{craft share & recipe} Easter Cookies

I must admit-- icing cookies intimidates me!  I always look at those edible creation cookies and 'ooh' and 'ahh' over them and wish I could create something remotely similar.  Not to say mine even compare to the professionals cookies, but they really weren't too terribly difficult.

I wasn't feeling overly confident about icing a face on the bunnies so I decided to play it safe with some fluffy bunny tails made out of mini-marshmallows.

I'd say it's not bad for my first attempt at icing cookies this way!

Royal Icing (Piping Border Frosting)

2 Egg Whites, beaten

1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar

3 Cups Confectioner Sugar

Directions:  Sift together the sugar and cream of tartar.  Next add the egg whites and beat with electric mixer until it stiffens up and holds it shape.  Then, I divide the frosting into different bowls and add the coloring needed for each cookie.  Keep in mind that piping the borders on the cookies don't take a whole lot of frosting.  

Royal Icing (Flooding Inside Frosting)

Using the left over piping border frosting I then added just enough lemon juice to make the frosting a bit more runny.  I believe I added somewhere around 1-2 Tablespoons.  Then, you just plop a good amount in the center of the border frosting and slowly spread it to the edges.  It will dry smooth and flat, but it does take around 20-30 minutes so resist the urge to touch.

{free printable & tutorial} Parchment Paper Candy Egg Bundles

These pseudo transparent parchment bundles are just what I would have loved as a kid.  I absolutely adore that you can see the candy through the parchment paper and you know what you're about to devour.  Plus, they were such a cinch to make.

First-- download, print, and cut the Easter egg template. (see link to download below).  Another fun thing about parchment paper-- you could cut it to printer paper size and print the actual template onto it if you like, but then you won't be able to see through the paper. That would still be super cute, though!  I also thought about letting the kidlets color the cut out parchment paper eggs before sewing with crayons or markers, but then I realized it was bedtime and I was out of mommy/kid crafting time.

 Next, trace the egg template onto the parchment paper and cut the stencils out, making sure to cut out two eggs per candy  bundle.

Now, pin the parchment eggs together and sew around the edges, leaving a spot in the top to insert the candy.

Drop the candy in and sew the egg up.   I tried a few different eggs and while the one compartment egg was certainly the easiest I really like the look of separating the candies by sewing in between each layer.

Tip-- don't overfill the eggs with candy.  Leave a bit of room for the sewing machine foot.  If the candy is butted right up to the edge the sewing machine foot ripped my paper because it was too tight of a fit.  OR lift your sewing machine foot altogether and eliminate it from even touching the parchment paper.

Now, all that is needed is to hide these fun candy bundles on Easter morning and watch the kids tear into them with wide eyes to see their yummy surprises.

 If you want to use the Easter Egg template click the button below to download.

{free printable} Easter Brunch Printables

With Easter being just around the corner I've created this simplistic brunch printable set.  I love the light pale colors and hopefully you'll like them too!  Included in this set: banner (print the banner pages twice or even three times to achieve a longer banner), cupcake toppers/party circles, invitations, and food labels.  The food labels are not pictured, but follow the download link to sneak a peak.

 
Also, I found these adorable "carrot candy" cupcakes on pinterest and followed the link to Squidoo.  I love the simple design, using orange and green colored candies.  The original poster used M&M's, but I decided to use Starburst Jelly Beans-- keeping with the Easter theme a bit more.  I just LOVE Easter.  Do you have any fun Easter traditions you do with your families?

{free printable} Potterybarn Inspired Easter Banner

I set out to make my very own Easter banner after being inspired by this simple and elegant Potterybarn Easter garland.

After cutting out felt Easter shapes I determined it would take too long and I would need to cut out a bajillion to make a garland. Now, if I had a silhouette cutting machine I could have snapped my fingers and 1-2-3 it would have been done for me. Alas, I do not! So, with my scissors in hand I began to cut squares to attach them to.

