Easter Dinner & Tiered Trays

I purchased tiered trays last year for my daughters birthday party, 

and decided to use them for Easter as well. 

We liked doing that so much that we decided it is going to be 

our tradition to use them every Easter. 

You can get your own trays HERE. They are a great deal If you you make a purchase, I will make a small percentage. Thank you for helping me out.

They disassemble very easily, and don't take-up much room for storage. 

I keep them disassembled in a drawer in my curio cabinet.

As for what we put on them, we put sweets on top, 

snacks in the middle and savory on the bottom.

We keep the food very simple.

I like to add little decorative elements, like chenille chicks and an egg. 

 My husband and I write a nice not to each family member 

and place it in the egg, for them to read.

I hope your family has a lovely Easter!

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a Happy & Creative Day!

Risa

Easter Wreath - Plastic Eggs

Plastic Egg Easter Wreath!

This wreath is very easy to make. It comes together in about 10 minutes, and is not very expensive!

It's adorable and playful and would brighten up any door step!

You will need:

These are affiliate links, meaning if you purchase anything from my links, I get a small percentage. Thank you for looking!

14 Plastic White Eggs - I got mine from Hobby Lobby

14" Wire Hoop - I got mine from Hobby Lobby

Chicks on Twig - I got mine from Hobby Lobby

Various Ribbon - I got mine from Hobby Lobby. The ones I linked, could be glued to a twig from the yard, but I recommend the ready made light weight ones from Hobby Lobby.

Wire Cutters

Drill

Small Pieces of Wire for attaching the chicks - Dollar Store

First, cut the tire hoop apart at the place where the wires meet. I did this by squeezing and twisting my hand held wire cutters around the hoop, until it felt weak. I then bent ti back and forth until it snapped!

Separate your eggs, and drill a hole the size of the wire, in the top of each one. Be sure and put something underneath the eggs so you don't ruin any surfaces.

Next, snap the eggs together, and thread them on the hoop, You will put 7 on each side, with the top of the eggs pointing towards the center. I made sure to spin my eggs so the other little holes on them were not visible.

Once the eggs are all threaded, close the hoop by wrapping duck tape around the opening while the ends are pressed together.

Use two pieces of wire to secure the chicks on a branch in place.

You are almost finished! Cut and attach ribbon in any colors you choose to the bottom, attaching a small piece to the top between the top two eggs, for hanging.

This wreath is darling, fast and easy to make! I hope you love yours.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

Mini Easter Gardens on Studio 5

Today on Studio 5, I shared dead for mini Easter/Spring gardens. The following are links to the exact project.

Easter Gardens in Eggs, and Egg Cups

Grow Wheat Grass on Paper Towels

Table Top Succulent and Cacti Garden

Mini Resurrection Garden

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

Resurrection Mini Garden

This is the sweet little resurrection garden I shared on Studio 5 today. 

To make your own, use a plater or a plate, lay a small cup on its side. I used one form a succulent plant that I had planter earlier that day. Cover with soil.

Lay moss over the top. None of this is alive, so that's  awesome (no maintenance). It also comes together really quickly, and would be perfect for a religious lesson on Easter.

I hot glued stones to the cup to look like the entrance to the tomb, and my mom found me a great rock to use as if it had been rolled away to reveal an empty tomb. 

This is how it looked on the show. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

Wheat Grass

Today on Studio 5, I shared my new favorite way to grow wheat grass... On a paper towel!

This process takes 11 days. 

Soak your wheat in water for 24-48 hours. 

(I use white wheat. The same wheat I use for baking bread.)

Get 3 layers of paper towels wet, and lay them in the bottom of the container you plan to grow your wheat grass in.

Get 2 more layers of wet paper towels, and place over the top of the wheat.

Spray with a water bottle multiple times throughout the day, and make sure they are moist at all times.

Once the wheat starts to sprout, remove the top layer of paper towel, and continue to spritz with water to maintain moisture.

This is a comparison picture of the soil and the paper towel method on day 5. You can see the wheat grass on the paper towel is doing way better much earlier.

The roots will grow into the paper towels like this.

This is a comparison of paper towel grass and soil grass on day 8.

Paper towel grass.

Soil grass.

On day 11, you can trim the top of the wheat to an even level, and cut around the bottom, to make the shape of the container you plan to use for display. One thing I really like about it, is that you can put it on a plate, and it looks clean, and there is no soil to deal with. It's really pretty!

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

Spring and Easter Gardens

Today on Studio 5, I am sharing mini Easter gardens. These are the examples I brought.

They are fun to place all around your home in the spring. They bring life into your home, with a subtle nod to Easter.

First, spray paint your eggs to the color of your liking. I prefer gold. I got my eggs for $.99 each from Michael's.

I put one succulent in each of the gold eggs, and filled in with dirt. 

The key with these, is to add lots of moss variety. You can fin moss anywhere from Walmart to any craft store. I got little clear easter eggs at Hobby Lobby, and put dirt, moss, and a bunny inside. It was extra adorable.

They are charming and adorable! Once Easter if over, the succulents and cacti can be replanted in a different container. 

This is how they looked on the show.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

Easter Carrot for my Front Door (revised)

Do you remember the giant carrot I made for my front door a few years ago? Sadly, it met it's end in my garage, under the tires of my minivan.

I am sharing the carrot on Studio 5 tomorrow morning, so I made a new one, with a new tutorial. This one is smaller, and the greenery is SO darling! I like it better.

It is SO EASY and inexpensive to make! 

