A Tisket, A Tasket. . .An Egg-stra Special Basket

By Anne Marie Fowler - March 20, 2019

With winter really becoming an unwelcome guest, we need a little something to look forward to. In my head, I see colorful pops of flowers, juicy green grass, and a tangerine sun. Indeed, these are on the way but there is absolutely no reason we can’t egg it on a little bit now. I have created a sweet little flower planter resplendent with tulips and sunflowers and some surprising little eggs hidden in the grass beneath. Curious how to create your own?

What You’ll Need:

Arnold Grummer’s® Best Selling Cotton Lintner: 8 oz. Pre-Shredded https://arnoldgrummer.com/cotton-linter-pre-shredded-8-oz-package.html

-or-

Arnold Grummer’s® 8 oz. Cotton Lintner Sheet Pulp https://arnoldgrummer.com/8oz-cotton-linter-sheet-pulp.html

Arnold Grummer’s® 4 oz. 100% White Cotton Rag Pulp

Arnold Grummer’s® Petals: Summer Gold https://arnoldgrummer.com/petals-summer-gold.html

Flower Mold

Candy/Cookie Sticks in your favorite color or design

Food Color (Regular and Neon)

Air dry clay

Paper Easter grass

Small Easter eggs

Container with dividers

Paintbrush

Moss

Rose Shavings

Rabbit and eggs for decoration

Aleene’s Tacky Glue

Floral Ribbon

What You’ll Do:

Make pulp using white paper remnants (envelopes are great for this), Cotton Lintner Pulp, Cotton Rag Pulp, and some Petals: Summer Gold.
Using the pulp, make flower castings from the flower mold. Be sure to use a flexible mold so that removal of the flowers will be much easier.
After pressing all of the excess water out of the flowers, mix two or three drops of food coloring and about two teaspoons of water. Dip a paintbrush into the mixture and touch the flower. Because it is still wet, the flower pulp will draw the color across itself. Keep adding until the flower is covered.
You can allow the flowers to air dry or you can begin the drying process by placing the flowers in a 200 degree oven. I covered mine with tinfoil. This helped keep scorching down. However, the scorching does add some wonderful character.
While the flowers are drying, set some air dry clay down in the sections where you plan to house the flowers. Anchor a stick in the clay and allow to dry.
When the air dry clay is fairly firm and the sticks feel solid, glue the flower heads to the top of the sticks.
Glue the floral ribbon around the edge of the container.
To fill the sections of the container, I went with recycling and used some of the paper that had been used to wrap glass that I had purchased at my local craft store. It packs down tightly. However, you could also use air dry clay.
Add moss on top of the filler layer.
Wrap the rose shavings around the base of the flowers to mimic leaves.
Add the bunny and the eggs. You might also want to place the container on top of a wreath of soft green leaves.