All you need to make this simple banner is:

• scissors
• felt(I recommend the wool sturdy stuff not the acrylic, but if that's all you have it will work too)
• heat bond (ultra strong)
• iron
• printer paper (to cut out your shapes)
• double folded bias tape (not shown in the picture below)
• thread and sewing machine

I personally liked the shapes Potterybarn used so I free handed mine.

I am NOT an artist by any means as you can see. I had to draw and redraw the picture a few times before I got the actual shape I wanted.

First, you adhere the felt to the heat bond with the iron. When using felt you have to iron the heat bond onto it a tad bit longer because the fabric is thicker. After the heat bond is attached, trace and cut out your shapes. Next, cut out enough 5" squares of felt in coordinating colors. Then, pull the paper off of the head bonded felt shapes and iron the shapes onto the squares (make sure the heat bonded sticky side is against the felt square-- we don't want to be attaching any felt Easter shapes to your iron). Afterwards you will need to pin and sew the bias tape onto your felt shaped squares. Seriously that's it! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Side note from the peanut gallery (aka my husband): he thinks my hand-cut chicks look like our newfoundland dog, named Tug. He may be right. I did say I'm NOT an artist, didn't I?

Okay so I know we're cutting it close to Easter and some of us may not have time to sew a banner, nor do some of us want to. So... I made this printable that resembles the one I sewed above. I love how simple it is. I found these simple Easter shapes online HERE, but you can download my PDF version HERE if you want to use them to freehand cut your shapes.

So here it is! the Easter banner printable. Two squares print/page and depending on how long you want the banner will determine how many pages you print out.

Happy banner making! Whether it's sewn or printed!

Download the banner HERE

{free printables} Easter Basket Scavenger Hunt

Whether you're hosting an Easter egg hunt at your house or just playing it cool with your own kiddies, these Easter Basket Scavenger Hunt printables will get the job done!

As a child I remember coming down the stairs and searching for my hidden Easter basket, so this printable is my modern day spin off of my parent's tradition.

How fun would it be to wake up Easter morning to discover that the Easter bunny had left you a little note on your door and foot prints leading to something more mysterious? If hosting a party, you could put the door knob sign on your front door with the foot prints leading to your backyard.

I know what you're thinking. Who has time to cut out all of those foot prints? Well... let me tell you it took me 5 minutes to cut 8 prints and they print 4/page so they're not huge. Plus no two prints are alike in real life so no need to be perfectionists with the scissors. I think it's well worth the effort once you see your kids' faces light up. If you're running out of time you could also use a trail of plastic eggs.

Once the children follow the foot prints it will lead to the first clue, then the second clue and so on until they find their baskets. You could do a large hunt for the entire family or smaller hunt for each individual child.

Also provided in this printable collection are envelope clue seals (party circles). I also included some blank party circles/cupcake toppers to be used however your hearts desire.

And last, but not least... the moment the children have been searching for-- their baskets! These printables come with basket tags to ensure each child gets their correct basket of goodies, because heavens knows we can't be having any mix-ups!

I realize having a scavenger hunt focuses solely on the Easter bunny and that Easter is really about our Savior and his resurrection so this was an activity I was gearing towards the younger crowd. However, to incorporate a more spiritual feel you could always fill their baskets with new scriptures, a book on Christ or church music.

So I hope you enjoy the scavenger hunt printables. Happy downloading and Happy Easter!

You may download HERE.

{Customer Party} Easter/Birthday Celebration

After seeing the free Easter party Printables on Catch My Party blog, a sweet lady from Brazil contacted me and asked me to customize the prints for her son, Luca's first birthday. I think she did an amazing job with the party and it was a pleasure working with her (and learning a bit of Portuguese on the side).

The ginormous treat table. Brazilians know how to party, right?

Egg Party Favors

Chocolate Candy Party Favors

Sweets

Whirly Pop Sucker Party Favors

More Brazilian Sweets

Water

and darling centerpeices. Looks like Luca had a fun gathering. Thank you Carol for letting us be apart of your son's very special first birthday.

{free printables} Easter Party

I know you've heard enough about these darn Easter printables, but I thought I would make them available through my own means rather than counting on the sites that featured me to do all of the work.

DOWNLOAD THEM HERE.