All you need to make 2 carrots is:

A piece of foam board form the dollar store $1

1/2 yard of Orange Burlap (Hobby Lobby) $2

Spool of green lace (Hobby Lobby) $1.50 (on sale from $2.99)

Strong wire. I used white florist wire I got from Hobby Lobby and had in my stash.

Hot glue

1 - Gather your supplies.

2 - Cut burlap into 4 inch strips.

3 - Cut 2 carrots out of the foam using scissors or a knife. It has much the same feel as cardboard, but is a little easier to work with..

4 - Wrap the burlap around the carrot, starting at the top, and overlapping the strips.

5 - Hot glue the strips to the back, and create a point with the last of the fabric if you don't have a point on your foam already.

6 - Dab the top of your wire with hot glue, and smooth it out, so the thread won't unravel. Thread it through the spine of the lace. Cut the lace to whatever size you want, and make three stems. Put a dab of glue on the top of the lace, and fold it over, so the wire doesn't come out. I like my stems to each be a different size.

7 - Poke a hole in the top of the foam to make way for the stems.

8 - Cut the stems to size, and daub the ends in glue to make it so they won't unravel when they are shoved in the foam holes you made before. Shove the stems in.

9 - Take a tack, and make a hole for where you are going to put the wire to hang the carrot when it's finished.

10 - Thread a piece of wire through the hole, and tie at whatever length is suitable for the size of your door.

11 - Unwrap a small piece of wire, and thread it through the lace, and around the hanging wire to make it so the greens will stand better. They will stand ion their own, but tend to fall with time.

12 - Print and attach the free printable. I just glued it on, after mounting it on scrapbook paper. You could hang it by a ribbon, or however you want.

Right click, click save as, then go into your preferred photo editing program, and pull it up and print.

There you are. 2 carrots for Easter, and you only spent $5! Make one for your friend. Make one for your mom.

Please tune in to Studio 5 tomorrow at 11 on KSL 5. I will be doing a live demo of this, and also sharing my most popular blog post ever. Easter Carrot Rolls! You won't want to miss it!

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

Panoramic Sugar Egg Tutorial

 My mom used to have a couple of these sugar eggs when I was little, and I always loved looking inside, and wondered how they were made. I decided this was the year to do it, and found multiple tutorials online. I combined a few, and came up with my own, and am so excited to share it with you today. These look intimidating, but they are not! The are so easy. You just need to plan at lest a day in advance.

 To start out, make sure you have a plastic egg that opens long way, like the one pictured. I got this at Michael's for $.99.

You will need:

5 cups sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

3 egg whites

food coloring of your choice

 

1) Whisk sugars in a bowl until combined. Whisk egg whites  in a separate bowl until frothy, and add food coloring.

2) Combine the eggs and sugar. It doesn't seem like a lot of liquid, but it will work.

3) It will be the consistency of wet sand.

4) Pack it into one side of the plastic egg (be sure to use each side.)

5) Scrape the top off with a knife until it's level.

6) Spoon the inside out. These pictures are of the first eggs I made, and as I made them, I learned that you can for sure take more of the middle out. If you have a problem, and take too much just repack it, and start over.

 

7) With a quick, firm, strong motion, turn the sugar filled egg over onto a hard surface where it can be left to dry for a few hours, to overnight. I turned them onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

8)  When the outsides feel quite dry, turn them over to dry and harden the rest of the way. This would be a good time to hollow out the rest of the center, and make it more even.

9)  Cut your peek hole now. Start with a sharp knife, and twist until you break through, then you can carve out the rest into the shape you want.

10)  You can also cut the front off.

11) The eggs are now ready to be filled. You can see, the yellow egg was one of the first I made, and is rather thick. When I do this in the future, I will remove more sugar when it is still soft.

12) You can see the pink egg is one of the last I made, and it looks more uniform, and the edges are thinner.

DECORATING!

You will need frosting that dries hard and dries fast! I made royal icing. There are many variations online. You can choose whatever you prefer working with, but for mine, I whipped up 4 egg whites, and added about 5 cups of powdered sugar. I left it in the mixer on high until it was shiny, about 5 minutes. You can add more or less sugar, depending on the consistency you want. You want it to be thick and hold it's shape. I divided mine into 2, dyed half green and left the other half white, and put it in decorating bags. You could also use a ziplock with the corner cut off.

Filling

 

Easter cards from the dollar store, cut up for the images. I am sure you could find some online as well.

 Easter candy, whatever you can find

Fluffy chicks... of course fluffy chicks!

 

I had to get a close up of them. They were a staple in my Easter basket growing up, and it is the same for my kids. They are extra adorable!

Coconut for grass is not necessary, but a nice touch. To dye it green, simply place coconut in a bowl, add a few drops of food coloring, and stir it up. I made mine the same day I formed the eggs, and left it out to dry, so it would be dry when we used it to decorate.

Now for the fun part...

After you have filled the eggs, simply pipe a ring of icing around the rim, and attach the top.

 Put the top on, and ice around the seams.

I would like to say I know how to make fancy designs with frosting, but I don't. I just made dots, and pushed the tips in with my finger for the photo above, and for the photo below, I just left the points. My daughter chose this fun  one with the different opening.

This is the Molly egg.

 

This is the one the baby and Mr. B. made.

My creative child, who likes to think outside the box, made this one and filled it with unattached candy. He knows what he's doing!

You can place them anywhere in your house among your Easter decor, and they will fit right in! They are so charming, and so easy to make. I think this will become a tradition for us.

If you are not up for the sugar part of this process, be sure and check back soon, because I will be sharing another way to dress up store bought eggs!

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa