Flower Crowns for Easter

Flowers worn in the hair is so lovely and perfectly feminine. When I was little, I'd daydream of getting to wear a crown of flowers in my hair for a special occasion. Now that I'm older, I don't think I could pull off the flower crown, but by golly I've got two little girls who can! I thought it would be sweet to make them some flower crowns to wear with their Easter dresses.  I wasn't going for fussy or grand here, just sweet, simple and pretty. I think we accomplished that and the look on the girls' faces when I presented them with their crowns?! Gasps and excitement aplenty. 

I envisioned this post to have pictures of Lily and Hadden, holding hands and being all sisterly and photogenic. Ya know, real high hopes! But, it was not to be, Hadden wanted to stay in her pj's and insisted that the enchilada sauce remain smeared on her adorable cheeks. ;)

Notes on the crowns: It took me twenty minutes to make two crowns. I would recommend making these the night before or the day of wear. For the purpose of this post, I made crowns for the girls today. I will make fresh ones for Easter Sunday. Here is how I made them, if you'd like to take a look:

Materials needed:

-floral tape

-flowers *Use any variety you prefer, Lily's crown is made up of small daisy like white flowers. These can be found at any flower shop, even at grocery stores. 

-string

-scissors 

Take string and measure it around the head of the person you are making the crown for (measure the string the way it is intended to be worn). Tie a knot.

Clip flowers and place around the string. This will give you an idea of how many flowers you'll need, what directions look best.

Take floral tape and wrap (with good tension) bundles of flowers around the string until you've made up your flower crown. See above. Try your best to wrap the tape so it's concealed behind flowers. Store flower crown in fridge before use.

Thanks for letting me share this today and for popping in! 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend ahead of you. I am looking forward to spending time with family and celebrating the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

images and project by Briana

Easter Sugar Cookies

Okay, here's my confession.  "I haven't worked with royal icing since culinary school.  And I am not very good at working with it either!"  Glad I got that off my chest!  It's not that royal icing is particularly hard to work with, I'm just better at plain old buttercream.  Plus, I will take a sugar cookie topped with almond, vanilla or lemon scented buttercream over royal icing any day!  So, you are probably wondering why I chose royal icing for these cookies in the first place.  Well, it's because I think royal icing can be really cute when done right and I wanted to practice and the kids and I were planning on bagging the cookies up(a mess with buttercream) to give their little friends an Easter treat.  Plus, I thought it would be genius to put a layer of lemon scented buttercream in between two cookies because let's be honest, although royal icing can look purty(the above cookies being an exception;) it will NEVER EVER taste as good as buttercream!

Here are the links to the sugar cookie and royal icing recipes I used.  And might I add that the tutorial for royal icing is brilliant!
Sugar Cookie recipe from Joy of Baking
Royal Icing recipe and tutorial from Browneyedbaker
Lemon Scented Buttercream by Kara
3/4 cup salted butter, room temp
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of half a lemon
1-2 tablespoons milk for spreading consistency
Cream butter.  Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla and lemon zest.  Add milk(if needed) to get to smooth spreading consistency.

images by Kara


   

How To: Fabric Easter Eggs

I'm really excited about stuffing my girls easter baskets this year. Here are some ideas bouncing around my head: big beach towels for the pool (I'm on the hunt for mermaid ones!), flip-flops, bubble wands, sidewalk chalk, sunglasses and candy, of course. P.S. My favorite easter candy growing up was the gum in the mini egg cartons. What was yours?

I also wanted to make a little handmade something to stuff in their baskets. I thought some little eggs made out of felt and stuffed would be cute. They could use them in their little kitchen and when they play "grocery store" or sometimes they call it Wal-Mart. "Let's play Wal-Mart!"

Problem was, the felt I thought I had was long gone from another project I forgot I even did. I decided on plan B and made them out of fabric scraps. I think they turned out adorable and they've got that handmade flavor, but I do think felt would be ideal for this project. Here is how I made these little charmers:

You'll need:

cotton balls

fabric or felt of your choice

embroidery thread

embroidery needle
scissors or pinking shears (to prevent fraying)

Step 1. Click {{HERE}}. Hold a piece of white paper up to your computer screen and trace the egg template onto your paper. Cut the egg out. Hold the cut-out egg up to your fabric with your thumb and cut fabric into egg shapes. Double up your fabric while cutting to save time and make the front and back side of your eggs exactly the same shape.

Step 2. Pull apart three strands from your embroidery floss (Embroidery floss makes up 6 strands). I used the whole length of the embroidery floss to make four eggs. Thread your embroidery needle. Knot the end. Using a blanket stitch, stitch around the edge of your fabric egg. Making sure the right side of the fabric is facing out. {{HERE}} is an excellent video on how to start, do and finish a blanket stitch. Super duper simple.

Step 3. Leave a couple inch opening and stuff the egg with cotton balls. I used three cotton balls per egg. Tear and pull apart the cotton balls to better help them fill in and around the inside of the egg. 

Step 4. Stitch up the opening. Finish it by knotting the thread to secure the stitches. It shows you how to do this in the video.

Thanks for letting me share! Now, I want to know what you like to fill your kids easter baskets with! I'd love to hear your ideas.

project and images by Briana