Friday, March 14, 2008

Cures for the boredom

Yesterday we had a day packed full of fun activities!

Jo at tangled me is having a fix it Friday post today, so I thought I would show you what we did yesterday.

First of all, my TOTALLY COOL cousin invited us over to make Ukrainian Easter eggs.
I do have to say that she is the MASTER of all things artistic and beautiful!

Here are some finished ones that she had made earlier.


First, you start with a raw egg. You use a special tool which has a small funnel type thing on the end, where you melt wax over a candle.



When the wax is melted, you draw designs all over the egg with the wax.



Next, you dip the egg in dye.



You repeat the process, drawing more designs in wax, coloring the egg again, until you have several layers of wax and dye, then you put the egg in a warm oven to melt the wax.


After the wax comes off, it reveals the several layers of color on the egg.

SO cool.


We didn't want Max playing with the candle & hot wax, so we just gave him a paintbrush, and let him decorate his egg.

Next, you varnish the egg, then poke a small hole in the egg, and remove the insides. Apparently, you can just leave it raw, and in about 10 years, the yolk dries up, but I decided not to take that chance in our house. The insides are coming out.

When we got home, we made these yummy cupcakes.



I baked them in a mini muffin pan, frosted the sides and rolled them in sprinkles.
I have never worked with fondant, and I wanted to experiment, so we made the little flowers on top of the cupcakes, and then covered this small cake.
The fondant was easier that I thought it would be.

Last post, I included a video that CJ made when he was really bored. While it was somewhat amusing, it really isn't an example of his best work. He is actually quite good at video making and editing. Here is a better example of what he can do.



The iPod is actually his Halloween costume. If you didn't catch it at the end, it is a 160 terabyte iPod. (Hey, the thing is HUGE, CJ fits inside it, it should have a ton of memory)
If you really had an Pod with that much memory, it would hold;
40,000,000 songs
200,00 hours of video
50,000,000 photos

wow.

17 comments:

Jen said...

Those are the most fabulous eggs ever!

bon said...

I believe the technical name for the little wax-melty tool is a tjianting tool, you should be able to find it at larger art supply shops.

Beautiful examples!

b. said...

VERY VERY cool!!
Those eggs are awesome!
The cupcakes are so cute!
Don't you love it when your kids try out their creativity??

Jo said...

The eggs? Amazing!
The cupcakes and cake? Beautiful!
CJ? A wee bit eccentric.

Unknown said...

Look at you Miss crafty cool Mom!!! I don't even allow markers at my house. I just don't trust my kids. (As proven by the paint on my kitchen floor)
The eggs are soooo incredibly beautiful!! Your cousin is very talented.

Christina

Kalynne Pudner said...

I bow to you, Mother of Artistry and Artistic Children. May I link back to this post when I post my own version of the annual egg-decorating extravaganza? (No worries about one-upsmanship: we're talking six coffee cups with dye-tab and vinegar; pastel-drenched newspaper on the table; kids fighting over eggs, coffee cups, and the one-and-only copper wire dipper thingy; splinters of egg shell from one end of the house to another. It's the last hurrah of Lenten penance.)

Damama T said...

So glad you found something to do to fix the boredom problem if only for a day.

Have a great weekend!

Damama T said...

OH - I forgot to say how cool those eggs are! And DANG YOUR HIde! You have no idea what you've done to my diet for th day! LOL!

And CJ has a serious future in production. Way to go CJ!

Jenny said...

That's really cool. I may try it this year. thanks for sharing.

Kimber said...

Very cool craft day! It all looks amazing (and like it took alot of patience on your part)

What a creative kid you have. Very cool CJ!

Hey It's Di said...

Those are some beautiful eggs! I have heard that fondant is really hard to work with but you did an amazing job! What talent! Sounds like you had a great day together!

Bonnie the Boss said...

I saw these eggs this morning. I had to come back this evening to see them. They are stunning how can a lay person do these?
I enjoy your blog. Thanks.
Bonnie

Laura said...

TOTALLY AMAZINGLY AWESOME...all of it...very cool!!!!

Randi said...

Are you a cool mom or what? That's amazing!

Kellan said...

What beautiful eggs and cupcakes - WOW!!!

Thanks for coming by. Hope you are having a good weekend and I'll see you soon. Kellan

Becky said...

Those are FAB eggs...you ladies are quite talented! And the cupcakes...darling, too. I just wanted to lick my monitor right then...or reach through and grab one. ;)

Fun stuff! Have a great weekend!

Jessica G. said...

You make my easter eggs feel ugly. And fat.