Craft Corner - All About Easter

Easter

Who else is EGG-cited for easter? Since the pandemic, we have loved any excuse to decorate our houses for an occasion and what better time to start than Easter! It is such a cheery time of year with signs of Spring in the air and hopes of warmer weather heading our way.

If you are anything like me, you will have been thinking about all the different Easter decorations you can make since the Christmas decorations went away. There is just something about the thought of Easter that makes you think of happy times, whether its visiting family in the holidays, seeing daffodils sprouting up out of the ground or the amazing easter egg hunts.

So here are a few EGG-cellent ideas to give you some crafty inspiration and you can adapt easily to fit your style.

Chick Wreath

Following on from our theme of wreaths last month, here is a nice and simple chick wreath. All you need to make this super cute wreath is a vine wreath, some chicks, a glue gun and a twig from your spring walk.

1. Start by positioning your twig where you think its best. I secured it into place using floristry wire.
2. Play about with where you think your chicks would look best. You don’t have to secure them straight away, you can leave them for a while and see what place looks good. I have used two different sizes of chicks, but you can use whichever ones you would like.
3. Once you are happy with the position of the chicks, you can secure them to the twigs. I did this by using a glue gun. I found this the easiest, most secure way of doing this.

You can finish this off by trimming the excess twigs off, just leaving the bit in the middle of the wreath or you can leave them like we have. I preferred it with the twigs sticking out as I think it looks like part of a tree with the wreath as a frame around the chicks.

And that’s it! This incredibly simple wreath will make the perfect feature on your door. You don’t have to use chicks, you could use the twig to make a nest full of easter eggs. 

Pompom bunny wreath

Let’s all HOP to it and make this EGG-stra special pompom bunny wreath. This one would be a perfect Easter holiday activity. All you need to make this wreath is a wire circle ring, some wool/ yarn (I used Ribston DK), felt squares, and some felt over cardboard (for the ears).

1. Make the pompoms. The easiest way of doing this is to use pompom makers. I used the biggest size pompom maker, and all the pompoms are the same size, but you can use a mixture if you want. I found it easier to lay them out on the wire ring as I went along to make sure I had enough. I have used shade 4 cream Ribston Dk wool as I thought it wasn’t as stark as the white would be, but you can pick whatever colour is best for you.
2. Once you have enough pompoms, its time to attach them to the wire ring. I did this by using the long bits of yarn you used to tie the pompom together. I attached the pompoms to one side of the wire ring but you may what to glue them on with a glue gun to make them more secure. They will flop about a bit if you just tie them on.
3. Next its time to make the ears. To do this I drew a basic bunny ear shape onto some cardboard. I just used leftover packaging as its stronger than a sheet of paper or card. Once I was happy with the shape and they were as close as I was going to get to been the same, I glued the white felt square onto the top of the cardboard and then cut them out. I thought this would be easier than tracing around the felt square, but you do whatever works best for you. I then cut out a little pink triangle to the inner ear and glued this onto the white felt square. I have just a glue gun to attach all parts of the ears together, but you could use normal glue.
4. All that’s left is to attach the ears to the wire ring. I did this by using a glue gun and gluing onto the top wire and the bottom of the ear and pressing firmly. You could leave an extra bit of cardboard at the bottom to glue onto both wires to make it extra secure.

You could add some little bunny feet to the bottom. Instead of one big bunny, you could turn each pompom into a bunny or make the pompoms in yellow and make chicks! There are lots of different ideas you could use on this versatile wreath. I CARROT believe it was so that easy to make.

Easter Tree

If you haven’t guessed already, here at HQ we love to get outside in the beautiful countryside and find twigs and bits that we can use when we are crafting. So this Easter tree is the perfect idea for us. To keep the sticks in place, I have put them into the twig runner If you didn’t want to go outside or are unable to, we have these beautiful trees that you could decorate. To make the decorations all you need is some felt squares, embroidery thread, toy filling, a needle and any decorations you would like.

1. To make the felt decorations, all you need to do is cut your shape out of the felt squares you have chosen. They can be whichever colours you would like. They don’t even have to be the same colour on each side, you can pick different ones.
2. Once your shape is cut out, you can start decorating. Its easier to do this when the felt is flat, rather than stitched together. We have a variety of options starting at beginners to advanced. We have plain, felt shapes stitched or glued onto the shape, some buttons attached and some embroidery. You can use whatever ideas you have. Instead of buttons, you could use beads.
3. When you are happy with your decorations, you need to stitch them together*. Stitch them until you are ¾ of the way round so you can stuff them with toy filling to make them plump and 3D. you can then finish the stitching.
4. Lastly, add a hanger so you can hang them on your tree. We have used twine but you can use anything ribbon, embroidery thread, wool etc.

We chose to do eggs, bunnies, and carrots to show a variety of styles you could do. For the stork on the carrot, we have used green felt and stitched in into place after stuffing the carrot with toy filling. We also added some little running stitches to the carrot for some extra detail but it looks just as good plain. On the bunny we added a small pompom tail and embroidered a little face. There are lots of other ideas you could do. Chicks, sheep, an egg with a pouch to put some chocolate in, flowers. They don’t even need to be displayed on a tree, you could make a garland out of them.

 We have done a variety of ways to stitch them together. The easiest stitch to do is the running stitch. To start make sure your 2 sides of felt are together and in the position you would like. Take your needle (make sure your thread is through the needle and is knotted at the end) and pull through the felt at the bottom at the back of one side of felt, so the knot is hidden, pull the thread all the way through and then push back down through both sides of felt. Leave a small gap and pull through the needle and repeat the process.

The next stitch we have done is the over stitch. This is very similar to the running stitch but instead of stitching side to side, you are stitching over the top. Make sure you keep moving your needle around the shape as you repeat the stitches.

