Wednesday, April 4, 2012

An egg-cellent impression

Hello peeps!

First, a warm welcome to my blog's new follower!  I'm so very glad to have you along on my crafting adventures!

I hope everyone has been well!  Things have been busy around these parts.  We had some company from out of town and my husband had the opportunity to play in a hockey tournament with ex-NHL players which filled up most of last weekend.  But it is now back to business as usual, so I finally have a project to share.

This is a little Easter decoration I made using Magnolia mini stamps.  The first time I saw these, I just knew they would make the cutest little Easter eggs.  I wasn't sure if I would actually be able to stamp the images on eggs, but a couple dozen eggs later... (well not quite, but almost :o) )  I am nothing if not persistent and this technique does take practice.  You should be able to spare yourself at least a dozen of those eggs by following the tips at the end of this post.
Some details:

The basket was recycled.  It started out a pale straw colour which I was not fond of, so I painted it white with acrylic paint cut with a bit of water.  The cloth is recycled scrap cloth from old curtains.

Stamps - Magnolia mini chickens, mini Hello Tilda and mini Tilda with eggs in her apron all stamped with black Stazon and coloured with watercolour pencils.

Dies/punches - Magnolia Doohickey for leaves and Cheery Lynn Designs for butterflies, Martha Stewart edge punch for handle

Other embellishments - flowers are from Magnolia and Pretty Petals, pearl pins, flat back pearls, Distress stain in picket fence used on butterflies and leaves, and I think that is all.

I would like to enter this decoration in the following challenges:

Magnolia-licious - photo inspiration
Magnolia Down Under - Easter
Simon Says Stamp - Use your favorite tools (I have many, but on this I used my favorite edge punch and my favorite dies and big kick, and paint brushes - which are probably my favorite tool of all)
Cupcake Craft Challenge - sewing box (use something you would find in a sewing box - I have used pins and fabric scraps)
Deep Ocean Challenge - masking or use more than one stamp
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - spring or Easter
Craft Us Crazy - Anything but a card/altered item
Top Tip Tuesday - Easter and/or Animals - my tip is for stamping on eggs:

Start with clean, full, room temperature eggs.  It is very important that the eggs are at room temperature because the slightest bit of condensation will completely ruin your image.  The next trick is to use unmounted stamps - just the rubber.  You need to be able to mould the stamp to the egg.  Foam and wood will prevent you from being able to do so.  The final trick is to use small/narrow stamps.  The wider the stamp, the more difficult it is to get the full image on the egg.

To stamp, ink up your rubber and place it in your hand, gently cupping it in your palm like so:
Then roll the egg, starting from the bottom of the image and working your way up to the top.  As you do so, make sure that the sides of the stamp also contact the egg by squeezing your fingers in to gently cup the egg. 
Practice, practice, practice!  It is difficult, but worth the effort!  Once you have your image stamped, you can drain the eggs by piercing a small whole at the top and bottom of the egg.  I used a large syringe to drain mine.

That's all for now.  Thanks for popping by and thank you if you've taken the time to leave me a comment.  I love reading them and it gives me the chance to stop by your blog too.

Have a great Easter!

Hugs,

Dawn

25 comments:

Aya said...

What an amazingly beautiful result, well worth the effort. Stunning!!

Best whishes and Happy Easter
Aya

Tracey T said...

Wow! What a fabulous idea for Easter! Thank you for playing at Sweet Stampin' this week. Tracey x

Heather said...

This is beautiful Dawn, so have coloured your eggs so brilliantly and I love all your stunning details.

Thanks so much for joining the Simon Says Stamp challenge
hugs
Heather xx

Lisa Minckler said...

OH MY GOODNESS!!! Dawn, these are THE most adorable eggs I've ever seen. What a wonderful Easter item and so, so, pretty. This will be a great exercise for me to have more patience, but I am going to give this a try. Thank you for the excellent tutorial. :)

Thank you also for joining in our challenges at Craft Us Crazy and Top Tip Tuesday.
Lisa xx

Kim said...

