Easter fun

Chicks, bunnies, chocolate eggs - kids just love Easter. Why not make it egg-stra special this year, and get together with the children to make these fabulous gifts and treats

Marvellous marbled eggs




Pop on your Easter bonnet




Nests full of eggs




Basket of goodies




Easter greetings




Tasty biscuits

Easter bonnet


Add a touch of spring to all of your Easter celebrations with this flower-covered bonnet




What you need:

  • A2 paper or a broadsheet newspaper
  • Yellow and green tissue paper
  • Selection of coloured papers and cards
  • PVA glue
  • Scissors

What to do:
Making the hat

  1. Take two sheets of A2 paper or four double pages of a broadsheet newspaper and divide into pairs
  2. Lay the pairs across each other in a cross shape
  3. Place the centre of the paper cross onto the head of the person whom the hat is for and press it down over their head
  4. Ask your model to place their hands on their head underneath the paper (to ensure the hat is not too tight), while you run masking tape around the outside - several times - to form the crown of the hat
  5. Remove hat from head and trim brim to desired size

Decorating the hat

  1. Using PVA glue, stick yellow tissue paper to the outside of the hat and underside of the brim. Leave to dry
  2. For a grass effect, cut strips of green tissue paper and stick to brim with PVA. Leave to dry
  3. Cut out a selection of paper flowers, stems and leaves from card and coloured paper
  4. Cut out leaf shapes from green tissue paper
  5. Stick petals to stems and arrange round the crown of the hat
  6. When in desired position, stick down with PVA
  7. Glue leaves onto stems
  8. Cut out more small flower shapes in matching colours and stick around the brim

Bird's nests


This variation on a bird's nest provides the perfect way to present chocolate eggs to your family on Easter Sunday

What you need:

  • Plastic food containers, 8 and 15cm diameter
  • Elastic bands
  • Twigs and grasses
  • Unbleached greaseproof paper or tissue paper
  • Scissors
  • Ribbon
  • For large nest: 2m of narrow brown ribbon (4 colours each 2.5mm wide)
  • For small nest: 1m of 4x2.5mm ribbon in orange green, yellow and red
  • Easter chicks

What to do:

  1. Place two strong elastic bands around a 15cm diameter circular plastic food container (the container needs to have flattish sides, otherwise the elastic bands won't grip)
  2. For the smaller nest, use an 8cm diameter container and only one elastic band
  3. Cut twigs of differing thickness and dried grasses into varying lengths (these need to be longer than the height of the container)
  4. One by one, carefully place the twigs side by side underneath the elastic bands. Ensure that the twigs are close together so that the plastic underneath is hidden, but do not squeeze in too many or else the elastic band may snap or slip, sending the twigs flying!
  5. Place grass or bamboo leaves between the twigs to create a feathery effect
  6. Tie ribbon (approx 1m) around the middle of the nest to hide the elastic bands
  7. Scrunch unbleached greaseproof paper or brown tissue paper, and put into nest
  8. Fill with a variety of small Easter eggs, sweets or biscuits and some Easter chicks

Easter basket


A traditional Easter basket filled with eggs is a delightful way to display your yummy offerings



What you need:

  • Thick silver card
  • White tissue paper
  • Scissors
  • Staples
  • Ruler

What to do:

  1. Cut 36 1cm-wide x 24cm-long strips from silver cardboard (to make a bigger basket, use wider and longer strips)
  2. Lay 18 strips vertically, side by side and stick the bottom edge to the table with sticky tape
  3. One by one, weave the remaining 18 strips across these verticals. On the first row, weave the strip of card under the first vertical and over the second, then under the third and over the fourth etc. For the second row begin by weaving the card over the first vertical and under the next and so on
  4. Continue until all strips are used up and you have a square of woven cardboard
  5. Chop off loose strips around the edges and stick tape around the top of the basket to keep strands together (do this on the inside of the basket so that it doesn't show when filled)
  6. Cut another strip of silver card about 2cm wide to use as a handle
  7. To make up the basket: From right hand edge, count six squares inwards. At the end of the sixth square, count six squares down and cut
  8. Repeat this on left hand side and do the same again on both sides of the bottom of the square, this time cutting six squares upwards
  9. To make basket ends, fold centre square upright and then fold the two outside squares behind it, bringing their outside tips together in a point
  10. Attach one end of the handle inside the basket and staple them all together. Repeat with other side
  11. Fill with tissue paper and brightly coloured chocolate eggs

