Easter tree

This month at Relief Society our activity evening was based around planning for Easter now,

entitled Easter in February!

For this event I was asked to come up with a craft the ladies could easily do themselves and demonstrate it.

I decided to make a Easter tree which could serve as a centrepiece on your Easter Sunday dinner table or as a pretty display in your home.

This is what I came up with...

 

Making the tree itself is rediculously easy.

You will need

• Twigs
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• A yub, vase or plant pot 
• Soil or rice
• Cable ties or string

1. You need to find a tub, vase or pot to stand it in.
2. You need to find some sticks..... perfect excuss for taking everyone out for a lovely walk! (be sure only to use already fallen sticks unless they are from your own garden!)
3. Arrange the sticks in a way you are happy with them, you need to secure them together if you use more than one stick. I did this with cable ties.
4. You then need to fill the pot with either soil or as I did bags of rice to secure the sticks in a upright position.
5. Once you are happy with them you may need to give them a small trim to make sure the arrangment is not too big for where you are displaying it.
6. I then used a large brissle brush and some white acrylic paint and light brushed over the branches to lighten them a little.
7. If you have used rice to secure your display then you will need to cover it, I just cut a piece of fabric ad placed it over the rice tucking in the edges.
8. If you want to add a little extra decoration to the basic tree as I did, you can add a few little glass stones or pretty confetti on top of the fabric.

Over to the eggs....

 

 These are blown eggs with a twist!

You will need

• An egg
• 100g Chocolate (Half a large bar)
• Paint
• Ribbon for hanging
• Ribbon for decoration
• Masking tape
• Icing bag
• Egg cup
• Crafe paper
• Scissors
• Metal Skewer
• Cost per egg : 50p (dependingon quality of chocolate used) 

1. Wash your eggs, you will be blowing the egg out and knowing the last place they were... it's a good idea to wash them!
2. For the next stage I used a BBQ Skewer, you can use whatever you like as long as the tip is round, that is very important!
3. You need to carefully make a hole in the top and the bottom of the egg.
4. You need to apply a resonable amount of pressure at first, twisting as you push. As soon as you feel a the egg shell give a little you need to remove all presssure and continue to twist until it goes all the way through into the egg. Be careful if you push to hard to you make a messy hole on the other end of the egg and could impale yourself!!
5. Repeat this on the other end of the egg.
6. You then need to then blow into one of the holes holding the egg over a bowl, until all the egg is out.
7. Now you need to wash the egg out thoroughly.
8. Keeping a small amount of water in the egg shells place them on a oven tray and place them in the oven at about 120 degrees C, for about 15 minutes.
9. Take care when removing from the oven, they should be extremely hot!
10. You now  need your piece of ribbon, in the top hole feed both ends of the ribbon leaving a loop. This loop will be what you use to hang your egg. You need to use your masking tape over the hole and ribbon to hold it in place and stop chocolate coming out the top.
11. You now need to melt your chocolate, I am a firm believer in melting in a bowl over a pan of bowling water. Microwave is OK but you can't temper the chocolate and risk getting sugar crystals and burnt cocoa in the chocolate....ummmm!
12. Once melted place the chocolate into a icing bag, you will need to use a solid tip with hole just the right size to fit into your hole in the egg.
13. Make sure the hole in the bottom of the egg is just the right size for the tip of your icing nozzle to fit in comfortably and securely.
14. Using your egg cup to rest your egg in now fill the egg shell with chocolate, it may over flow but using a warm cloth after the chocolate is set your can carefully remove any excess chocolate.
15. Once filled set in the fridge for 20 minutes.
16. Now it is time to decorate!!!! I used acrylic paint as this only sits on the surface of the egg shell and also strenghthens the shell.
17. I then added a small heart for the girls and star for the boys cut out of craft paper to cover the small hole left visiable at the top off the egg. If you place a small hole in the middle of the shape you can slip it over the looped ribbon.
18. I then tied a little bow just to finish. When tieing the bow alays loop over hand.... this way you will always get a good looking bow!
19. Lastly hang your finished eggs on your tree!!

The best part is when the children get to break them open and enjoy the surprise of finding chocolate inside!!

I know it is a little early to be thinking about Easter but planning early makes for less stress later!

I hope you give it a try and have fun!