15 Thursday May 2014
Posted in All Sparkled Up, crafts, Easter, home decor
The tiny crystal beads on the egg tree catch light in the new window.
I’ve decided to keep the egg tree with little hanging plants in the window a bit longer. This is the first spring with the new window and I enjoy the sunshine streaming through the crystal beads on the tiny plants.
24 Sunday Mar 2013
Posted in All Sparkled Up, crafts, Easter, family, home decor, miniature
Tags
1960's, 1960's crafts, 1968, crafts, decorated eggs, DIY, Easter, Easter Egg Tree, egg tree, eggs
My mom was going to throw out the decorated Easter Eggs she made in 1968. They were dusty, damaged and bug-eaten. Then she considered giving them to someone to salvage any useable trims. Of course I wanted them, cracked shells and all! They cleaned up beautifully.
Egg tree eggs, made in 1968 by my mom. My sisters and I made some of these eggs, but not the prettiest.
At first glance, these seem like really simple eggs compared to the lavish rubber-stamped, lace-trimmed, glittered eggs made today. What makes these eggs so remarkable was the creativity with such limited supplies. My mom had very little to work with. She used poster paint, nail polish and a couple jars of my brother’s model car paints to paint the eggs. There was no shiny spray-on acrylic finish back then so she used clear nail polish to make them shiny. She purchased the gold paper trim from a mail order catalog from Lee Wards, a huge craft store in another state. There was no internet from which to buy craft supplies. There were no big Walmart craft aisles, Michael’s or craft stores. The only place for craft supplies was the local 5 & Dime store and even there, craft supplies were extremely limited.
Some of these eggs are missing pearls, some have bent trim, some have cracked shells. But when they are hung on the tree, they are all beautiful together.
1968 Decorated Egg – the Blue Egg with a tiny plastic dove inside.
1968 Decorate Egg – The Purple Egg.
1968 Decorated Egg – My mom painted this egg with a jar of my brother’s model car paint. The plastic hollow sequin “gems” on each side were precious and I was in awe of them.
1968 Decorated Egg – The Yellow Rose Egg. A tiny sequin butterfly flutters above the plastic rose.
1968 Decorated Egg – Painted with poster paint, covered with clear nail polish.
1968 Decorated Egg – I love the spring green color of this egg. I have a couple plastic flowers like those used on this egg so I will restore it before putting it away at the end of the season.
1968 Decorated Egg – A pink sequin butterfly flutters over a pink fabric rose. My mom didn’t have much gold paper trim so she cut it apart and used pieces sparingly.
1968 Decorated Egg. – The Hot Air Balloon egg.
1968 Decorated egg – The Lavender Spiral egg.
1968 Decorated Egg – The Purple Rickrack and Gold Trim egg.
1968 Decorated Egg – Painted with poster paint, brushed shiny with clear nail polish.
1968 Decorated Egg – Painted with pink nail polish.
1968 Decorate Egg – The Bunny Basket Egg. This was one of the few eggs I made for the tree. Even though the bright colors didn’t fit in with my mom’s elegant color scheme, she graciously added it to the family tree. That’s true Mother’s love.
1968 Decorated Egg – The back of the pink rose egg, with a very design of pink rick rack and gold paper trim.
1968 Decorated Egg – my favorite: The elegant M Egg. I don’t know where my mom got the embroidered M trim. M was for our last name – Musser.
1968 Decorated Egg – The Lily Egg. I love how this egg has one side white, the other green. This egg was so shattered on the top that I had to flip it over and reattach the wire on the bottom so it could hang. The little plastic lilies were just tucked inside so they were easy to turn right side up.
The only non-1968 eggs on the tree are the Peter Rabbit Eggs, purchased from Pottery Barn Kids several years ago. My mom used to read Peter Rabbit to my sisters, brother and I so I was thrilled to find eggs featuring illustrations from Peter Rabbit. Here Mrs Rabbit is fastening the brass buttons on Peter Rabbit’s blue jacket.
