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easter craft: coffee filter basket

coffee filter easter basket

My daughter brought an Easter craft book home from the library in February. I figured it was too early to write about the basket we made, so I waited until closer to Easter. Whoops! Better late than never, right?

coffee filter easter basket

I have to say that I was impressed with how this project turned out. It’s a pretty sturdy little basket. I no longer have the book, so here is what I remember about the details.

  • She colored the coffee filters with washable marker.
  • Turned them upside down on a yogurt tub and painted on a mixture of white glue and water, which made the marker colors bleed into each other.
  • We tied a ribbon around the basket to give it shape and let it dry. I was worried it would stick to the yogurt tub, but it came off easily.
  • I hot glued the handle, which is two twisted pipe cleaners.
  • She cut some grass from construction paper.

The book was All New Crafts For Easter, and I have to say that we are officially fans of Kathy Ross. It’s hard to remember all of the projects we’ve made from her books, but here are a two: heart-shaped Christmas card box and reindeer puppet.

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eggs in a basket + a candy strategy

crochet easter egg basket

The surprise eggs were finished with a few days to spare. I even had time to whip up a little basket for them. I just started with no plan in mind. The end result was a little flimsy, but a quick soak in some water followed by liberal amounts of spray starch got it right into shape.

My daughter loved the eggs. This was the first time she ever played along with one of our stories, though. She came running out of her room saying, “Mom crocheted me some yarn eggs!” We told her they were from Peter Cottontail and she’s all, yeah, sure, right, ok. If you ask her, she’ll tell you they’re from him, but she doesn’t sound convinced!

. . . . .

We don’t do a lot of candy at Easter, and this year I didn’t put any in her basket. Instead, I made candy part of our egg hunt. I filled little plastic bags (from the candy section of the craft store) with two chocolate kisses and ten jelly beans. Each bag was tied and labeled with a day of the week and hidden in a plastic egg. She found those special eggs along with the others.

So far this has worked great! She eats the whole bag at once, usually after breakfast, but when they’re gone, she has to wait until the next day for more. I can’t tell you how wonderful the holiday was without a sugar-crashing three-year old. Hope this works next year, too!

stash: Basket yarn and candy bags both from my stash.

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tiny striped egg pattern

tiny crochet striped easter eggs

So here it is! After many eggs, I finally found the right hook/yarn combination that feels right. My first egg used a larger hook and Red Heart yarn. It was too big and looked a little lumpy. I finally settled on Plymouth Galway wool with a smaller hook. Both are labeled worsted weight, but the wool eggs seem less lumpy. Also, I decided on hdc instead of sc because I liked the width of the stripe better. I’m posting this in Ravelry. I can’t wait to see everyone’s eggs!

Tiny Striped Egg
worsted weight yarn
size D/3 (3.25mm) crochet hook
polyfil for stuffing
tapestry needle for weaving ends

ch: chain
hdc: half double crochet
hdcIncrease: half double crochet increase
hdcDecrease: half double crochet decrease
sl st: slip stitch

half double crochet increase: hdc twice in same stitch
half double crochet decrease: yarn over, hook through stitch, yarn over, pull through stitch, yarn over again, hook through next stitch, yarn over, pull through stitch, yarn over one more time, pull through all five loops

I carry the yarn up the inside with out breaking it for each stripe. Change colors at the slip stitch: hook through stitch, yarn over with new color, pull new yarn through stitch.

gauge: not important, but mine are about 1 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches finished

P=purple stripe, Y=yellow stripe

  • Make a magic ring.
  • R1 P: ch 2, hdc into loop 5 times, pull loop closed, join with sl st into second ch – 6 sts
  • R2 Y: ch 2, hdc in same st, hdcIncrease around, sl st into second ch – 12 sts
  • R3 P: ch 2, hdc in same st, hdc in next st, *hdcInc, hdc* around, sl st into second ch – 18 sts
  • R4 Y: ch 2, hdc in same st, hdc in next 2 sts, *hdcInc, hdc, hdc* around, sl st into second ch – 24 sts
  • R5 P: ch 2, hdc around, sl st into second chain – 24 sts
  • R6 Y: repeat R5
  • R7 P: ch 2, hdc, hdcDecrease, *hdc, hdc, hdcDecrease* around, sl st into second ch – 18 sts
  • R8 Y: ch 2, hdc around, sl st into second chain – 18 sts
  • R9 P: ch 2, hdcDecrease, *hdc, hdcDecrease* around, sl st into second ch – 12 sts
  • R8 Y: ch 2, hdc around, sl st into second chain – 12 sts
  • Stuff with polyfil
  • R10: hdcDecrease around, close up with tail, tie off both colors, bury ends inside with tapestry needle
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my creative space

crochet easter egg

In my creative space today I’m writing up a pattern for this little egg. My daughter has it in her head that Peter Cottontail is going to leave her striped eggs under her blanket Easter morning. She’s also very specific about the colors: yellow and pink, purple and yellow, orange and yellow, pink and purple. How on earth did she come up with this? Why, Easter stickers of course!

easter stickers

I should have the pattern up tomorrow or Friday, depending mostly on what she’s doing. I want this to be a surprise for her, so no egg crocheting or picture taking while she’s around.

Visit Kirsty’s blog for some more eggcellent creative spaces!

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recycle plastic easter eggs into music shakers

plastic eggs

A few months ago, I signed Bella up for music class. It was a very basic introduction to different kinds of music and dance. One of the activities was making a shaker egg. The kids had so much fun with them that I decided to make a bunch more with our leftover plastic Easter eggs.

shakers

I dug through the pantry and my craft supplies to get a range of items that would make different sounds: rice, lentils, chick peas, buttons, beads and bells. I put a teaspoon of each item in a separate egg. I applied crazy glue to the inside edge of the egg and snapped it shut. Then I wiped the excess off the outside of the egg and let it dry overnight. I made enough for Bella and her friends and sewed up some cotton bags stamped with each child’s name.

egg bags

I learned the hard way that you really need a super, duper bonding glue for these. My first attempt was a non-toxic plastic model cement. It didn’t keep the eggs shut, so I opted for the heavy duty crazy glue instead.

These are great for kids ages three and up. If they eggs do come open (say, perhaps, if a toddler were to step on one, ahem) the inside items could be a choking hazard.

reuse: Instead of throwing out little containers that aren’t recyclable, turn them into something musical and fun.