Easter Egg Frames

I have seen lots of projects using printed pages of books to construct them or embellish them and I am always attracted to how the print looks so I decided to see if I could use printed paper to decorate eggs for Easter and here is a picture of what we are going to make in this tutorial.



Note:   I only used the pages of an old damaged book to make this project!




 Step 1:   Take your polystyrene eggs that have a hollow in the front of them (I think they are egg frames!) and sand off any rough seams with a piece of sand paper.


Step 2:   Use acrylic paint in pastel colours of your choice to base coat your eggs.  


Top Tip:   I push my eggs onto wooden skewers so I can paint them all over without getting my hands too messy!  The skewers also mean you can stand them in a jar when you want them to dry.


Step 3:   This step is optional.  I wanted to make sure that the texture of the polystyrene egg was covered so I ripped up a piece of tissue (from a loo roll) into little pieces.  If your tissue has layers that you can separate then separate them.  The apply them all over the surface of the egg securing them with another layer of acrylic paint.  Keep your brush strokes light so you don't disturb the tissue once you have it in place.  Keep adding the pieces of tissue one at a time until you have covered the surface of the egg and then put to one side to dry.


Step 4:   Choose a patterned paper to coordinate with your egg and take some pages from an old book.  You will also need a few pins and a coordinating ribbon for this project.


Step 5:   Adhere a piece of  Double Sided Tape (DST) around what was the seam of the egg and then remove the backing paper.


Step 6:   Cut half inch strips of printed paper and quarter inch strips of patterned paper.  Starting at the top of the egg, attach the paper strip to the DST creating little pleats as you move towards the base of the egg. When you get to the base trim off any excess paper and repeat from the top of the opposite side of the egg to cover the remainder of the DST in the same way.  You will use this step to attach all papers unless indicated otherwise in this tutorial.


Step 7:   Using narrow DST attach a quarter of an inch wide strip of patterned paper to the centre of the printed paper band (see Step 6).


Step 8:   Cut a length of patterned paper half an inch wide.  Put DST on the back of the strip and use it to attach the paper strip to the inside of the egg frame.  This job is a little fiddly.  Trim off any excess length so that the paper strip joins neatly.  I started at the top of the egg as any join is less likely to show in this position.


Step 9:   Divide the back of the egg into thirds with the wider DST and then run a strip of narrow DST in between these segments.


Step 10:   Attach flat strips of patterned paper that are and eighth of an inch wide to the narrow strips of DST and half inch wide printed paper strips to the wide DST using the method described in Step 6.


Step 11:   Attach quarter inch wide strips of patterned paper to the centre of the two printed strips also using the method described at Step 6.


Step 12:   Fluff up the edges of the printed paper on either side of any patterned strips.


Step 13:   Adhere a strip of DST around the edge of the egg front and using the method described at Step 6 create a frill around the face of the egg frame using a half inch wide strip of printed paper.


Note:   The half of the width of the paper strip frill protrudes above the front of the egg and half is attached to the DST.


Step 14:   Push back carefully on the loose edges of the paper frill so that it frames the front of the egg.


Step 15:   I made an egg shaped template by placing a piece of thin paper over the front of the egg and tracing around the hole with a pencil.  You could use a small piece of acrylic and a permanent pen.  Cut out your template and use it to trace around and cut out the photo or image you want to place in your egg frame.  Place your image in your egg frame securing it with a small piece of DST.



Step 16:   Using another half inch strip of printed paper and the Step 6 method fill in the gap between the front frill and first paper strip.  This now looks a little like a collar around the egg.




Step 17:   I used a small flower punch and attached flowers around the egg frame.  The flowers are made from a printed paper flower with a patterned paper flower attached to the top of it and off set slightly.  Both flowers are shaped  by pushing a ball tool into their centres onto an embossing mat. The flowers were attached with glossy accents and a small gem was fixed to the centre of each flower also with glossy accents.  What a cute little chicken in this egg!!!



 Step 18:   To make the hangar for the egg begin by cutting 3 five inch strips of coordinating ribbon and trim the ends of each to an angle to prevent fraying.  Attach all three strips at the centre with a pin and use the pin to attach the ribbons to the top of the egg.  Arrange the ribbon strips so they do not obscure your image in its egg frame.  Then cut an 8 inch strip of ribbon and thread both ends of it onto a pin to form a loop.  Attach this loop to the centre of the ribbon tails on the top of the egg using the pin.


Step 19:   Cut a final 3 strips of ribbon at 5 inches in length and thread them on to a pin at their centres as you did at Step 19.  Now form a bow by threading all the loose ends on to the pin.  Use the pin to secure the bow to the centre of the top of the egg.


 A view of the back of the egg with the hanging ribbon bow attached.


I hope you enjoy making these Easter Egg Frames.  I am sure that they will look great in many colour combinations.  Make a batch to hang on dried twigs to decorate your home at Easter.  They could also be hung on door and drawer knobs too.  Don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know how you get on if you try this tutorial.  Leave me a link as I would love to see your work.



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