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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Its so EGGCITING!!!

Here is an eggciting craft how to, I cannot begin to tell you just how fun and amazing these eggs were to create. My son is a newbie chicken farmer ( hobbyist really) He has serama chickens which produce the cutest lil chicken eggs you ever have seen. Because I am an artist I see everything differently than most people do. I could not wait to get a hold of these beauties. I knew I had something up my sleeve for them; and I began to think about what I wanted these eggs to look like. What did I want them to say about me? I decided I wanted them to represent the colors of my life, the sometimes fragmented parts, the serious parts, the fun parts the lighthearted moments and the dark moments as well. My life has been a journey through many ups and downs and some serious challenges the last several years. And somehow through all of them The Lord has held me tight.

Here are the supplies you need.
1. Eggs.
2. glue pen
3. 3d gel pens ( I purchased mine at michaels, with a coupon, of course)
4. Flocking powder in various shades
5. mod podge
6. alcohol inks


I knew I wanted them both to be different. I wanted one to look like stained glass and the other one to be a mosaic type.
Here is how I created the Mosaic egg.
First the eggs have to be blown out. This is relatively simple. Begin with a room temperature egg and make holes with pins on each end. I also used a tiny eye glass screwdriver as well to enlarge the hole to make blowing the egg out easier ( blow the egg into a tiny glass bowl so you can scramble them up) rinse the egg out well with water. Put into a microwave to dry for about 35 seconds. Set aside for a day to allow to dry.
The first step is to apply a coat of mod podge to the shell. This will strengthen the shell and make it non porous. Allow mod podge to throughly dry and then ink a design on the egg. I used a 3d Gel pens as these leave a slightly raised design on the egg. Don't worry if you are not an artist and cannot draw. Do something free hand. Create swirls, dots whatever, just make sure that all the lines are somehow connected as you are going to want to apply flocking powder to each small little area. Allow the gel ink to dry and then you can begin applying the flocking powder. You can only work on a small area at a time and allow to dry in between.
With your glue pen apply small amounts of the glue in between the lines you drew, while glue is still wet apply the flocking powder, shake off excess and with a clean dry paintbrush, brush off the excess outside the lines, continue on,working in small areas and completely flock the egg with different coordinating colors, Use the dark colors first then apply the lighter colors. After each small area is done, using a small dry paintbrush to carefully remove excess flocking powder. You want all the colors to remain seperate and this is why you will only do a few areas at a time and let dry in between.




Once completed you can apply a coat of shellac if you like, just make sure to make it a thin layer.


Here are the directions to my stained glass egg.
You will need alcohol inks, a dry clean tiny paintbrush, clean and dried egg ( see above)
gel pens, modpodge.
Clean and dry you egg, apply coat of modpodge allow to dry, design a random pattern on your egg with the 3d gel pens. Allow to dry,

HERE COMES THE FUN!!!!!
Open your alcohol inks ( following ventilation instructions)apply 1 color at a time with tiny small dots, take your dry paintbrush and begin brushing though the ink, spreading it over the egg, alternate colors applying small dots randomly then brushing them to spread the ink. For this egg I used, purple, blue and yellow alcohol inks. You cannot make a mistake on this trust me here.
Now here is the gorgeous finished product