Give Those Easter Photos a Special Place in Your Scrapbook

Now that you’ve taken all those Easter photos and either printed out your favorites or picked them up from being developed you’re no doubt anxious to get them displayed in your scrapbook.

Of course, you’ll want to use pastel colors as they seem to be the shades of Easter but there’s more that you can add to really make your Easter pages special. Take some of that Easter grass whether it’s pink or green and include it in your scrapbook page. Create an entire scene to share.

Give your page that 3-D effect. Place the grass on the bottom of the page and a pretty pale blue or even a soft pink for the background. Try placing somewhat large cutouts (or make your own) of bunnies, chicks, flowers or Easter eggs and place your family photos popping out from behind or around them or in a cracked half open egg. Add some confetti to the page if you’ve got any left. You get the idea, I’m sure.

Make it fun. Enjoy making it and others will enjoy seeing it. Come back and share what you’ve come up with. We’d love to see it.

A perfect solution for those Easter Flowers

A perfect solution for those Easter Flowers

I love to receive flowers at Easter. Freshly cut arrangements look so pretty in crystal vases. If you want to preserve Easter memories, there are a few things you can do with the flowers that you receive so that you can enjoy them for years to come.

Air drying. The flowers should not be fully opened when you start. Discovering which flowers dry the best will take trial and error. Out of the arrangements I’ve had, baby’s breath, daisies, roses, and carnations look well as dried flowers. Secure them at the end of the stems with a rubber band. Create a hook out of a paper clip and poke it through the rubber band. Hang the flower bunches on a piece of lattice work or the rungs of a plant stand wherever the sun hits your home. It will take several weeks for the flowers to completely dry. When the flowers feel crisp to the touch, they are ready.

Pressed flowers. Pressed flowers can be used as bookmarks or greeting card decorations. Flowers used for pressing should be healthy and not fully opened where it has begun to lose its petals. You want the flowers to hold together. You can press flowers in books. Make sure to arrange the flower the way that you want it to look after pressing. If this will be a regular hobby for you, dedicate a few books that you won’t need. Place the flower between two sheets of paper such as onion skin and then in the book. Once the flower has been pressed, put other books on top to weigh it down. Pressing takes about as long as air drying.

Replanting flowers. Read the label information that comes with your plant. Indoor plants should be repotted in a bigger pot before they become root-bound. For outdoor plants, spring is a good time for planting. Use topsoil that is rich in nutrients. Be careful not to upset the root ball when you remove the plant from its original container. Keep the plant watered constantly as it incorporated itself into the soil. Perennial plants are the only ones that should be replanted. They will return every year and add color to your garden.

Make the most of your flower arrangements. There are many ways to preserve your flowers to be used over and over again.

Edible Easter Basket

Here’s an easy yet lovely edible item for your table.

Items you’ll need:

cupcakes (homemade or store bought)

pipe cleaners or licorice

white icing

shredded sweetened coconut

green food coloring

Start out with the dozen cupcakes (or as many as you’ll need). Frost the tops of each cupcake with white icing. Take the pipe cleaner (or licorice) and bend it into an arch placing each side into the sides of the cupcakes.

Shake the coconut and food coloring together in a stainless steel bowl adding the coloring slowing and stir vigorusly so the color is even. Place the green coconut on each cupcake top and add a few jelly beans on top. Complete you decorations with a small ribbon and place it next to each plate. You may also want to use them as place cards. Simply attach a small card with ribbon to each handle.

I’m sure your quests will enjoy these little treats.

Easter Bunny Cake

I found the cutest little bunny cake. It’s made of what else? Carrot cake. It’s got a cute little red jelly bean for a nose. Want the receipe?

What you’ll need:

1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist carrot cake mix, water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

Tray or cardboard, covered with foil

1 container Betty Crocker Whipped fluffy white frosting

1 cup shredded coconut

construction paper

Jellybeans or small gumdrops (whichever your kids will enjoy more)

1 cup shredded coconut

Green food coloring

For the full baking directions and instructions on shaping the caking into the form of a bunny visit: BettyCrocker.com Easter Bunny Cake

Making Easter Eggs at Home

If you have children at home who are constantly waiting to pounce on the next chocolate bar you bring home, you probably have to bring home an entire cartload of Easter eggs. However, you can try something different this Easter. Involve the entire family and make Easter eggs at home. It is suggested that you do this at least a day or so before Easter. It is not that difficult and it can be fun.

