Easter Cans

I wanted to share a picture of the Easter Cans my friend made for her family. She used scrapbook paper over paint cans and ended up with these cute Easter Buckets.

If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to One of a Kind Gifts here!

You've Been Egged!

On Monday night, we "egged" some of our friends' houses.

We did it as a family and it was such a fun time.

We filled a bunch of plastic eggs the night before with candy, stickers, and small toys.

I printed out a cute sign I found at Eighteen25.

We snuck up to the door and scattered the eggs all around and then rang the doorbell and ran away as fast as we could.

This will surely become a family tradition. I wish we could have egged everyone's house.

If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to One of a Kind Gifts here!

 Here is a really cute Easter Idea I found at paperjewelsblogspot.com. (One of my favorite places to go for ideas!

Easy Easter Paper Craft: Mini Egg Basket I love Easter! I've always loved dying eggs, hand painting them and hiding them! I'm in the midst of planning our neighborhood egg hunt, so I'm buried in plastic eggs. Here's a fun use for those mismatched ones that always seem to be left over! I thought this idea at the Think Crafts! blog was so darling, I decided to adapt it to what items I had on hand. My girls (9 and 4) loved helping me make these. What's not to love about decoupage? Here are the basic supplies: scrapbooking paper plastic eggs decoupage glue/brush ribbon I cut the paper into angled strips so that it fit better on the egg and layered them on top of one another. I knew I would find something cute to do with this iron tree that I found on clearance at Big Lots! I'll whip up a few more and maybe the Easter Bunny will fill them with chocolate kisses. Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter!

If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to One of a Kind Gifts here!

All I need to know I learned from the Easter bunny!

All I need to know

I learned from the Easter Bunny!

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.

There's no such thing as too much candy.

All work and no play can make you a basket case.

A cute tail attracts a lot of attention.

Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.

Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.

Some body parts should be floppy.

Keep your paws off of other people's jelly beans.

Good things come in small, sugar coated packages.

The grass is always greener in someone else's basket.

To show your true colors, you have to come out of the shell.

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

May the joy of the season fill your heart.

AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU! 

Happy Easter!

If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to One of a Kind Gifts here!

Easter Egg Nest

Recipe from http://www.hostessblog.com/

Ingredients:

6 oz good-quality dark chocolate roughly chopped

4oz Rice Krispies

72 mini chocolate eggs

Cupcake papers

Directions:

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water. Bring just to a boil, turn off of the heat and allow the chocolate to melt in the bowl. Stir in the Rice Krispies.

Spoon the mixture into cupcakes liners. Flatten a little and make a well in the center. Fill each one with three speckled mini chocolate eggs. Allow to set. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to One of a Kind Gifts here!

Hot Cross Buns

Traditionaly Hot Cross Buns are eaten on Good Friday, the cross of course represents the crucifiction and the shape of the bun represents the rock that was removed from the front of Christ's tomb when He was resurected on Easter Sunday. Hot Cross Buns were not always associated with Christianity, though. Their origins lie in Pagan Traditions of ancient cultures, with the cross representing the four quarters of the moon.

I was looking for some traditional Easter foods to make for my family and Hot Cross Buns seems to be the popular choice.

Here is a recipe from allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm 2% milk (110 to 115 degrees F)

1 tablespoon butter, softened

1 egg

4 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons raisins

2 tablespoons dried currants

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 dash ground allspice

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon water

ICING:

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon 2% milk

Directions

1.In a small mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in milk. Stir in butter, egg, sugar and salt. Combine 3/4 cup flour, raisins, currants, cinnamon and allspice; add to the yeast mixture and mix well. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

2.Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 4-6 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

3.Punch dough down; shape into six 2-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray. Using a sharp knife, cut a cross on top of each bun. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

4.Beat egg yolk and water; brush over buns. Bake at 375 degrees F for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks. Combine icing ingredients; pipe over buns.

If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to One of a Kind Gifts here!

15 Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

15 Unique Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

1. Hidden Easter Basket Clues:

When your children get up on Easter morning don’t just let them search for their Easter basket- give them a plastic egg with a clue inside. This should lead them to another plastic egg, which leads to another and so on, until finally leading them to their basket. Use up to about a dozen eggs per child. They’ll have so much fun they’ll almost be disappointed when they get to the basket at the end. When they get older have them make up clues for each other.


