There may be no season as lovingly anticipated as spring, whose arrival is a time for celebration and an inspiration to renew. We've waited months for this moment, when the sun reasserts itself, winter's chill wanes, and farmers' markets begin to deliver on nature's annual promise of spectacular flavors, textures, and colors.
At home, what better way to celebrate Easter than with a crafts project? There's something for those of any skill: Egg decorating ideas, dyeing tips, basket projects, and clip-art all make for a picture-perfect egg-hunt party on Sunday morning. With all of our ideas, we have everything you need to plan a special holiday. Our gallery contains egg-dyeing instructions, our best stuffers for Easter baskets, crafts projects for kids, springtime inspired tabletop decorations, Easter clip-art for cards, and so much more. Dyeing Easter eggs is a classic tradition that calls for help from the whole family. And for a natural alternative, you can make your own egg dye from vegetables such as beets and onion skins.
Our easiest Easter crafts come with added charm: Try envelope bunnies for gifting, crepe-paper carrots for hidden surprises, or clip-art inspired by a best-selling coloring book. Kids will love these additions to their baskets. And if you mistakenly crack an egg? Even then, there's fun to be had: Repurpose the pastel eggshells into cups for sprouts, seedlings, and teeny-tiny flower cuttings; it makes for a lovely centerpiece.
When the materials are this alluring, they invite us to gather for an afternoon of family togetherness—the finest rite of spring we know.
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Coloring Clip-Art Easter Eggs
If you're in love with the coloring trend as much as we are, try these eggs. We asked Millie Marotta, illustrator of the book Millie Marotta's Animal Kingdom: Color Me, Draw Me, to produce some Easter-themed line drawings for us that you can download, color, and decoupage as clip-art.
Get the Coloring-Book Easter Eggs Clip-Art
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Daffodil Candy Cups
Everything's coming up daffodils! And for these cheery paper ones, you only need two things: cupcake liners and decorative paper (we used scrapbook paper, but anything you have on hand that's stiff will work). We filled the cups with orange and yellow jelly beans to match the colored paper.
Get the Daffodil Candy Cups How-To
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Crepe Paper Carrots
"What's up, Doc?" What's up is that these crepe paper carrots come with a hidden surprise. Unwind the paper and you'll discover tiny trinkets—jewelry and charms for adults, or toys for the kids. Pass them out as party favors, pile them in a basket as a table centerpiece, or use them to package loose items in an Easter basket.
Get the Leaf Template
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Easter Egg Holders
If you can fold a piece of paper, you can make these impressive (but secretly simple) egg holders. Plus, they make fun place cards for Easter—just write a guest's name on each egg with a colored marker.
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Envelope Bunnies
Say "Happy Easter" with these treat-filled pouches. Seal the flap of an envelope, and draw bunny ears on the sealed side. Cut along the line through both layers of the envelope.Flip the envelope over; what was the side of the envelope becomes the bottom of your treat holder. Kids will love decorating blank paper envelopes with colored pencils and pom-poms into smiling bunnies.
Get the Bunny Template
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Sticker Easter Eggs
Want to decorate eggs but are pressed for time? Here's a trick: Use plastic eggs and cover them with stickers. For polka dots, use round stickers, or punch circles from adhesive sheets. To make colored dots, use a marker to color in a section of the adhesive sheet, and punch circles from that section.Punch flower shapes from adhesive sheet, and use dots for centers; adhere to the eggs. This is a great activity for kids, especially as a mess-free alternative to dyeing, and they're perfect for an outdoor egg hunt—no cracking!
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Candy Nests
Dishes for sweets become well suited to spring when they're disguised as fuzzy birds' nests. Cover the outside of a bowl with double-sided tape. Wind a ball of yarn (we used mohair) around the bowl until its exterior is hidden. To finish, securely tuck the loose end behind the wrapped yarn.
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Easter Candy Parade
Who said you could only use baskets at Eastertime? If you have a set of glass food jars, you can make a gorgeous decorative display. Fill them to the brim with colorful candies including pastel malted eggs, bright jelly beans, and of course, a chocolate bunny.
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Painted Easter Eggs
For a fail-safe Easter egg that will last for years to come, try wood. These nesting eggs were treated with a coat of family-friendly craft paint, and left unpainted on the inside in order to make it safe to store candies inside them.
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Flower Arrangements in Eggshells
It's spring, and that means everything is in full bloom. For an inspiring (and super simple) take on spring florals, use hollowed-out eggshells as vessels for teeny-tiny buds and blossoms. Simply fill the empty shell with room-temperature water and place it in an eggcup for stability.Then, insert small cuttings of your favorite blossoms (we used lilacs, lily of the valley, and violas).