I love these small chenille chicks and bunnies; oh and of course I LOVE these mushroom birds. My kids and I thought it would be fun to create these cute scenes using egg cups as a pedestal. These egg cups are kid friendly and make fun and festive Easter decor! This post first appeared for Darice on their blog – Live.Craft.Love

Supplies:

• Wooden egg cups
• Mini polyester chicks
• Pom pom bunnies
• Petaloo flowers
• Mushroom bird
• Acrylic paints
• Tacky glue
• Decorative paper or paper doilies
• Decorative edged scissors
• Easter grass
• Paint brush
• Pencil

How To:

Step 1: Paint your egg cups and let them dry.

Step 2: Choose a patterned paper and draw a circle on the paper by tracing around a cup or lid. Use decorative scissors to cut out the circle. Another option is to use a paper doily.

Step 3: Glue the cut paper piece onto an egg cup. Center over the top. Next, glue Easter grass to the paper. Let dry.

Step 4: Arrange bunnies, chicks, and flowers in place and glue them onto grass. Create your own fun spring scene.

Another option is to use a mushroom bird and pearls for eggs in a nest made from crinkled paper.

Step 5: To finish off the egg cups, glue gemstones or other embellishments to the pedestals.

And you’re done!

The post How To | Egg Cup Pedestal Display appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

OMG, right? Aren’t these the cutest edible bunny treats? At my house we were so glad that the Twinkie made “The sweetest comeback in the history of ever.” But to be fair, we only have Twinkies on really special occasions. When I saw the Wilton Bunny Ears Decorating Kit I kept it in the back of my mind in case it was a perfect fit for some upcoming birthday treat. When my daughter mentioned wanting to take Twinkies for her treat, as you all know she loves bunnies, mixing the bunny ears with the Twinkies was the perfect marriage of sweet goodness!

Ingredients:

• Twinkies
• Wilton Bunny Ears Decorating Kit (sold at Meijer and Jo-Anns)
• Edible Easter Grass (sold at Meijer)
• Mini Loaf Paper Wrappers (look like cupcake wrappers, only longer)
• Kitchen Shears
• Frosting

Recipe:

1. Use a kitchen scissors to cut edible grass and sprinkle it in the bottom of the wrapper.
2. Lay Twinkie on top of edible grass.
3. Add Wilton ears, eyes and noses to Twinkies by gently pushing them into the “face” of the Twinkie.
4. Add a dab of frosting the tail area of the Twinkie.
5. Smile, eat and enjoy!

The post Recipe | Twinkie Bunny Treat appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Okay, I know I am getting carried away with this Angry Bird stuff. But these are actually from Valentine’s Day. Remember those warm fuzzy friend Valentines my daughter made? Well, my son wanted nothing to do with them and instead came up with these Angry Bird pom-pom ball friends himself. They are quite easy to make and boys get a kick out of tossing them around!

He literally had it all planned out in his head how he was going to use the pipe cleaners to make the beaks, eyebrows and tails. The only problem was he couldn’t actually cut the pipe cleaners without my help. So we worked together to create these pom-pom ball Angry Birds that sit on top of three Cadbury mini-eggs that are nestled instead mini-cupcake liners.

The finished treats were wrapped in a small cello bag and closed with a twist tie and a note was attached. The attached note read, “Love is for the birds.” They were a big hit.

I think these could be great for a birthday treat, Easter treat, spring party treat. It would also be a fun activity for kids to make at a birthday party!

Supplies:

• 1.5″ Pom-pom Balls
• Googly Eyes
• Black Pipe Cleaners
• Yellow Pipe Cleaners
• Craft Glue
• Wire Cutter
• Mini-Cupcake Liners
• Cadbury Mini-eggs
• Cello Bag and Twist Ties
• Cute note to attach

How To:

1. Use a wire cutter and cut the black pipe cleaner into 3/4″ to 1″ long pieces. Bend the cut piece in the center to form a V shape. These will be the eyebrows and can also be used as the tails.
2. Use a wire cutter and cut the yellow pipe cleaner into assorted lengths, these will be the beaks. As my son informed me, some birds, like the green bird have long beaks and some have short beaks. Most beaks can be cut to measure 1″ in length, then fold the cut length of pipe cleaner in half so the end is rounded.
3. Use craft glue to glue on the beaks first, then glue on the eyes and next the eyebrows. Let dry.
4. Next glue on the tails. Let dry.
5. Place 3 candy eggs inside the mini-cupcake liners. Sit the finished birds on top.
6. Wrap each bird in a cello bag and twist tie closed.
7. Add a cute note that can be attached with the twist tie.

The post How To | Angry Bird Craft and Treat appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

This is the treat my daughter took to school to hand out on her birthday. Homemade brownies layered on top of edible Easter grass and topped off with a bunny Peep on a toothpick. We put each one in a cello bag and tied them with a ribbon. A cute treat, don’t you think?

After photographing this I started to think how perfect this could be for an Easter dessert, a bunny themed birthday party, a baby shower (you could change the color of the bunny to be blue for a boy!), and any sort of spring celebration. And who doesn’t love a good chocolate brownie?

These homemade brownies are ooey gooey delicious. If you want a good from scratch recipe I am here to share. It is actually right off of the Nestle Toll House Cocoa powder label. My bestie from college made these once when we were visiting and it was love at first bite!

Nestle Toll House Chewy Cocoa Brownies –

Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter melted
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (I actually substitute wheat flour and it works fine)
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 13×9 baking pan. (I like to use a pan that is smaller to make the brownies thicker and more gooey!)

Combine sugar, butter, and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan.

Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

The post Recipe | Peep Bunny Brownies appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

It’s Spring Break at our house. We are keeping busy enjoying the fabulous spring weather! I just wanted to hop on the blog and show all of you the cute bunnies we made from toilet paper tubes and cotton balls. Aren’t they cute? The perfect Easter craft for little kids. I had to laugh at how different all three turned out. The boys didn’t want feet on theirs and my daughter wanted feet and floppy ears so the bunny could hide.

How To | Toilet Paper Tube Easter Bunny

Supplies:

• Toilet Paper Tube
• Cotton Balls
• Googly Eyes
• Pink Paper
• White Paper
• School Glue

How To:

1. Use the white paper to cut out bunny ears and feet. Use the pink paper to cut out the inside of the ears and a pink bunny nose.
2. Add glue to the toilet paper tube and press cotton balls onto the glue as you go until the entire tube is covered.
3. Glue on the googly eyes and the nose.
4. Glue on the ears and the feet.
5. Let dry.

The post How To | Toilet Paper Tube Bunny appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

This is the birthday girl on her 7th birthday. She was so excited to have a bunny themed birthday party. At this time of year it isn’t too hard to come up with bunny items to buy to add the perfect touches for a bunny party.

Food:

For the food I tried to stick with the bunny theme and serve vegetable based items. We had carrots, cherry tomatoes and celery (ants on a log). For the main course we had vegetable soup and salad.

Drink:

For our drink we had a special berry lemonade with frozen raspberries that we dropped in the drink to keep it cold. The kids loved this “special” drink. Another option would be to offer carrot juice or vegetable juice, I didn’t think my kids would go for it.

Dessert:

A bunny themed party requires a bunny cake. To make the cake I used a box mix and baked 2 – 9″ cakes. For the head part of the cake I cut some small sections off to form it into more of an oval shape. I used the other cake and cut out two ears from it. I then frosted the cake using white frosting. Then I colored the remaining frosting pink using a couple drops of red food coloring. I then frosted the inside section of the ears using the pink frosting. Next, I added coconut to the cake, but I skipped the pink ear part. I made the eyes out of chocolate and the nose from a jelly bean. The birthday girl was in love with her bunny cake!

Decorations:

To decorate for the party I made tissue paper fans with bunny heads. To learn how to create your own tissue paper bunny fans click here. I also bought a bunny themed table cloth, some solid color balloons and a bunny chair cover from Dollar Tree. I also made glittered bunnies using some plaster bunnies I bought from the Target dollar bins (hopefully I will have a How To for these soon).

Games and Activities:

1. To keep busy during your bunny party you can play pin the nose on the bunny. I used the bunny head shape from the tissue paper fans (free download in that post) as a head we could pin noses on. My son helped me cut out pink bunny noses from construction paper. All we needed to finish up was a blindfold and some tape.

2. You can also buy bunny Peeps for everyone to eat and for an activity have them dip them in chocolate fondue. Warning – little kids get chocolate everywhere and laugh a lot while dipping everything, including their fingers in the chocolate.

Party Favors:

As a party favor to give to your guests you can make a small jar of bunny noses using jelly beans and baby food jars. To read more about how to create your own bunny noses and get my free label download click here.

Invitations:

Don’t forget that you can download these free invitations to send out for your party by clicking here.

Handmade Gift:

If you are looking to make a special bunny themed gift for the birthday girl follow this link to download the pattern for this bunny pillow. The original instructions are for making this bunny using felt and a sewing it using the blanket stitch. If you want to sew the bunny using fleece, make sure to add a half inch all around the pattern as you cut out your fabric.

The day of our bunny party was beautiful and we were lucky that the kids could all go outside and play for awhile during the party!

The post How To | Bunny Themed Party appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Remember before when I said I am not in love with baking? Well, I am still not, but I put in a good effort to make some cute cupcakes for L to take to school for her birthday, staying with her bunny theme of course. After a week of the older 3 getting strep throat and the baby getting a double ear infection I was pretty tired out from all the coughing and the lack of sleep. We had L’s birthday celebration on Sunday and then on Monday I made cupcakes for her to take to school on Tuesday. Do you ever get in the middle of a project and think, “What am I doing this for?” That is the mental state I was in while I was decorating these on Monday. In the end though, she was super excited to get home from school and see how cute they turned out. The next day after school she told me all the kids said the cupcakes were the “best ever”. (Really? It’s just a box mix. Add enough marshmallows to a cupcake and I guess they become awesome.) If you have to indulge your daughter with bunny theme cupcakes you may want to follow the directions below.

