paper maché has always been a favorite in my book, so I was really excited to do this project that was in the April issue of Martha Stewart. We made ours with a slight twist but they turned out just wonderful and the kids loved to do it, and I must confess so did I. We also did it with the neighbors kids so it was fun to see who had the patience and all the different personalities shine through. Needless to say I got my fill of paper maché and it was a great time had by all.I figured that since half of the East Coast is underwater at the moment many of you may need a craft project that is just in time for Easter!
The 'easy' directions I will give you but you can also go to Martha Stewarts for the "professional" version.
You will need: large tray, 3-4 bowls (large to small), newspaper or newsprint cut into strips, colored tissue paper cut into strips, gold or silver tissue paper, white glue.
(tip: if you have one use a papercutter to cut the strips it goes fast)
1) blow up a balloon, just he regular size works fine the kids can see how big they want their egg.
2) mix 1 part glue and 2 parts warm water in a medium bowl.
3) put your balloon in the small bowl and paint with glue/water layer what color tissue strips you would like for inside your egg. As you go along you can paint on more glue.
4) next do strips of newsprint or newspaper, you can just put your newsprint strips in with the glue mixture and let them soak. pull them out one by one and with your fingers pull off the extra mixture.
5) next layer tissue etc... we made 6 layers only because we wanted to keep going and it was so fun, if you are NOT having fun you can do as little as three layers, make your top layer nice and the color you want the outside of the egg (or you can paint it when you are done if you want another color).
5) paint outside with glue/water mixture and let dry for two days (or if you only do three layers you can just let them dry 24 hours).
Here you can see one finished (upper right) and one with a newsprint layer... in process...
Martha's look beautiful!!click here to visit the Martha Stewart website to see the details on making yours... look more like hers....