Egg card


A simple egg-shaped Easter card, plus gift tags (not shown) to add a personal touch to your gifts



What you need:

  • Squares of felt in various colours
  • Ribbon (0.5m for large card, 30cm for each small gift tag)
  • PVA glue
  • Scissors
  • Hole punch

For egg-shaped card:

  1. Draw a template of an egg shape, 15cm (top to bottom) x12cm (across)
  2. Trace egg shape onto stiff card and cut out
  3. Paste some PVA glue onto the card and then cover with two different coloured pieces of felt (stick the felt onto the card first, trim to shape once dry)
  4. Tie a ribbon around the card and tie in a bow at the front
  5. Write your greeting on the back

For the gift tags:

  1. Draw a template of an egg shape, 8x6cm
  2. Follow steps 2-4 as above
  3. Punch a hole in the top and thread 30cm ribbon through

Easter biscuits


Bake these tasty biscuit treats in traditional Easter shapes





What you need:

  • Weighing scales
  • Mixing bowls
  • Easter-themed biscuit cutters
  • Palette knife

Makes 12-18 biscuits
Ingredients

  • 100g (4oz) softened butter
  • 50g (2oz) caster sugar
  • 175g (6oz) plain flour
  • Pinch of salt
  • Few drops vanilla essence
  • 175g (6oz) sifted icing sugar
  • 1.5 tbsp water

What to do:

  1. Pre heat the oven to 180 C/350 F/gas mark 4
  2. Beat the butter and sugar together until thoroughly combined
  3. Sift together the flour and salt
  4. Add to butter mixture with a few drops of vanilla essence
  5. Mix to form a fairly stiff dough - if too dry, add a little water
  6. Roll dough into a ball with your hands, then roll out on a floured surface using a rolling pin dusted in flour
  7. Cut out biscuits using rabbit-, chick- and egg-shaped cutters
  8. Collect all trimming and continue to roll until dough is finished
  9. Arrange on a greased or lined baking tray and cook for about 15 minutes or until golden brown

TIP: take the biscuits out of the oven while they are still slightly soft and they will harden as they cool

To make icing:

  1. Put sifted icing sugar into bowl
  2. Add water a little at a time until icing is easily spreadable
  3. For different colours of icing, separate white icing into three bowls. For yellow icing: add a few drops of yellow food colouring and some lemon juice and mix. For chocolate icing: in a separate bowl, mix some cocoa or drinking chocolate powder with a little water to make a paste. Add the paste to the white icing and mix. For white icing: simply add few drops of vanilla essence

TIP: For all the above, you may need to add a little extra icing sugar as extra liquid can make the icing runny

To decorate biscuits:

  1. Spoon icing over the biscuits (yellow chicks, brown and white rabbits, and brown eggs), and smooth with a palette knife
  2. When dry, add details using piping bags or shop-bought tubes of writing icing

Marbled eggs

Give every member of your family a beautifully marbled egg - each one will be unique and they will also make an original Easter table decoration



What you need:

  • Six eggs (white or duck eggs if possible)
  • Large and small mixing bowls
  • Various food colourings
  • White vinegar
  • Olive oil
  • Warm water

What to do:

  1. Hard boil six eggs and leave to cool (TIP: If you prefer, you can blow the eggs. Place tape over each end of egg and pierce with a sharp needle. Ensure needle pierces yolk and blow contents of the egg out. Then gently rinse the shells and leave to dry)
  2. For base colours: Mix together 1.5 pints of warm water, 2 tbsp of white vinegar and a few drops of food colouring (Make sure your bowl is deep enough for water to completely cover the egg)
  3. Place your egg in dye and leave it submerged until the colour has deepened
  4. For top colour: In a wide shallow bowl, mix a second batch of dye in a complementary colour or darker shade. The liquid should be about 2.5cm (1") deep
  5. Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to dye
  6. Stir dye with a fork to create movement in the mixture
  7. As liquid swirls, place your dyed egg in the mixture and roll it around to pick up streaks
  8. Gently pat egg dry with kitchen paper and leave to dry