Easter Egg Craft With My Senior Friends

I enjoy the time I spend with my elders at the local senior's residence, Mount Edith House. I visit them from time to time to teach crafts with the Banff Senior Support Coordinator, Sue Smythe. Easter is always a fun time for crafts and this week, Sue and I stopped over with two dozen blown and dyed eggs each (it is a wonder I have any brains left after all that blowing...). We then proceeded to make the cutest little group of chicken, bunny, and chicken-in-bunny-disguises I have ever seen. Give it a whirl this weekend. All you need are dyed eggs, felt, and some imagination. Fun will be had by all!


How to boil eggs: Place the eggs in a large saucepan. Add enough cold water to
completely cover the eggs. Place on medium-high heat and bring water to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and simmer eggs for 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and fill with cold water. The eggs must be completely cool and dry to decorate successfully.


A note on dying eggs: You can use food coloring and water to dye your eggs. Red food coloring turns your eggs pink and red and blue make purple. Both of these colors will produce good results with just the food coloring. For the best yellow, green, and blue you should add vinegar... Combine 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon of food coloring with 2 tsp. vinegar in a cup that is deep enough for the eggs. Add water to about the half way point. Gently place the eggs into the cups. The longer they are left in the dye, the darker the color.


How to blow eggs: You can see my post on onion skin dyed eggs from last year. These eggs will float in the dye water so you need to such fresh water in through the hole until it is quite full to weight the eggs down in the dye water.

Crafting with Our Senior Friends

My inlaws are visiting but they took the opportunity to make a two day trip to Golden, BC, to ski Kicking Horse. So, I brought Quin to the class I had to teach at Mount Edith House on Tuesday. I knew that Sue and I would be working with the residents to dye Easter eggs, so I knew Quin would enjoy it. Turns out two other children joined us, since they are on what is called March break (even if it is April...).


Sue outdid herself this time. I always wonder why she even hires me to come and "teach" since she is the one who gathers all the supplies and then gets right into it. I pick the project, and I guess I am there as the "expert" but she is so organized and into it, that I always feel like I am not earning my keep. This time she has gathered pussy willows, rice, and brightly colored plant pots, and when I got there, she had the other little girl filling the pots with rice. Quin helped, too. The other girl must be about 7 years old. She was very kind to Quin.





Soon after the girls had set the pots up on the table, and our senior friends had gathered, Sue and I decided that since we didn't have access to a stove top, that we should scrap our original dying idea (which I will blog about in my next post) and she opened up the various dye kits she had that involved drawing and painting color onto hollow eggs. These techniques worked very well for Quin, who got right into it, with the help of a friend of mine's very sweet grandmother. By the end of an hour, the table was full of beautiful egg creations and pussy willow trees. I think I like Easter a bit more each year. Maybe it is because each year I look more forward to spring...





Another successful social crafting session with our local friends!

Handmade Valentines & Truffles for Kids

My friend, Kristal, from The Rikrak Studios, asked me to contribute some kid crafts and activities to her blog. I love the idea, and asked her if she would consider doing the same for my blog. So, we plan to have a bit of a project tutorial swap on an ongoing basis which we hope you enjoy. Stay tuned!

I teach crafts to kids and seniors in my community, AND I get PAID! I love it! Today, I made valentine cards and truffles with my favorite seniors. I have taught the same projects to kids ages 6 - 12 years old. These are fun and doable projects for all ages if you join in the fun.



Valentine "Puffy Hearts" (as my friend, Sue, calls them)
I LOVE tissue art. It brings me back to childhood. I love the bright colors and texture of the paper. I also find the repetitive

You will need:
- Colorful tissue paper, folded as many times as you can and still cut it into 1" squares (the idea is to make many squares from minimum cuts). You can go as large as 2", but just keep in mind the larger the square, the higher they will be off the paper.
- Hearts cut out of card stock, ours were about 5".
- White glue
- Pencil
- Markers or pen for a greeting

1) It is easiest for kids to write a greeting on the card BEFORE adding the tissue paper.

2) When I do tissue art I put glue in a little bowl and dip, but for kids it seems to be easiest if they make a running bead of white glue around the piece.



3) Put the end of pencil in the middle of a square of tissue paper and wrap the paper around the end of the pencil, then push into the glue on the card, and pull out the pencil. There is no wrong way to do this. The less perfect the better. If a child doesn't have the patience to fill in the whole heart they can still make adorable cards by just putting the paper on the border of the heart.



A variation on this theme is to just put the tissue on the border and then to paste another heart on top so that the tissue paper sticks out the sides.



Truffles



These are not comparable to fine Belgian chocolates, but they satisfy the chocolate cravings of adults and kids alike. They are fast, easy, and yummy! No cooking required, which makes them great for a class (although you need a microwave to melt the butter). I quadruple the recipe.

You will need:
2 1/2 oz graham crackers
4 oz icing sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon or instant coffee (you can probably tell which is best for kids)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla



1) Put crackers in a clean plastic bag. Use rolling pin to crush them into fine crumbs.

2) Sift flour and cocoa into a bowl. Use a wooden spoon to stir in butter, cinnamon OR coffee, and vanilla.

3) Pour the crumbs into the bowl. Mix them in. Then, use your hands to squeeze the mixture into a ball.



4) Break off pieces of the mixture and roll into small balls the size of walnuts. You can roll the balls in more cocoa, icing sugar, or crushed nuts.

5) Put the finished balls onto a large plate and let cool. Then, package them up in fun Valentine bags or boxes. Give to your sweetheart and hope they will share some with you. Enjoy!