11 gorgeous Easter Crafts for the long weekend!

With Easter almost upon us and loads of excited kiddos to keep entertained, I thought I'd share with you my favourite Easter craft projects I've seen around the web. I'll be tackling at least a few of theses over the coming days... I find craft is a good way to get the boys to calm down after a sugar high - a handy tool this time of year!!!!

1. Easter Garland

Hop over here for the full tutorial

2. Chocolate Nests

Hop over here for the full tutorial.

3. Bunny Envelopes

Hop over here for the full tutorial.

4. Bunny Ears Napkins

Hop over here for the full tutorial

5. Crepe Paper Carrots

Hop over here for the full tutorial

6. Easter Paper Chains

Hop over here for the full tutorial

7. Rice Bubble Easter Egg Pops

Hop over here for the tutorial

8. Magnetic Eggs

Hop over here for the full tutorial

9. Modern Bunnies

Hop over here for the full tutorial

**this project is from a gorgeous blog I only found today - check it out for loads of lovely handmades and pretty pictures. She has a shop too! x

10. Tattooed Eggs

Hop over here for the full tutorial

11. Clever Carrot cookies in Oreo Crumbs

Hop over here for the full tutorial

Craft idea! Painted names

Here's a great craft idea I found on Pinterest. We did it together over the holidays and the boys LOVED it. Just write out their name in masking tape on a large sheet of paper, tape the paper to the table so it doesn't slide around and let them go crazy! Once it's dried, carefully peel off the tape to reveal a white name surrounded by their lovely artwork! This is a good one to teach name recognition too, and I found it really interesting to see their different styles - Hugh did a very precise rainbow and Noah's was just a mess that turned into preschool brown very quickly... Give it a go!

Pretty to play in...

Every space in your home should be beautiful. As much as it should reflect your style. Here is a virtual menagerie of play spaces and styles, all as pretty and functional as eachother...

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The house you HAVE to see/Hommage to a craft maniac

Here's a funny story for you - last night while I was trawling (read: wasting time on) Pinterest, I stumbled across this gorgeous room. Naturally, being such a sweet rainbow space I pinned it immediately to show it to you... The funny part is coming... 

When I went to the source to check it out (because it's a really groovy little NZ blog called Mousehouse - you should have a look at it!). To my surprise, what I found was that this stunning room isn't a room at all - it's a dollhouse! Not any dollhouse I've ever seen I'll tell you that much! Take a look...

Details in this place are paramount. The roof and exterior walls are painted in the exact same shades as the actual house the family live in... 

Here's the master bedroom (it's nicer than my bedroom people!)

The bathroom... (Note the stunning papered feature wall! I think I want to live here...)

Oh my giddy aunt - there's a craft room...

Orla Kiely in the kitchen! (This woman is a crafting maniac! I think I love her!)

AND it even has electricity!!!! (That's it - I'm moving in - Megan, I'll be needing your address please!)

Now let me tell you, there are many more rooms! You haven't seen the pink bedroom! The living room! And you need to witness the entrance hall! Megan has even posted comparison shots to their corresponding "real" rooms. This is one of my favourite blog post finds of all time. You must have a look here to get the whole story. Megan, I am in awe of you. You've done the most incredible job and Amelie is one lucky little lady. 

Make your own stamps for $0!

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I love this! For around $5 you can visit your local newsagents and pick up an eraser and a stamp pad, take a knife to the rubber to create a shape you like and start stamping! If erasers aren't your thing, try it with a potato or anything else you can find around the house that's hard enough to hold a shape but soft enough to cut... This isn't just a great craft activity to do with preschoolers, it's an inexpensive way to make your own party invites too! Google search silhouettes in images view for inspiration and tell me how you go with it!

YOU are going love THIS!

Like it? I love it. Would you believe the boys did this? Ah yes, they're a talented pair! Let me tell you how... I found this idea over at Modern Parents Messy Kids. It's an oldie but a goodie and if you Google milk food colouring experiment you'll get millions of hits with You Tube tutorials and the like... However, you don't need any of that because you have me!

All you need is a baking tray, full cream milk (full cream works better than other varieties for some scientific reason I don't understand), food colouring, dishwashing liquid and toothpicks. Simply pour milk into your baking dish to a depth of a couple of centimetres, drip in a few drops of each colour food colouring you want to use around the dish, dip your toothpick in dishwashing liquid and start moving the toothpick through the milk. The dishsoap reacts with the colour and makes it radiate away from your toothpick creating these amazing marble patterns.

Now sadly I didn't realise this was going to be as awesome as it turned out to be and only had my iPhone on hand for a shot, but let me assure you that this is one activity that will be repeated at our place and next time I'll have the proper camera ready to get a good picture. Reason? Well, I think this will look amazing on my living room wall. Officeworks do huge prints for pretty reasonable prices and I'd like to mount a print of one of these onto board to hang on our wall. I figure it'll make me happy to have a lovely splash of colour to look at and it'll give the boys a kick to see their very own creation so big on display. I'll post a pic when it's up (but be patient, I'm not super quick at these things...).

By popular demand...

I've been caught out. A few friends of mine who read NooshLoves keenly spotted the fact that I cheated a little the other day and didn't show you the actual crayon masterpiece we created. Soooo, here is ours. It's made me want to do some kind of large scale colour piece with the boys for our living room. Perhaps with the crayola branding absent?

How to do THAT amazing crayon wall art!

This project has been all over Pinterest for weeks. I love it. But some of the suggestions of how to actually do it were a little worrying - there was no way I was going to be putting crayons inside my old pal "the glue gun"! Now there's an easy how to - check it out over at Whatever.... I'm off to buy us some crayons and a canvas!

DIY: Crayon Monogram

Pretty cute huh? Just another brilliant idea from Chic Cheap Nursery. Get your glue guns ready and get to work! Here's a little tip from me - I've seen lots of these floating around on Pinterest and none look as good as this one. Make sure if you decide to give it a go to plan out your colours. This one has a bit of a graduation of colour happening - without it the result looks a bit of a mess (in my humble opinion, but I'm kind of anal about such things). Love to see your results! x

Embroidery goes all mod-cultish...

I think we've all been touched by embroidery at some stage in our lives - be it the initialed hankie at primary school or the obsessed grandmother who had a hoop on the go at all times... Well, this is one old school handicraft that's come a long way baby!

From typographic birds... 

and mini moustached men...

Penguin Books even got on board with a limited edition set of classics with embroidered covers...

There are personalised pieces on Etsy to be had... 

Even paper is getting the treatment... 

As with any craft, there's always an over-acheiver raising the barr... 

But you don't have to be Picasso to get on the bandwagon... 

Just use your imagination!

Get inspired...

And apply it anything you please! This one is a cake would you believe? That's got to test your patience!

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The cheap activity that'll keep kidlets amused for hours

No, I'm not kidding! It's true! It's cheap. It's easy. It's actually pure genius. 

I came across this one over at Filth Wizardry. In a nutshell, take one disposable plastic tablecloth (found in your supermarket party section for around $2), some sticky tape, textas and a good dose of imagination and you're off and running. Hop over here for the full tutorial, and while you're there, take a look around. Lindsey is bursting with great ideas for preschoolers.