As for the mess, you will have to clean up, don’t worry too much. What I have noticed from my experience is if you end up making a mess as a family, you might end up cleaning together as long as you play your cards right.

Chocolate Easter Eggs:

Empty the contents of the egg: make a small hole on one end of the egg and a larger hole on the other end with a needle. Then blow through the small hole, so the content come out the larger hole. Depending on how many eggs you are planning on using, you may have a large amount of eggs to use. Keep them for use in baking or for omlettes. Once they are emptied, and cleaned (wash with water), allow your children to carefully decorate them with paint, markers, anything they’d like to decorate with as long as it doesn’t require too much pressure on the shell.

Make a larger hole on the narrower end of the egg and pour the melted chocolate through this hole. Go slow at this stage for you would not want the chocolate to drip down the sides of the decorated Easter eggs. Keep moving the egg around while you pour in the chocolate to ensure that the chocolate spreads evenly inside the egg shell. Let the chocolate set.

On Easter Sunday, place the Easter eggs in baskets and let the Easter celebrations begin.

Easter Crafts Ideas

Easter crafts are something that can give you a chance to express your creativity while making someone you love feel special. There are tons of Easter gift ideas but if you are stuck and need pointed in the right direction then these ideas might help you out:

Some Easter Craft Ideas:

Make a basket for collecting Easter eggs. Make one out of a paper bag or locate some decorative cloth and create one. Kaboose has the instructions for an easy Easter Bunny Basket you might check out.Decorative cross. Take a wooden plank or a cardboard and then you can give it the shape of a cross. Then decorate it with beads, jewels, artificial pearls etc.Make a bunny envelope or a coven to place your Easter greeting card in. Use brightly colored paper to brighten the room. Don’t forget you can even send e-cards if you are short on time.

Edible ideas. Don’t forget there is always room of edible ideas too such as cookies, and candies you can bake. Why not give baking a bunny shaped cake a shot. The kids will love decorating it I’m sure.

Great Homemade Easter Basket Ideas for the Little Boy in Your Life

What little boy (or big boy) doesn’t love getting a basket of treats on Easter morning? But boys quickly outgrow stuffed bunnies and chicks. That does not mean they still don’t want an Easter basket. It can be fun to put together unique baskets for the sons, grandsons and nephews in your family. Focusing on their interests, and adding their favorite sweet treats, it can be pretty easy to put together great themed baskets.

Here are three ideas to inspire you to create your own homemade Easter baskets.

Sports - Whether the boys in your family play sports, or just enjoy watching their favorite team, a sport themed basket is sure to score big. Sports trading cards are always popular with young boys. Another easy idea is to use sports themed pencils and erasers; sometimes you can even find them for specific teams. If you are feeling creative, you can make cookies or candy with
cutters or molds shaped like balls, bats and other sport equipment.

Age appropriate books about their favorite sports or athletes can also be a great addition to their basket. If you buy a simple bucket, it can be decorated to fit the theme either with paint or stickers. One suggestion would be to draw lines on the outside of a bucket to look like a basketball hoop.

Vehicles - Boys of all ages love cars and trucks. A few small cars or trucks are a great gift idea. Older boys might enjoy putting together models. There are many nice snap-together models that don’t require any glue or painting. If your boy enjoys drawing, there are books that can teach them how to draw and design their own cars. Car shaped cookies and candy can be fun. Remote control cars are also a great gift. There are even a number of kid friendly movies about cars out there. A cute basket could be made from a new NASCAR trashcan.