2.  Spider Web:

While your children are sleeping, hide their Easter baskets in the house and tie a long string to each one. Loop the strings throughout the whole house, around and over and under furniture so it looks like a huge tangled spider web eventually leading to their rooms. Tie the end of each string to the doorknob of the child whose basket it’s attached to, so when they come out of their rooms on Easter morning they can follow their own string throughout the house to find their Easter basket. Place some extra treats along the way to make it extra fun.


3. Odd or Even Egg Hunt:

For this game you must write ODD or EVEN numbers on each egg. When the kids are lined up for the egg hunt give each an odd or even number assignment. They can only get eggs in their assignment


4. Math Egg Hunt:
Hide plastic eggs with numbers in them, ranging from maybe 1 to 5 then, limit the children to how many they can find, like maybe 6 or something then after they’re all found, total up the numbers that are in their eggs and the one with the highest number wins a prize. Have candy in the plastic eggs too, so that everybody will end up with something

5. Color- Coded toys:

Hide small toys inside plastic eggs. If your gifts are child exclusive ( such as Matchbox car for a boy or Barbie accessories for a girl) give them a special color egg to find. If they find colors not intended for them, they must be quite about it, and they’ll think they are in on a special secret.

6.Secret Prizes:

Hide plastic Easter eggs with little notes inside, telling what the prize is. It can be in the form of a poem or just a clue (like this hippety hop). Buy little items such as candy eggs, toys, or little stuffed bunnies or chicks for prizes. Make sure everyone gets at least one prize.

7. Secret Notes:

Put little notes in plastic eggs. Things like “You have to give Aunt Mary a big hug” or “You get to take a piece of candy out of Andys basket” or “You must do one favor for uncle Tom”. Have some prize eggs too that have numbers inside which match a gift.

8. Designated Color Egg Hunt:

Keep your egg hunt equal for all of the kids by painting ONE color of egg child. At the start of the hunt, give each child a different colored egg for their basket. Tell them this is the color that they’re supposed to hunt for (any other colors don’t count) and also the number of eggs that are hidden. The first child to find their eggs wins a special prize.

9. Find Your Name Egg Hunt:

Before your party write each person’s name on one egg. The person that finds their first wins a prize.

10. Winning Numbers Egg Hunt:

Fill plastic eggs with small toys, temporary tattoos, stickers and wrapped candies for the hunt. Along with plastic eggs, hide a few real colored eggs. These eggs should have numbers painted on them and whoever finds one can exchange it for the corresponding numbered prize (stuffed animals, chocolate bunnies, Easter books ,etc.

11. Checklist Egg Hunt:

For large Easter Egg Hunts, make checklists for each child. Give each child a basket with a checklist and pencil in it and instruct the kids to find ONLY what is on their checklist and no more, otherwise someone else would be without enough. Make all of the checklist the same for each child and make sure you have enough eggs hidden so that everyone can complete theirs. You can have a grand prize too, for whichever child completes his checklist first by finding all of the items on it the fastest! The checklists could read something like this.

___Find 2 blue eggs
___Find 3 pink eggs
___Find 1 yellow egg
___Find 2 orange eggs
___Find 4 purple eggs
___Find 3 green eggs

12. Indoor Egg Hunt:

Is rain going to ruin your Easter egg hunt? Just hide jelly beans inside the house and have your adults or kids hunt for them. Depending on the egg of the participants you can make the hunt easy or hard. Ever try and see a black jelly bean on a black object? Have fun!!

13. Night-time Egg Hunt:

For older kids (or adults), try an egg hunt in the dark! Give everyone a cheap flashlight to look for their eggs. Or try a glow in the dark egg hunt and paint every egg with glow in the dark paint.

14. Reverse Egg Hunt:

Have your children make at least five eggs each and hide them around the house. When they are done hiding them, the parents look for them and the child whose egg is found last wins a prize.

15. Treasure Map Egg Hunt:

Make up treasure maps for your egg hunt. Draw the maps to scale with each tree, bush and flower on the map and let the children plot out the hiding spots of all the eggs they find on their maps. Or you can plot the hiding spots on the maps when you hide the eggs –then give a copy of the map to each of the children and let them go to town finding the eggs by using the map. Obviously, this works out best if you are using large area for your egg hunt.

