Happy (Almost) Easter!

So today has been pretty crazy, I didn't get to take my break at work we were so busy, and I stayed 45 minutes late! But here are a few Easter decorations that I made for the apartment this week and last...

This was the inspiration for the first project, I found it on Pinterest and it's from here

I used a Fiskars paper cutter that I had to cut the strips. Most of the paper is from Hobby Lobby, the pink gingham paper is from JoAnn's. The frame, blue paint and ribbon are from Hobby Lobby too. Hobby Lobby has a great selection of glass-less and backless frames that are nice for projects like this. I used double sided tape to stick the strips to paper that I cut into the right shape by tracing the inside of the frame on it.

The blue paint I picked out is a great color I will admit, but I was being cheap and bought the least expensive brand, and it literally took me the.whole.bottle to get good coverage. And the frame was primed white to start with, not even super porous wood. I still love how it came out though.

The second project was actually inspired by something I remember making back when I was a Girl Scout. Yup you read that right, I was a Girl Scout. Here is a tutorial that tells you how to make the string eggs, although instead of using some crazy concoction, I used a mixture of white glue and water. I'm pretty sure that's how we made them before, and they've been Easter decorations at my parents house every year since so they're going strong. 

Here they are drying. They are in a plastic seedling tray.

And here's the finished product! Sorry about the crazy sunlight.

 I also used a cheap pack of balloons, so the shape of some of them is a little off, but oh well. I used the leftover ribbon from the frame project, and its hung with a piece of bakers twine strung through the back. Oh yeah, and the embroidery floss is from JoAnn's. They had some really pretty variegated colors. I got the larger skeins, and each skein did 2 eggs. Also, a very handy tip, which she mentions in the link above, if you just drop it into the glue mixture it will tangle like there's no tomorrow. I had the best luck if I first wrapped the thread into a ball like you would yarn. Its tedious, but so worth it; then you just drop the little ball into the glue and it spins and coats itself as you wrap the balloons. They took about a good 24 hours to dry, and it was nice to have the plastic tray because I bet if you let them dry on newspaper they would stick. Wax paper is an option too. It took me a while to decide how I was going to connect the eggs to each other, but I ended up just using hot glue. I used it pretty sparingly, and tried to keep it just on the strings so there aren't noticeable clumps of glue.

And an Easter bonus:

Easter Mani!!

I used Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail stickers that I bought on clearance at Kmart last spring...

They were cheaper than a bottle of polish!

So there you have it, a whole smattering of Easter updates! Anyone else making anything springy?