Paper Mache Easter Egg

All of the inspiration to make this came from the beautiful idea by Melissa at The Chocolate Muffin Tree (check out her colourful site!) Our blogs aren't related although it sounds as though they should be from their names :-)

Fist of all we took some balloons left over from our crazy week of birthdays! A big one to do as a collaborative project and a little one for Cakie to do all by herself. A third one went POP!

 I chopped up some lovely pastel coloured tissue paper (£1 in Poundland!) Alternatively your child can rip it up and that would add to both the fun and learning.

 Squeeze a large amount of PVA (runny) glue into a container and mix in a few tablespoons of water. Mix it together until it becomes a thin, runny paste.

Start to "paint" the glue onto pieces of the tissue paper and layer them onto the balloon, adding glue over the top of one. Cover the whole balloon using all of the colours and start to build up a second layer over the first. Keep brushing the runny glue over the top as eventually this will cause it to harden really well and become shiny.

 When you are satisfied that it is covered enough, find a vase or wide mug to balance it in over night to dry. If you put it near a radiator it will dry more quickly.

 Here is Cakie doing her own little one ALL by herself (apart from me catching the balloon as it rolled off the table a couple of times!)

 She wouldn't have let me help her even if I'd tried. Just look at that concentration!

 She put on so many layers it was quite ridiculous. But it's all about the process and this process was FUN!

 All done! A bit of imaginary watering for good measure :-)

 Both eggs sitting waiting to dry out overnight. They were named "Mummy and Baby" of course.

 The next morning both eggs were hard, dry and shiny. We popped the balloons inside and then came the extra fun part. Spreading glitter all over them!

 Squeeze more PVA glue into a container, tip in lots of glitter and mix it up. This makes much better glitter glue than the shop bought stuff in my opinion. Spread it all over with a paintbrush and then leave again to dry.

The finished, beautiful, giant Easter egg! I was planning to use this as an Easter-style pinata by filling it with chocolates and having C bash it to release them all on Easter morning. But it's too pretty to break up! So instead we will hide chocolates in it for them to dig out, then we will turn it into something very special. I have plans ;-)

This activity is good for:
* creativity
* investigating materials: changes from dry to wet, soft to hard
* exploring colours and colour mixing
* sensory and messy play
* talking about Easter: symbols, representations of new life, Spring time
* promoting independence