Sponge Painted Easter Eggs

My kids love making Easter Eggs. I found this design that actually says for 7 yrs. and up - but it looks simple enough that my 3 yr. old could handle it. We'll see....

This project is rated VERY EASY to do.

What You Need

Hard boiled eggs
Acrylic craft paints in the colors of your choice
Household sponge
Paper towel
Small bowl of water
Egg holder or empty egg carton

What You Do
1. Soak a household sponge in water, then ring it out completely. Cut the sponge into several different pieces, enough so that you have one for each color.
2. Using a paper plate as a palette, squeeze out small amounts of several different colors of paint.
3. Place an empty egg carton upside down so that you can rest your eggs on it to dry once painted.
4. Hold an egg in your fingers, and with your other hand, dab a sponge into desired paint color.
5. Dab the sponge onto a piece of paper towel. The object is to remove the excess paint, but not completely dry it out.
6. Now dab the sponge directly onto your egg, using any type of random pattern you like. Paint as much of the egg as you can and place it down to dry.
7. Repeat steps four to six for each egg, using different colors.
8. For a colored background with white sponge marks, simply paint the egg a solid color with a paint brush or with one of your sponges. When dry, sponge on a pattern with white paint.
9. When one side has dried, complete the other side and allow that to dry as well.
Place eggs into an egg holder, or fill a bowl with Easter grass and arrange the eggs atop the grass.

Helpful hints:
1. To make pastel paints from primary colors, simply add enough white paint until you have reached the shade you want.
2. Use a pair of scissors to round the edge of the sponges. Square edge can make your design look choppy, whereas a rounded edge looks softer.
3. Instead of painting the eggs a solid color, you can always dye them with traditional methods, then sponge paint them with white. This is an easy alternative if you don’t have several different paint colors on hand.
4. Get creative! Make different shapes by cutting hearts or letters from the sponges. Dollar stores will sometimes have shaped sponges in the kid’s bath section.
5. When boiling eggs, start the flame at medium high rather than on high. You will have less cracked eggs this way as they are not bouncing around in the pot as they would at a fast rolling boil.

We'll periodically post Easter Crafts leading up to Easter. Let us know if you've got one you want us to post!
- LT