Even though these eggs have missing beads and cracked shells, they are still so precious. When I look at them, I am reminded of simpler times, days of ingenuity, days crafting with my sisters, days of being read to by a mother that loved us. This little egg tree serves to remind me that it doesn’t take a studio of amazing craft supplies to make something all sparkled up, it just takes an eye for beauty and a determination to make do with what you have.
19 Tuesday Mar 2013
Posted in All Sparkled Up, beading, crafts, Easter, flowers, gardening, home decor, miniature, sparkling, tutorial
Tags
All Sparkled Up, crafts, Easter, Easter decoration, Easter Egg Tree, egg tree, miniature, miniature eggs, miniature flowers, miniature plants
Last year I posted about the Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree I made. It’s time to get it out again. Adding the drops of dew was my favorite part.
After I finished each miniature plant, with it’s tiny leaves and petals, I hung it on the tree. Though pretty, the plant didn’t seem fully alive it was all sparkled up with spring rain or drops of dew.
For each drop, I used tweezers to dab a single crystal seed bead in tacky glue and attach it where it should go, hanging from the tip of a leaf or puddled in the folds of a petal.
The tree was from Pottery Barn a couple years ago. The hanging egg baskets were cut from small plastic eggs. The miniature plants were made by cutting up full-size artificial flowers and leaves. Some of the hanging vines were made by gluing hand-cut leaves to artificial plant stems. Click on photos to see the full size images if you wish.
Miniature Daisies.
Miniature daisies.
Miniature Lily of the Valley.
Miniature ferns and moss.
Miniature Forget-me-not.
Miniature Burros Tail.
If you want to add realistic drops to an artificial plant, remember how real water acts. It flows down hill. So it will puddle at the bottom of a flower center, or hang from the lower tip of a petal or leaf.
Miniature Blue Flowers. The fluffy white balls were actually stamens cut from the center of a full-size artificial flower.
Miniature ferns and moss.
Miniature Tuberous Begonia, reminiscent of the colors of my mom’s beautiful begonia hanging plant.
Miniature Marigold.
Miniature Roses. To make a rose, I took one petal from a 1″ artificial rose, folded it in half and glued and rolled it up into a cone shape. The pointed tip of the cone was cut off and stuck down inside the top part of the cone to make center of the rose. Some cone tips are also used as the buds.
Placing the tiny bead droplets on the plants was a very contemplative task, like yoga or painting, with each moment crystallized and beautiful. No it was not tedious, it was restorative and full of light. All sparkled up.
“And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Isaiah 58:11
07 Saturday Apr 2012
Posted in crafts, Easter, flowers, home decor, miniature
Tags
decorated eggs, Easter, Easter eggs, egg, egg tree, flowers, miniature
Last year I finally had time to make an Easter Egg tree and I’m happy to display it again this year. I’ve been wanting to make one for many years. I have a couple precious decorated eggs left from the tree of my childhood and some day I will restore the eggs and call that tree my Heritage Tree. For now, this Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree will adorn my dining room table.
The tree was from Pottery Barn. The eggs are plastic, cut into little baskets with a craft knife. I made all the hanging plants from bits and pieces of full size artificial plants. The hundreds of tiny leaves were cut out individually with manicure scissors. Crystal beads were glued strategically from the tips of petals and leaves to look like they were freshly washed with a light spring rain. It took several weeks to make these eggs, working on them when I could during evenings last year.
Easter Egg Tree - click photo to see a larger image.
These little hanging plants are made from bits and pieces cut from artificial plants and flowers tucked into plastic eggs. Click on photos to see a larger image.
Egg Tree - The Purple Egg.
Egg Tree - The Spring Green Egg
Egg Tree - The Little Blue Birds Egg
Egg Tree - The Yellow Green Moss Egg
Egg Tree - The Blue Forget-me-not Egg
Egg Tree - The Orange Marigold Egg
Egg Tree - The White Lily-of-the-Valley Egg
Egg Tree - The Pink Peony Egg
Egg Tree - The Yellow Daisy Egg
Egg Tree - The Miniature Pink Rose Egg
All Sparkled Up 