Easter Tree
/By Mel Evans
Why not bring a bit of nature inside this Easter and make a cheerful Easter Tree? All you need is a few twigs or branches arranged in a vase or a plant pot filled with a little soil, and you can get to work making decorations to hang on it.
We found a few different types of Willow when we were walking and collecting some branches.
If you followed our previous post on egg blowing you should have a few egg shells ready to decorate. If not you can find it here.
We have found painting blown eggs with acrylic paint works really well. Once the paint has dried they can be draw on with felt tip pens or embellished with any crafty bits you might have at home, such as sequins and gems. You can attach a string to hang the egg by tying a length of thread to a short piece of matchstick and poking it through the larger hole in the egg. Once inside it should flatten out and wedge across the hole.
You could also make some colourful bees and butterflies to hang on your tree alongside your eggs.
To make a bee you need to find a few pines cones. You might be able to find some on a walk, but if you are anything like us you probably have a stash at home! Appropriate coloured wool can be wound around the pine cone to make the bee’s stripes.
Little fingers can weave the wool around the pine cone
A hanging string is then tied around the pine cone and the wings are tied into it to secure them.
Wings can be cut from old packing materials or a washed out plastic milk bottle.
The finished bees can be hung on the tree using the string
To make butterflies we use pipe cleaners and wool roving. The pipe cleaners are folded in half and twisted together trapping a loop of the fluffy wool in between. A string can then be attached to the pipe cleaner ‘body’.
The spots on the purple butterfly have been secured using a felting needle. The stripy butterfly was not felted at all.
If you don’t have any wool roving at home, how about experimenting with other materials? You could use tissue paper or card folded in a concertina. We have found coffee filters to be effective as if you draw on them with a felt tip pen the colours bleed together. We would love to see what you make!
