Day #5~The Grand Finale of Eggs~Cabbage Dyed Eggs!

I hope this is worthy of the Grand Finale of Eggs ~

inspired by Martha Stewart. 

We tried her natural dye technique using boiled red cabbage. 

And man, did my house STINK last night!

  Just imagine the smells of boiled cabbage, boiled eggs, and vinegar~all in one!  My kids about died! :)

Just so you know, I did try some of the boiled red cabbage, and with salt- it really isn't that bad!

 

It's worth the stink...because the color of the eggs is fantastic! Way more beautiful than any artificial dye!

We placed our blown out cabbage dyed eggs into a glass dome with a little scenery we made ~ that was inspired by Williams and Sonoma.  We saw their glass jars on their website and we knew we wanted to try making them! 

 

 To dye the eggs, first cut and boil the cabbage in two quarts of water for about 30 minutes.

After draining and removing the boiled cabbage, you are left with the most beautiful bluish/purple color!

Martha said to add 4 TB. salt and 4 TB. vinegar.  Add your eggs.  I dyed both boiled and blown eggs.  To get the rich dark blue color, you have to soak overnight!

We used an 8" grapevine wreath for the nest.  

We went into my backyard to gather most of the twigs.  All of my shrubs are budding and are so pretty! I know that after a week the buds will wither away, but hey- we can enjoy it now!

 

We added a few fake flowers

 and

one blue butterfly.

We twisted and wrapped, and wove.  I think I know how a bird feels after making this! :)

I also splurged on this glass dome!

  Hobby Lobby had all glassware 50% off, I couldn't resist!

And there you go....5 Days of Inspired by Martha... Eggs!

Phew,

we are tired!

I think  it's time for a very long vacation from EGGS!!! 

DIY day at A Soft Place To Land

Met Monday at Between Naps On The Porch

Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Day #4 Easy Beaded Eggs

     Today we were wishing we had unlimited helping hands like Martha,

to blow out, dye and hinge all the lovely eggs our hearts desired.....

Yeah, right.......soooooooo anyway

this morning we were going to attempt to do some of Martha's Fancy Eggs

when we stumbled upon these Fancy strung beads at

 our favorite store Hobby Lobby!

24 Feet of Loveliness for $1.99 and then 50% off!

Big Plastic Eggs .67 cents then 50% off!

How could we resist!

Who doesn't love a cheap and super EASY Easter Egg Project???

They came in shades of Clear, Pink and Silver.

It takes about 12 feet to do one of the bigger size plastic eggs.

With the handy glue gun in hand we went to work.....   It doesn't get any easier than this.

Glue + Strand = StuckThey look so cute nestled into the Rhubarb.

So 6 "Fancy" Eggs for a grand total of $3.31 + tax!!!

Extra bonus is they won't actually break when the kids play with them!

Don't forget to check in tomorrow for our Grand Finale!

Day #5 will be worth the wait!

Day #3 ~Pop Bottle Egg Flowers

So this egg flower is reasonably close to one of Martha's ideas.  Martha made an egg flower using crepe paper. 

 We used pop, soda...or whatever you call it bottles.  The eggs looked so cute nestled in the mouth of the pop bottle-so that's what we did! 

I have seen pop bottle flowers done on several blogs this year.  Tatertots and Jello's wreath is one I can remember right away.  I can't recall exactly where I have seen the others. Nicole told me about the Anthropologie pop bottle flowers too,  and I have been saving bottles for months just so we could try it out.

  

 I googled pop bottle flowers and found an artist named Jan Pinney that made these years ago as yard art. Her's are incredible!  She used heat to melt and form the flowers.  I thought that was super cool.  I believe you are suppose to use an EMBOSSING GUN.  It is much safer.  I didn't have one at the moment, so I CAREFULLY heated the plastic over an open flame.  I'm sure that isn't the smartest idea, but if your careful- it works.  Just like the fabric flowers you singe. 

Look how the petals open up.   

We used plastic eggs for this project.  The raw eggs are too fragile. 

We drilled holes in the back of the egg and used an old stem with missing flowers to hot glue into the back of the egg.

We used some leftover primed plastic eggs and added some bright paint and polka dots.

I cut the tip of the bottle of some.  If I were to do it again I probably wouldn't cut the tip off.  

Pierce a hole and cut with scissors around the bottle.

Make sure to remove the inked date.  When you spray paint,  the ink runs all over in your paint.  I used nail polish remover and it came off really easy.

 

 For the petals, we cut lines every inch or so. Or be creative and put more detail into it!

 

We also made flowers that resemble poppies~ where we didn't  cut lines,

instead we melted the edges more until they curled.

Imagine all the possibilities you could do with these- like yard art! 

 These poppies would be neat with lights strung in each one and hung on a patio.

 

This was a fun one if you like melting things-not totally Martha, but fun!

Up next

Day 4

of Martha's Eggs,

  another fancy egg.

Stay tuned! :)

A newly launched Valentine's Day Flowers site

 www.valentinesdayflowers.com  

has really great prices for flowers.