The last stitch we have done, which is the most difficult, is the blanket stitch. Again, make sure you have both sides of you felt together and in position. Start by pulling you thread through one side of the felt, so the knot is hidden, then push the needle through the back of both pieces of felt (it will look a bit like the over stitch at this point). Pull the needle through the loop of the over stitch. That is called your starter stitch. Next leave a gap and push the needle through the front of both pieces of felt and loop over the thread so that it creates a line along the join of the felt. Repeat the process again, always pushing the needle through the front of the felt.

Crochet Chicks

How EGGdorable are these crochet chicks? All you need to make these super cute chicks are coloured wool, 3.5mm crochet hook, a needle, some safety toy eyes and toy stuffing. 

Key:

SC – Single Crochet

MC – Magic Circle

INC – Increase crochet (2 x sc into same chain)

DEC – Decrease (sc into 2 chains before finishing the stitch)

R – Row

(##) – Numbers of stitches in this row

(####) x# = Do the stiches in the brackets the amount of times stated

 Stuffed chick

Head
With yellow yarn:
R 1: 6 x single crochet (sc) in magic circle (mc) (6)
R 2: increase crochet (inc) x 6 (12)
R 3: (1 sc, inc) x 6 (18)
R 4: (2 sc, inc) x 6 (24)
R 5: (3 sc, inc) x 6 (30)
R 6: (4 sc, inc) x 6 (36)
R 7: (5 sc, inc) x 6 (42)
R 8 to 13: 42 sc
R 14 : 7 sc, (1 sc, inc) x 3, 15 sc, (1 sc, inc) x 3, 8 sc (48)
R 15: 7 sc, (2 sc, inc) x 3, 15 sc, (2 sc, inc) x 3, 8 sc (54)
R 16-18: 54 sc

Make eyes at the level of R 14-15, at the distance of 6 stitches from each other. You could use yarn or our safety eyes.

R 19: (7 sc, decrease (dec)) x 6 (48)
R 20: (6 sc, dec) x 6 (42)
R 21: (5 sc, dec) x 6 (36)
R 22: (4 sc, dec) x 6 (30)
R 23: (3 sc, dec) x 6 (24)
R 24: (2 sc, dec) x 6 (18)
R 25: (2 sc, dec) x 6 (12)
R 26: 6 dec (6)
Finish Off

Add some orange hair if you like using off cuts or some orange or yellow yarn.

Beak
With orange yarn:
R 1: 5 sc in mc (5)
R 2: (1 sc, inc) x 2, 1 sc (7)
R 3: 7 sc
R 4: (2 sc, inc) x 2, 1 sc (9)
Finish Off leaving a tail for sewing to the head

Sew the beak to the head between R 16 and R 20. Put some stuffing inside the beak before you finish.

Body
With yellow yarn:
R 1: 6 sc In back of stitch (ib) (6)
R 2: inc  x 6 (12)
R 3: (1 sc, inc) x 6 (18)
R 4: (2 sc, inc) x 6 (24)
R 5: (3 sc, inc) x 6 (30)
R 6: (4 sc, inc) x 6 (36)
R 7: (5 sc, inc) x 6 (42)
R 8: (6 sc, inc) x 6 (48)
R 9: (7 sc, inc) x 6 (54)
R 10: (8 sc, inc) x 6 (60)
R 11-18: 60 sc
R 19: (8 sc, dec) x 6 (54)
R 20 to 21: 54 sc
R 22: (7 sc, dec) x 6 (48)
R 23 to 24: 48 sc
R 25: (6 sc, dec) x 6 (42)
R 26: (5 sc, dec) x 6 (36)
R 27: (4 sc, dec) x 6 (30)
R 28: (3 sc, dec) x 6 (24)
R 29: (2 sc, dec) x 6 (18)
R 30: 18 sc

Finish off leaving a tail for sewing

Tail
With orange yarn:
R 1: 4 sc in mc (4)
R 2: inc x 4 (8)
R 3: 8 sc
R 4: (1 sc, inc) x 4 (12)
R 5: 12 sc
R 6: (2 sc, inc) x 4 (16)
Don’t stuff.
Fold tail flat and sc through both sides across.
Finish off leaving a tail for sewing to the body

Sew the tail to the body to R 8.

Wings (make 2)
With yellow yarn:
R 1: 6 sc in mc (6)
R 2: inc x 6 (12)
R 3: 12 sc
R 4: (1 sc, inc) x 6 (18)
R 5 to 16: 18 sc
Don’t stuff.
Fold wing flat and sc through both sides across.
Finish off leaving a tail for sewing.

Sew wings to the body to R 24.

Flat Chick

Head

R1  - MC 6 x DC into MC (6)

R2 – 6 x Inc DC (12)

R3 – (1DC , Inc ) x 6 (18)

Body

R1 - MC 6xDC into MC (6)

R2 – 6 x inc DC (12)

R3 – (1DC, Inc DC) x6 (18)

R4 – (2dc, Inc DC) x6 (24)

Wing

R1 – Chain 2

R2 –  1x Inc , 1 x SC, 1x Inc (5)

R3 – 2x DC , Inc , 2X DC (7)

R4 – 3xDC, Inc, 3xDC ( 9)

R5 – 4xDC , Inc, 4xDC ( 9)

Beak

R1 – Find a spot to start the beak and using SC join 3x SC to the head

R2 – 1x SC, Dec

R3 – Dec

You can add a safety eye if you like just above your beak in the R2 ring of the head.

Sew the wing to the body just off the center in R2 of the body.

So there we have it, I hope we have included something for everyBUNNY (I will stop with the Easter puns now 😊) Don’t forget that all these ideas are adaptable for what fits in your home. Whatever you are doing this Easter, have a fabulous time. Happy Easter!