Craft makeover: Mod Podged bunnies

Even though the playroom is still under construction, I wanted to get started on some of the decorative items for the space. (I can't always devote a large chunk of time to painting or carpeting, but I do have little bits of time for smaller projects.)

Before

These bunnies were from my grandma's house. My mom made/painted them and we had the same set in our house growing up. I'm not really a fan of the "country" crafts look from the '80s, but the wood was in good shape. Nothing a little paint and paper can't fix.

I painted the edges with several coats of white glossy craft paint. Then I Mod Podged some scrapbook papers onto the faces of the shapes.

I used a different pattern on each side, but made sure each set of two visible sides coordinated no matter which way they were flipped.

These pieces are very sturdy and while I don't plan on letting Elise play with them, I don't think they would suffer at all if she did. Perfect for a playroom.

Quick Easter bunny treat bag

This is a quick little Easter bunny treat bag. So easy! All you need is a paper lunch bag, a scissors and a marker.

Take the lunch bag and turn it so the seam side is down.

Flatten the flap.

Cut down the middle of the bag, starting at the top and cutting about two-thirds down the length of the bag. At the end of the middle slit, cut two more slits forking off from the main cut. (See photo.)

Draw a face for your bunny on the lower portion of the bag. I did something pretty simple, but you could be more elaborate.

Expand the bag and put your treat inside.

Pinch one of the ears at the base and twist tightly.

Continue to twist the entire ear, easing in the middle and twisting tighter at the tip to shape the ear. You may have to model it a little.

Do the same to the second ear and you're done!

Embellished Easter basket

This is a true crafty craft. Notice the presence of felt AND hot glue.

Elise needed an Easter basket. Finding a basket was easy enough, but it was a little plain for an Easter basket. I wanted to embellish it, but needed to do something that wouldn't get torn apart immediately in baby's hands. Felt seemed to fit the bill nicely: cheap, durable and easy to work with.

I scrounged a variety of lids and other circular items to trace circles on the felt with a pen. (I tried using both a pencil and a compass, but neither one was working well.)

Then I cut out the circles, trying my best to cut off the parts with ink on them.

For each circle, I folded it over into a taco shape and cut a tiny slit at the fold.

I was careful not to cut the slit too big so the flower centers wouldn't pull through.

I found the flower centers at Hobby Lobby in the bridal section. I'm not exactly sure what they are supposed to be used for, but they sort of look like Q-tips made of pearl and wire.

I cut the pearl off one of the ends.

Then I inserted the wires into the smallest circle through the slit,

and added the other circles one at a time, from smallest to largest.

On some of the flowers, I added a leaf on the very back of the flower.

Next I pulled the wires taut and added a glob of hot glue to keep them from slipping out the front of the flower.

After the glue was cool, I cut the excess wire off. The wires weren't long enough to use them to tie the flowers to the basket, so I hot glued them to the basket instead.

Elise gave the basket a test and it passed. She picked it up by the flowers a couple of times and everything held together.

The rundown? Basket: on hand. Five sheets of felt: $1.25. Pearly Q-tips I used for floral centers: 74 cents. Total cost: $1.99 with plenty of leftover supplies.

Bird's nest bowl

We recently bought a new shredder after our old one bit the dust. I decided to commemorate the occasion first by shredding a month's worth of junk mail. And then second making one of these bird's nest bowls.

This is an idea from Home, Paper, Scissors, a book I got for Christmas. (Thanks, Jill & Dave!)

Since the project is from a book, it wouldn't be right to recreate the tutorial, but essentially, this is papier-mâché with shredded cardstock.

It took a little over an hour to assemble the bowl, and then roughly 16 hours to dry. I used a smaller, rounder bowl than is depicted in the book (about 8 inches in diameter), but it still took nearly four sheets of 12x12 cardstock.

The finished shape reminded me of an Easter egg, so I'm running with it.

I will probably spray this with a coat of clear sealer once it warms up outside. So ready for spring!