An egg-cellent impression

Hello peeps!

First, a warm welcome to my blog's new follower!  I'm so very glad to have you along on my crafting adventures!

I hope everyone has been well!  Things have been busy around these parts.  We had some company from out of town and my husband had the opportunity to play in a hockey tournament with ex-NHL players which filled up most of last weekend.  But it is now back to business as usual, so I finally have a project to share.

This is a little Easter decoration I made using Magnolia mini stamps.  The first time I saw these, I just knew they would make the cutest little Easter eggs.  I wasn't sure if I would actually be able to stamp the images on eggs, but a couple dozen eggs later... (well not quite, but almost :o) )  I am nothing if not persistent and this technique does take practice.  You should be able to spare yourself at least a dozen of those eggs by following the tips at the end of this post.

Some details:

The basket was recycled.  It started out a pale straw colour which I was not fond of, so I painted it white with acrylic paint cut with a bit of water.  The cloth is recycled scrap cloth from old curtains.

Stamps - Magnolia mini chickens, mini Hello Tilda and mini Tilda with eggs in her apron all stamped with black Stazon and coloured with watercolour pencils.

Dies/punches - Magnolia Doohickey for leaves and Cheery Lynn Designs for butterflies, Martha Stewart edge punch for handle

Other embellishments - flowers are from Magnolia and Pretty Petals, pearl pins, flat back pearls, Distress stain in picket fence used on butterflies and leaves, and I think that is all.

I would like to enter this decoration in the following challenges:

Magnolia-licious - photo inspiration
Magnolia Down Under - Easter
Simon Says Stamp - Use your favorite tools (I have many, but on this I used my favorite edge punch and my favorite dies and big kick, and paint brushes - which are probably my favorite tool of all)
Cupcake Craft Challenge - sewing box (use something you would find in a sewing box - I have used pins and fabric scraps)
Deep Ocean Challenge - masking or use more than one stamp
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - spring or Easter
Craft Us Crazy - Anything but a card/altered item
Top Tip Tuesday - Easter and/or Animals - my tip is for stamping on eggs:

Start with clean, full, room temperature eggs.  It is very important that the eggs are at room temperature because the slightest bit of condensation will completely ruin your image.  The next trick is to use unmounted stamps - just the rubber.  You need to be able to mould the stamp to the egg.  Foam and wood will prevent you from being able to do so.  The final trick is to use small/narrow stamps.  The wider the stamp, the more difficult it is to get the full image on the egg.

To stamp, ink up your rubber and place it in your hand, gently cupping it in your palm like so:

Then roll the egg, starting from the bottom of the image and working your way up to the top.  As you do so, make sure that the sides of the stamp also contact the egg by squeezing your fingers in to gently cup the egg. 

Practice, practice, practice!  It is difficult, but worth the effort!  Once you have your image stamped, you can drain the eggs by piercing a small whole at the top and bottom of the egg.  I used a large syringe to drain mine.

That's all for now.  Thanks for popping by and thank you if you've taken the time to leave me a comment.  I love reading them and it gives me the chance to stop by your blog too.

Have a great Easter!

Hugs,

Dawn