If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to One of a Kind Gifts here!

Bake - It - Forward!

This is a great gift idea for any holiday.  It is a Bake It Forward plate!  I found this great idea at http://www.infarrantlycreative.blogspot.com   What you do is you make this plate, add goodies and give it away.  When the recipient finishes the goodies there is poem underneath telling them to do the same and “Bake-It-Forward.”  How fun is that?!?!



Supplies:
Plate ( Goodwill for $.25-$1.00)
Envirotex Lite (Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Amazon) $7-$10 on sale
Mod Podge (any craft store) $2
Foam brush $.20
Scrapbook Paper $.25
Bake it Forward Poem

1.  Open the poem (right click on the link to save it to your desktop) and size it so that it will fit on your plate.  Print it on scrapbook paper of your choice.
 
2.  Next cut the paper down to the size of the plate.  The first one I did happened to be a 6” square so that was easy.  If you have a circle plate you will have to use a compass or a circle cutter to cut out the paper.


 3.  Using a foam brush and Mod Podge (any sheen will do) spread a thin, even coat of decoupage glue onto the back of the paper.


4.  Press the poem into the plate and burnish (press really hard) the paper making sure there are no air bubbles.  Let it dry.

5.  Put two coats of Mod Podge on it (drying in between coats).  It is really important that you seal the entire piece of paper.  If you don’t the resin will seep through and darken spots on the paper and it won’t look as nice.  Note: If you see bubbles form put some Mod Podge on your finger and press it out.


 6.  Once the Mod Podge is dry prepare your resin ACCORDING TO THE MANUFACTURER’S INSTRUCTIONS.  That is very important – believe me!  Make sure you use a container and spoon that you can throw away.


7.  Pour the resin onto the poem.  It is self-leveling so it should spread to the sides by itself.  If it doesn’t - use a plastic utensil to spread it.


8.  Let it sit for 5 minutes.  At that time all the air bubbles will rise to the surface.

9. Take a long lighter and wave the flame over the top (touching the resin slightly) and the bubbles will disappear.  I usually babysit the resin for 30 minutes and use the lighter once more if necessary to get all the bubbles out.

10.  Let it dry overnight.  Meanwhile, bake your signature dessert and think of who you can give a sweet blessing to.  In the morning the resin will have cured.  Make sure you only hand wash this plate.  Now add some yummers and give it away.


   If you have none of the supplies on hand you could purchase about 5-7 plates and have enough of the resin to do all of them.  So it should cost you no more than $3 a plate. 
 
  With Easter coming up, this would be a great time to bake some spring cookies and "Bake - It - Forward"!

Grow Real Easter Grass

Two weeks until Easter and this year I am going to grow REAL Easter Grass in my kid's baskets. You only need about 7 to 9 days to make it happen and it is a great project for young children to help with. 

Photo from GreenSun Recycling

What you'll need:

• Wheatgrass Berries
• Easter Baskets
• Plastic Wrap 
• Soil
• Newspaper
• Spray bottle

Measure out 1½ cups of wheatgrass berries per basket. Rinse the seeds and then soak them in a bowl filled with warm water overnight. Line the baskets with a piece of plastic wrap to make them waterproof.  Then cover the bottom of the baskets with about 2 inches of soil. When the berries have sprouted, drain the seeds (you can use a colander). Next, spread the sprouted seeds evenly in a single layer over the soil, being sure to cover all of the dirt. Then sprinkle a light layer of dirt over the seeds to cover them. Lightly water the seeds with a spray bottle. Place the baskets in a warm and sunny spot in your house. Cover the whole basket with a layer of newspaper. The next morning, take off the newspaper, spray the seeds with some more water and replace the paper. Repeat every day until green blades sprout through the soil. Then you can leave the basket uncovered. Then all the wheatgrass has to do is grow! It'll take about 7 to 9 days for the grass to grow about 8 inches. If the grass has grown taller then you want come Easter, just trim it down with a pair of scissors.

Hopefully the Easter Bunny will leave us some sweet little treats amongst the grass. 

 

If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to One of a Kind Gifts here!