That is amazing! I absolutely love it, beautiful. Thanks for joining us at Sweet Stampin this week.

Lori said...

What a darling Easter basket and eggs! So glad you linked up at Craft Us Crazy!

Craftdee said...

These are gorgeous! I do egg decorating (or have done in the past, BC as in Before Cardmaking, lol) but never like this :-) BTW, I have a Followers Candy and a Followers-Or-Not Candy if you're interested Donna ☺

Debbie Pamment said...

OH MY GOODNESS!!! How gorgeous are these eggs - such a clever idea!
Thanx so much for joining us at MDUC this week for our Easter challenge.
xXx

mixamatoasties said...

Oh wow. Hope you're not going to roll those beautiful eggs down any hills though!

Thanks for joining in at Sweet Stampin'

Susan x

Unknown said...

OMGOSH this is BEAUTIFUL, Thanks so much for sharing how to do it:-)
Hugs
Karen
xxx

Kruemel said...

WOW, what a wonderful idea! Thanks for explaining how you stamped on the eggs, I might give this a try next year. And the beautiful basket is the perfect place for these precious eggs.


Thanks for joining us at MDUC this week and happy easter to you!

Hugs
Kathrin aka Kruemel

Janne said...

Oh my...this is amazing work! I love it;)) Thanks for joining us at MDUC this week.
Hugs, Janne

having a {me} day said...

What an amazing project! Thanks for joining us at Cupcake. keeley

Brigitte said...

Your eggs are absolutely amazing!!!! WOW, you are so talented, the whole basket with eggs is fantastic! Hugs from Halifax, Brigitte

Danielle said...

Wow - this is fabulous Dawn! Your persistence really did pay off as the end result is just gorgeous! So happy to have found your blog ... look forward to following you and seeing more of your wonderful creations!
Hugs, Danielle

Barbara GR said...

Hi Dawn
this is really amazing idea... and your work is fantastic!!!!
I love it!!!
Hugs, Barbara GR

Suzan L said...

Wow!!These eggs are so gorgeous!! Thank you for the tips on how to stamp the minis on the eggs! Thank you for joining the Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog Inspiration Challenge. Hope you join us on Tuesday for a new color challenge!! Have a wonderful Easter!
Hugs,
Suzan

Delphine said...

Oh WOW, I love what you have done!!! Your basket is gorgeous and the eggs are just brilliant! Thank you for sharing and for joining us at Cupcake! Good luck! Delphine xx

LaJanette said...

OMG what a fantabulous creation! These eggs are out of this world cute! LOVE It! Thanks so much for sharing your tips! You are awesome and have gained major brownie points here in blogland:0)

Thanks for playing along with us at Top Tip Tuesday; hope to see you back often:0)

Hugs;
Janette

Mascha Zimmerman said...

How nice these eggs, so cute, Bye MASCHA

judit said...

Woooowwww! Gorgeous eggs! judit x

Anonymous said...

NOW this is AWESOME and something I MUST try I have duck and Goose eggs and their shells are a lot stronger so maybe next time you could try those too! BUT way to go doing this to chicken eggs!! WOW!! they are totally FABULOUS!! thanks for sharing this stunning project with us at Top Tip Tuesday this time! hope you will join us for our next challenge too! hugs Samantha :0)

Dorte said...

Wow you are really creative! Awesome idea. Thank you for sharing.
hugs Dorte

Annette Bowes said...

STUNNING Dawn, such a gorgeous basket and fantastic decorated eggs, he he glad you persisted lol! Hope you had a lovely Easter. I have a an award for you http://mypommiepurplepatch.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/liebster-award-from-davi.html
Take careX:)

downrightcrafty said...

oh WOW this is fabulous and love the idea of stamping on an egg, although don't think I would be any where near as successful as you totally gorgeous

Hugs Kate xx