Window Garden Egg Carton Craft

Making things out of egg cartons has got to be one of my favorite pastimes, and if I can involve the kids, so much the better. So, here is a sweet and colourful egg carton craft to keep your children's - and your - hands busy and content whilst you wait for the arrival of that elusive Easter Bunny.

Note: Children will need adult assistance with certain aspects of this activity.

For this craft you will need:

- 1 egg carton

- a pair of scissors

- a serrated steak knife

- a pencil

- white craft glue

- liquid acrylic paints in your choice of colours (I used yellow & a few shades of green & pink)

- a paint brush

- gesso (optional)

- newspaper (to protect your work surface)

- container of water (to clean your paint brush)

Instructions:

Before getting started, be sure to inspect your egg carton for compatibility with this craft. For this Window Garden, I used a Burnbrae Farms egg carton. Other cartons may or may not be similar, so be certain to check that out first.

Cut the carton into 3 separate sections: the top, the bottom and the flap. Keep all of these; you will need them. Make the base of your garden by taking the top part of the carton and cutting off one of the sides as shown. Using your scissors, round off the corners of the base.

Now take the egg carton flap. You will notice that there are five little indentations along it.  Around each one of these indentations, draw a set of two leaves with a pencil. Cut out each of the five sets of leaves.

Because it involves knives, the next part should be done by an adult. Get out your serrated steak knife and the base of your egg carton - you know, that's the piece with the little cups where the eggs usually sit - and using the knife, cut off the five small bumps along the center line of the egg carton.

Next, separate 10 of the egg cups from the egg carton using your handy pair of scissors.

At this point you will want to trim all your pieces. Clean the edge of the five small center bumps with your scissors; these will be the flower stamens. Trim five of the egg cups along the top of each cup; these will be the flower petals. And finally, trim the remaining 5 egg cups near the base of each cup; these will make the sepals.

You should now have all the necessary bits and pieces to complete your window garden.

The next step is optional but ultimately, it makes the garden prettier, stronger and longer-lasting. Covering my work surface with a protective layer of newspaper, I give all pieces a coat of gesso. Gesso is a thick gypsum-based liquid that is used as a primer for all kinds of art work.

Once the gesso has dried, you can now paint each of the components. Here is where you can put your own special touch on this craft. Go crazy with colour! I, myself, painted the base, leaves and sepals each a different shade of green. The stamens I made yellow with a chartreuse center. And the flowers are two different shades of pink. I used liquid acrylic paints available at any craft shop.

Allow the paint to dry fully before glueing everything together. With a little dab of glue on each set of leaves, glue them onto the front of the base. Now attach the sepals to the top of each little "stem".

Complete the craft by glueing a yellow stamen inside each flower and attaching a flower atop each sepal!

And that, as they say, is that! Celebrate the Easter season by placing this pretty flower garden on your window sill or by instantly giving a sunny lift to any lingering dark corner.

Thanks to our Guest Blogger Michele!

Michele Pacey is a wife and mom, artist, crafter and notorious re-user. Her favorite craft supplies find their home in the recycling bin and she has no problem raiding it when the mood strikes. Find gobs of interesting egg carton, toilet roll, and junk mail crafts like this one on her craft blog: http://www.michelemademe.com/ .