FIVE Candy Free Fillers for Plastic Easter Eggs

FIVE things besides candy to fill plastic Easter eggs:



1. Pom pom chicks - We made these one year for our girls, and they STILL play with them years later. Here is how to make them:

Materials:
1 bag large pom poms
1 bag googly eyes
1 bag of feathers
1-2 pieces of orange fun foam
hot glue gun with glue sticks
scissors

Each chick needs a beak and feet cut from the fun foam. Cut small triangles for the beak and larger triangles for the feet. Each chick also needs one pom pom, two eyes, and one feather.

Using the hot glue gun, put a dab of glue on the end of the feather and stick it to the top of the pom pom. Glue the feet on the bottom. Finally, glue on the beak and the eyes. Ta dah! You just made a chicken.



2. coins - pennies, nickles, dimes, even quarters. My kids enjoy putting the money in their piggy banks more than they'd enjoy the candy. They are old enough that they can count the money too.



3. stickers - the beauty of stickers is that they get used up. We buy a few sheets of stickers and cut them into individual stickers to stuff the eggs. Tattoos work great too!



4. Easter jokes or fortunes - Our seven year old is deeply dedicated to the art of joke telling, so this year, we plan to stuff some of the eggs with small slips of paper with Easter themed jokes on them. Click Here to download a sheet of jokes.



5. Flower seeds - We buy a few packs of flowers and divide them into smaller packets (simply fold little pouches from scratch paper and write the names on each pouch). After the hunt is done, encourage your children to plant their seeds in your garden or flower beds, in pots, or go on a walk and spread the seeds in vacant lots and along fence lines (every kid enjoys a little eco-terrorism)! They can enjoy watching their seeds grow all summer long.

Do It Yourself: Vintage Scarf Wine Bottle Wrap

A beautifully wrapped bottle of wine (or vermouth if you are out of wine...)

How many times have you given or received a bottle of wine wrapped in some sort of wine holder that can only be a wine holder. This is a quick project to use a vintage scarf like wrapping paper for your next bottle of wine. Most large vintage scarves will work great, double check by pulling on opposite corners of the scarf to see if it stretches on the bias. If there is a little bit of stretch, the scarf will work great. The best part, there is no cutting or gluing, simply untie the knot and your recipient will also receive a beautiful new scarf.

Do It Yourself: Paper Easter Eggs

The finished goods can be used as a fun greeting card, or stuffed with money, tattoos, or stickers.

A few years ago, our daughter lost her first tooth on Valentine's Day. Our clever tooth fairy folded her dollar like a heart and made her a tiny little valentine. As luck would have it, her second tooth fell out three days before Easter. She wondered aloud "I wonder if the Tooth Fairy will bring me something for Easter this time?" Wouldn't you know it, in the morning, the Tooth Fairy had created a tiny little egg that held her dollar.

Coming up on Easter again, these little paper eggs are a fun alternative to the cheap plastic eggs we have all come to stuff with candy.


The supplies

What you need:
Scissors
White Glue
Colored Pencils or Markers
4 X 6 Pieces of Cardstock (Index Cards work GREAT!)
Washi Paper Tape (optional)


Decorating the easy way!

If you have Washi Paper Tape, decorating your eggs will be a breeze! Simply lay down layers of tape across your card stock. I am using 4 X 6 index cards, but a similar size piece of cardstock will be fine. If you choose to NOT use the tape, pre-decorate your eggs with markers, colored pencils, or decoupage (let them dry completely before proceeding).


Fold the paper in half and draw or trace an egg shape onto the back with pencil.


Cutting through both halves at once, cut out the egg shape.


On an additional card, trace the egg shape. On the back of one of the decorated eggs, draw a crack.


Hold both eggs together and cut the crack.


Trace the bottom half of the crack on the blank egg shape then carefully draw about 1/4" INSIDE the edge of the outline along the top half of the egg. This is the portion of the card that will be inside the egg, and needs to be smaller along the top edge so it can move freely in and out of the top of the egg.


Decorate the inside piece. I have drawn a chick with an Easter greeting. A vintage Easter drawing pasted to the inside would also be cute.


Cut it out just on the INSIDE of the outlines.


Put a small amount of glue on the back bottom half of the inside piece.


Press one of the bottom halves into the glue and hold firmly.


Along the bottom half of the front, place a thin bead of glue just along the edge of the paper. Leaving most of the bottom front half open will allow for the egg to work as a container. Press the remaining bottom piece into the glue and hold firmly.


On the back of one of the top halves, put a thin bead of glue along the edge. Leaving the center open allows the card to move in and out of the egg.


After the glue has dried...


Assemble your egg! There is probably a right and wrong way to put your egg together, I find holding the top over the bottom to see which way the crack matches up the best makes it easier.


Once the glue has dried, your egg can be used to hold coins, stickers, tattoos, sticks of gum, or in the case of this lucky egg, FIVE DOLLAR BILLS!