy thick layer of glue. Then paint over the glue with a thick layer of paint and blow dry it for a crackle finish. Allow it to dry completely so it’s not tacky to the touch.

Paint on a thin layer of Mod Podge or white glue. Place the image in the center. Take a credit card and smooth the image from the center to the outer edge. Allow it to dry, then paint over the image with glue. take a plastic bag and smooth out the glue so there are no wrinkles. Allow it to dry so it’s not tacky.

Paint the inside of the pan with a thick layer of glue then place the eggshell down on the surface and push it down so it cracks into small pieces then you can spread out the egg shells so the entire surface is covered. Then you’re going to let the surface dry completely for a few hours. Next we are going to paint over the eggshells with acrylic paint.

Once dry, you can paint over with a lighter color and decorate the outer edge. I glued on the egg carton flowers to a few of the pans. You can glue on some lace to the back of you want to use the pan as a “wreath” wall hanging for easter.

The egg shell mosiac works on all kinds of things from glass to wood to metal. You can make jewelry with this technique also. The egg carton flowers can be glued on to almost anything.

Here are a bunch of free images for you to download. Right click on the image and choose to open it in a new window to get the full size. Let me know if you need me to email you the images if you have any trouble.

I have a ton of extra Easter decoupage napkins, egg shells, lace, ribbon, etc. if you can’t get to the store or are short on craft funds this month (Mass residents only). Everyone outside of MA pays $10 including shipping for a DIY box. Contact me at: 413-512-3714 at the studio or email me at: [email protected]