Easter ideas

Just because you are set to color Easter eggs this weekend doesn't mean the holiday duties stop there. There are still baskets to fill, food to cook and, most important, decorations to display. With only a few days to go, here's a few tips and tricks to make the most of the final countdown.

* Fill plastic eggs with rice. Glue shut to make musical Easter "shakers."

* Create festive place mats with fun foam. Use one sheet as your base and glue a border of shapes in chicks, carrots, eggs and flowers.

* Use hot glue to cover a basket with faux spring flowers for a centerpiece to hold colored eggs.

* Cut bunny-feet shapes from craft sponge and use chalk to leave a trail of bunny footprints.

* Personalize the outside of plastic glassware with stickers, dimensional squeeze paint or markers.

* Make party favors by filling mini-terra-cotta pots with pastel-colored candy.

* Empty an egg, gently create a little "window,"paint and decorate the entire surface and insert a family photo inside for a minidiorama.

* Cascarones: Empty an egg, fill with confetti, decorate the outside with glue and tissue paper. Crack over loved ones' heads for fun.

* Roll up small toys or candies in crepe paper into a ball, add wiggly eyes and construction-paper bunny ears and a cotton ball for the tail. Kids will have fun unrolling the paper to find the surprise.

* Decoupage Easter napkins on all four sides of a box and use as a utensil holder.

* Fill a large, clear bowl with water and drop in fresh daisies to float on top.

* Snip strips of party streamers and roll each into small tissue flowers, tie to a string and hang.

* Glue jelly beans around a plastic foam topiary and insert into a painted planter. Add green basket grass for filler.

Peace, love, and glitter!
Kathy :-)

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