Easter

Easter was sweet this year.

We felt so blessed to have all our munchkins, and see the delight on their faces.

This was the first year that some of our family had been on an official Easter Egg Hunt

The older kids still scramble for the gorgeous pops of color that were hidden so well in the bushes and trees.

Everyone filled their baskets up, reminding us of how blessed we are to even be able to afford such luxuries.

Our oldest was just back from her soccer game, aptly called the 'Blue Butterlies'.  They're so funny to watch as they play and chase the ball around, all grouped up like they just want to hang out rather than chase a ball all over a field.

Such a good sister.

And here the products of their creativity and mine and grandpa's as we all sat down to dye eggs.  Complete with lessons on how to turn an egg brown, we had caterpillar and insect stickers.  Crayons (even if they are a simple technique) made their showiing, and our kids loved watching the eggs turn brilliant aqua and fuschia.

We always have our traditional hunts and egg dying on Saturday, and then reserve Sunday for the more holy part of the holiday.  (I have such a hard time with the Easter Bunny when I want to focus on the resurrection, but these young years aren't many)  We had a special talk at dinner about the resurrection, and we shared how thankful we are that because of the Savior, the bands of death are broken, and we can live together for ever.

This video sums it up pretty well for us:

May the message of the season linger with us a little longer.

The most brilliant Crayon art!!

Recently I discovered the joy that is Pintrest.com, and found these beauties among the unending inspiration:

These were originally designed by this lovely Etsy Artist, whose talent is amazing!

She inspired me to create these beauties:

It's fabulously easy, and if you'd like to give it a try, here's a quick tut:

Begin by counting out 33 crayons of the colors of your choice and hot gluing them to an 11x 13 canvas.  I chose to use this one because I like the look of stretched canvas, though you can use a canvas flat panel and it would be even cheaper.  This is a 2pack for 7.79 (on sale, but they always have a good coupon):

You'll need 33 Crayons.  If you use similar colors (4-5 of them) you'll use about 4 boxen (shout out to you Bryan Regan fans) of crayons.  If you are trying to go more monochromatic, with only 3 colors, you might buy more like 6 or 7 boxen.

Now is a good time to go turn on your oven to 235 degrees. 

Lay out your crayons in some order. Just a note: I think they look better when there is some kind of repeating pattern, and the crayola label facing outward. It may be even better to put the name of the color facing up.  Your call.

Then Squirt out a stripe (or zig zag) of hot glue enough to cover about 3 crayons at a time, until you've laid them out and they look like this:

Of course you burnt your finger on the hot glue.  Sorry.  You're in good company.

Next:

take out your oven shelves (except the lowest one)

Now, cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  I allowed a little of the foil to hang over the edge and bent it upward a little.  Next, turn your canvas upside down, and prop it up at a steep angle with two mason jars (heat resistant jars).  This means placing the mason jars just off center of the pan, and lining them up with the wood of the canvas frame.  No propping the canvas up with the jar in the middle of the frame.  That pushes on the canvas and would make your melted crayon run all around. 

If the frame isn't quite steep enough (ie you put your jars at one edge of the pan, and your canvas is butting up against the other edge, you may have drippage of the wax from the flat end of the crayons, that will drip onto your oven floor!  Not good!  Keep the crayon end of your canvas well within the length of the pan!

Now stick the whole contraption in the oven, at 235 degrees, and within 5 minutes you'll have colorful waxy lines dripping slowly down the fabric.  

You decide when you take it out.  It won't run much after you take it out of the oven.  I opened my front door, grabbed my hotpads and ran that tray out and put it in the shade.  It cooled it right down, and stopped the melting.  Let it cool at least 5 minutes before attempting to touch it.

Now for the embellishment:

I cut flowers out of paper, with my Silhouette machine (which I adore), but you can certainly cut them out by hand and layer them atop each other.  Stick them into your canvas with a brad (or several types seen here) and your done!

For the balloons canvas, I cut out several balloon shapes, edged them with ink, and then stuck them to the canvas with a bit of mounting tape (like this) or simply use glue dots.

Then I cut a thin grosgrain ribbon in half, and tied little knots in it which I stuck to the base of each balloon with a glue dot.  I liked grouping them, but they also looked great staggered atop the wax.

Now your canvases should look like these guys: (or better).

Enjoy making these with your kiddos!!