 Supplies:

• Cake Mix
• Frosting
• Green Food Coloring
• Cupcake Liners
• Large Marshmallows
• Small Marshmallows
• Edible Easter Grass
• Wilton Candy Eyeballs
• Wilton Sugar Sheet White
• Food Scissors

How To:

1. Bake your cupcakes according to mix directions.
2. Add green food coloring to frosting until you get the desired green color. Frost cupcakes with green frosting.
3. Cut the large marshmallows in half using a food scissors. Place them onto the cupcakes.
4. Add a small marshmallow to one end of each large marshmallow.
5. Cut off short chunks of edible Easter grass and place around the bunny body.
6. Cut bunny shaped head from the Wilton sugar sheet. (My head was a semi-circle with ears.) Place head in front of bunny body.
7. Add two candy eyeballs to the front of the head, push them down into the frosting so they appear to be peeking out.
8. * Here is an important tip about the sugar sheet bunny heads, do not cover your cupcakes! The moisture with cause the sugar sheet to become soft and the ears will flop over. If that happens just make sure the ears flop back onto the body, it will still look like the bunny is hiding and playing peek-a-boo. Another option is to leave the heads off until closer to the time they will be eaten and then add them (they will probably be brittle if you have left them uncovered). I prepared mine the evening ahead because we had to head to school right away in the morning and some of mine flopped backward.

The post How To | Peek-a-Boo Bunny Cupcakes appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

The best part of a birthday party surprise is planning the decorations. As I said in a previous post I do all my decorating when my kids are asleep, so the decorations have to be simple to hang up. My daughter was in love when she came downstairs on the morning of her birthday and saw these lovely tissue paper bunny fans hanging from the ceiling. Want to know how to make your own? Just follow the instructions below.

How To | Tissue Paper Party Decorations

Supplies:

• Assorted Colors of Tissue Paper (I bought a pastel pack from Dollar Tree)
• Embroidery Floss
• 11×17 White Paper
• Scissors
• Double-sided Tape
• Tissue Paper Bunny Head Download
• Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

How To:

1. You need four pieces of tissue paper to create one fan. Use two pieces together and fold them using an accordion fold. Fold the second two pieces together using an accordion fold.
2. Tie both sets of folded tissue paper together in the center using embroidery floss. Leave two long tails of floss and tie them together at the top. The tissue paper will attach together inside of this open loop and will be used to hang the fans.
3. You will have four different sections of tissue paper.
4. Use pieces of double-sided tape to tape the sections together.
5. Once all sections are taped together the fan will be a complete circle.
6. Print off one bunny head shape from the file download (Tissue Paper Bunny Head). Use the one as a template to cut out multiple bunny heads. I like to staple multiple pieces of paper together and then cut them all out at once.
7. Using a hot glue gun, glue the bunny heads onto the tissue paper fans. Put a bunny head on each side.
8. Use the long thread to tape the tissue paper fans to the ceiling.

Free Download:

Click here – Tissue Paper Bunny Head

*(for personal use only)

The post How To | Bunny Party Tissue Paper Decorations appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

No party would be complete without a small take home gift for the party attendees. We made jars of bunny noses for my daughter’s friends to take home after her bunny themed birthday party. You can download the bunny noses label for free using the link below.

How To | Bunny Noses Party Favor

Supplies:

• Small Jar
• Pink Jelly Beans
• Paper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Bunny Noses Party Favor Labels

How To:

1. Print off Bunny Noses Party Favor Labels.
2. Cut out labels.
3. Use tape to adhere labels to jar.
4. Add pink jelly beans.

Free Download:

Click here – Bunny Noses Party Favor Labels

*(labels are for personal use only)

The post How To | Bunny Noses Party Favor appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Over the next week I will be posting lots of bunny party theme ideas. My daughter is having a birthday this weekend and she loves bunnies, so guess what the theme is going to be? To invite her friends we made these bunny party invitation cards. I love keeping it simple and cute! Click the link below to download your own copy of the bunny invitations. (As always this art is available for personal use only.)

How To | Bunny Theme Party Invitations

Supplies:

• Paper
• Printer
• Free Bunny Invitation Download
• Ribbon
• Glue Dots
• Small White Pom-pom Ball
• Paper Cutter
• Corner Rounder Punch
• A2 Size Envelopes (fits 4.25″ x 5.5″ size card)

How To:

1. Print off the Bunny Theme Party Invitation.
2. Use a paper cutter to cut the the paper in half (there are two invitations per page). Then fold each invitation in half.
3. Fill out the inside of the invitation with the appropriate information.
4. Use about 4″ of ribbon and tie a small bow. Adhere the bow to the front of the invitation over the bunny’s ear using a glue dot.
5. Use a glue dot to add a small pom-pom ball to the bottom center of the invitation.
6. Mail your invitations!

Free Download:

Click here – Bunny Theme Party Invitation

The post Printable | Bunny Theme Party Invitations appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.