They are even offering a coupon page for added discounts! 

Valentine's Day Flowers Coupon

And The Winner IS!!!!!!!!

One of our Fabulous Readers SUE!!!

We couldn't figure out how to get the computer random draw thingy to work

so we did it the old fashion way.

I found out my paper cutter needs a new blade....

Plus my little girl felt really special being the "official" drawerer....is that a word?

Here are all the entries....

She dives in for the winner, I told her to really dig around...

                Here she pulls the winner out and starts complaining about having to do this out in the cold and was worried the wind was going to blow the papers away....:)

Here is Sue's entry...We are so glad that you love the bunnies Sue, they are now yours to enjoy!

Thank you to everyone that entered!

It was really fun to watch and to hear so many kind words sent our way!

It was so fun we're going to have to do this on a regular basis!

THANK YOU!!!!!

p.s. Sue we need your contact info so we can pop these babies in the mail heading your way!

Just send us an email craftysistersnc@gmail.com!

Day #2 Lady Bug Eggs

Luck Be A Lady TooooooooNightttttttt.......

Sorry couldn't resist that one......

Yes, It's Day #2 of our Crazy Egg Marathon!

Martha did some really cute red little lady bug eggs that we just had to try!

We had picked up some of this paper recently hoping to have a use for it.

And yes, the colors just screamed Easter so we just had to use these colors instead!

Remember how we talk about the funny things that inspire us?

This time around I couldn't find my nifty dremel bit

so I resorted to using my drill.

Yes, I cracked a few eggs.....

But the end result was fairly good with a uniform tiny hole on each egg.

What we were feeling really good about was the brilliant idea to "hang" each egg up to dry after painting.

I've been complaining about my abundance of pipe cleaners, ya know all the ugly colors that come in the monstrous pack you have to buy just to get the 5 hot pink ones you need.....

Well we chopped them in half, one side was a handy holder stuffed into the egg,

the other bent over a glass to dangle the egg till the paint dried.

It worked sooooo great!

My only regret is freckling the eggs.  We got a little caught up in the freckling process after all the egg wreaths and I just couldn't help myself.....You could say the freckles "BUG" me....

but overall, we're pretty happy!

 P.S. Don't forget to enter our Giveaway!  The drawing closes tonight at Midnight and our lucky winner will be revealed tomorrow ASAP!!!

*5* Days of Martha's Eggs~Day 1 Jeweled Eggs!

Our sweet Mother used to own almost every edition of Martha Stewart's magazine. 

It was the perfect Mother's Day Gift

to give every year- hands down! 

She collected each one and filed them carefully away. 

She loved all the beautiful ideas and kept them until they moved a few years ago.  

Dad said, "Dear, they must go!"

Nicole snuck all the best holiday issues away and still has them tucked away in a safe spot!

We love Martha too and have been inspired by her.

  We were peeking through her Easter decor and came across hundreds of ways to decorate eggs. 

We picked our top five and thought we would ~ give it a try ~!

 

Look...we even made a button!

Attempt #1:

"FANCY"

Eggs nestled into flowers. 

*Go here to Martha's site for her full directions and a picture.*

 

We have had this idea rolling around in our heads for a while, so I have been saving my expired eggs.  Yes.  REAL eggs.  Martha only uses "real" eggs! :)

Real eggs is what kept me from going forward with this. 

I was not about to put my mouth on and blow out hundreds of eggs.

I found on Martha's site how to blow the eggs out "properly."

This is by far the coolest thing so far and EASY!

First gather your dremel, if you have one.  You can use a nail.  Next find something to scramble the egg. I used a wire.  And...finally...get a nose sucker!  I had 3 Nicu babies, so I had no problem coming up with some.

Use a good drilling bit on the router. Super...super...easy!

Scramble up the yolk.

Blow air INTO the egg so it pushes out into the pan.  Don't squeeze the egg into the bulb syringe!

I'm telling you...this is so slick!

We picked out orchids, and several metallic paints.  Martha uses Swarovski crystal tear drops.  I'm cheap, so I used small Swarovski crystals and some other beads I had on hand.  Plastic beading wire was used instead of metal jewelry wire.

Paint your eggs.  Probably the hardest part of all.  The layers take some time to dry. 

We used an earring wire to put the beads on.  Make a loop at the end of the beaded earring. We then made a loop with the plastic line when tying it on to the beads, so it can hang as an ornament.

Next string the plastic line through the egg.  You can use a long needle. We glued a tiny bead at the top for decoration.

We made the flower hang upside down, so the center would have the pretty beads shooting out.

All done!

We trimmed a branch from my beautiful budding tree outside and hung!

Who knew eggs could be so pretty?  There is something so beautiful about a real egg. 

 Just be careful...

we broke about ten eggs while making these.  

Stay tuned for Day 2 of Martha's EGGS!!!

Also..check out Beyond The Picket Fence!

Becky was so nice to spotlight us.

And we're sharing with the fun Spring party at

This Blessed Nest