Science - Do you have a future scientist in your family? An archeologist? Putting together a science-themed kit is as easy as one, two, three. Find a few simple things, like a magnifying glass, small telescope, possibly some rocks, . Plastic dinosaurs are always popular. There are even kits you can find where the kids can “dig up” bones just like an archeologist. Adding dinosaur cookies and bug shaped candy provide the finishing touch. A book with kid-friendly experiments done with household items can be a great gift that is fun for the whole family.

Putting together your own Easter basket is not only fun, it is a more personal gift. With some smart shopping, it can be less expensive than the pre-packaged ones as well. It is easy to adapt any boy’s interests into a nice gift for Easter.

Creating Memorable Easter Baskets

The festival of Easter may have originated as a religious one but it has become a cultural extravaganza. Every time Easter Sunday comes around, it is time to bring on the Easter bunnies, the colorfully decorated eggs and all kinds of Easter baskets to keep them in.

Every year, I go shopping for Easter baskets, I marvel at the skyrocketing price tags attached to them. Spend some time figuring out what kind of an Easter basket would work for your family and arrange it yourself. You can even turn it into a family affair involving your spouse and kids.

First decide what kind of a basket you want. There are many choices as far as Easter baskets are concerned. The most popular Easter basket tends to be the wicker basket. However, you can get a hold of a meshed plastic container for the Easter basket. If you get containers in bright colours, your Easter baskets will look a lot more vibrant. If you are a little more creatively inclined, I’m sure you will think of other things you can use as an Easter basket. Try using a colorful plastic bucket (the kind that you carry to vacations by the sea-side) or even a grocery bag. There really is no limit to the kinds of things that you can use.

The next important thing is to fill the basket with all kinds of things. Put in a few colorful Easter eggs and a bunch of candies depending on the size of the basket. Easter Sunday minus the candy is not Easter Sunday at all.

There is more to Easter baskets than just filling them up to the brim with candy. There is great value in personalizing the Easter baskets that you put together. What I mean is, treat each basket as a gift and concentrate on filling it with items the receiver of the basket would appreciate. For instance, if Grandpa is diabetic, you could fill his basket with a lot of those sugar-free candies that he loves. If your little girl is a fashionista, wouldn’t she love it if you stuffed her Easter basket with cosmetics, earrings and other fashionable knick-knacks?

There is no end to the kinds of things that can make up an Easter basket. Stickers for pre-schoolers and flowering plant seed packets for the green-thumbed folks. The point to remember is that Easter baskets are gifts. Therefore, you need to keep the tastes and interests of each person in mind, as you set out to shop for Easter basket fillings. With a little patience and attention, you’ll be gifting Easter baskets that will be remembered for years to come.

Easter cards

You will need:
Card stock paper
Markers
Stickers (Easter themes)
Scissors
Glue
Construction paper

1. Cut the paper to the size wanted for the Easter cards. Fold the paper in half. The children can also cut the paper into shapes like eggs or bunny rabbits.

2. Decorate the outside of the card with pictures and/or stickers.

3. Using a marker, have the children write their own special greeting on the inside of the cards.

4. The children can hand deliver the Easter cards to their favorite people in the whole world.

Craft making is doubly fun when shared with family. Make this a regular part of “together” time instead of keeping it just for special occasions.

Tissue paper Easter bouquets-Easter Craft

You will need:
Tissue paper in assorted colors
Green pipe cleaners (eight per child)
Styrofoam blocks (optional)
Plastic or glass vases
Scissors
Ribbon in assorted colors

Clear a space on the kitchen table and give each child a vase, pipe cleaners, and a pair of scissors.

1. Pick the colors for the flowers from the tissue paper pile.

2. Have the children take several sheets of paper. Roll them up together. Wrap one end of a pipe cleaner around the center of the tissue paper and twist to secure it.

3. Separate each sheet of paper, creating folds. Pull the edges up so that they surround the end of the pipe cleaner. If the paper is too long, cut it down.

4. Continue making flowers until the bouquet is finished. Wrap a piece of ribbon around the flowers.

5. The flowers can now be placed in the vase. If you want to keep them from falling out of the vase, stick the free end of the pipe cleaner into a piece of Styrofoam. Cut the Styrofoam to fit the bottom of the vase.

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