3.29.2013

A Very Chinoiser-V Easter




Would you believe me if I said I set out to make deep pink eggs? I really did.  Of course I was going to make hot pink eggs.  Hello?! #favoritecolor.  They were not too pretty.  Something to do with my pink gel food coloring – it was all grainy and stuff, leaving all sorts of speckled glop on the eggs.  My perfectionist brain fractured and I almost quit right there.  But I had promised my 4 yr old a day of messy Easter Egg dye.  I briefly considered resorting to a PAAS kit.  But that is such a lame punk out thing to do and the resultant colors are always so limp.  Really, the truth is I didn’t want to go to the store.  So I went back into my stash of gel food colorings and opted for a darker situation.  This go round I was going for a rich turquoise.  And on paper, the paper towels that is, it worked.  The eggs, not so much.  But I love the happy accident.  The blue reminded me of an Imperial Chinese blue.  And as with all roads, this one leads back to Chinoiserie.  So even though I declared I wanted to get away from my standard blue and white for Easter – well, I give you blue and white Easter eggs and a chinoiserie-inspired table.




As for the eggs themselves, this is what I did.  I drew some motifs on contact paper, cut them out, and adhered them to the cooled hard-boiled eggs.  Not surprisingly, some of the dye seeped under a few edges.  I have tried similar methods with electrical tape with similar seepage results so I wasn’t all that surprised.  To clean up the edges, I used white paint and a fine brush to touch up the silhouettes.  I am not worried about the paint on these eggs as they won’t be eaten.









I had to.  COULD. NOT. RESIST. a pink egg with gold accent.  I blame my DNA.  You can see the speckling here that happened with the first batch of botched pink ones – which I suppose is kind of cool if you are going for a speckled egg look but clearly I was not.

Have a good Friday on this Good Friday!


All photos and layouts by mrs. V unless otherwise noted

kisses,  mrs. V



5 comments:

Unknown said...

These are the cutest eggs Ive ever seen! Bravo and I love your table setting!
Happy Easter
xo Nancy
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Linda {Calling it Home} said...

OK, total confession, I will never do this...but I just pinned it...a lot! I love this and your tips are brilliant. You are so talented. I keep telling you that. Did you change your header? The tag line is perfect.

Lili said...

this is amazing!!!!

The Pink Pagoda said...

Mrs. V, you are so chic! LOVE THIS!

Julia Ryan said...

Seriously, I agree with Linda, I'm obsessed with this idea even though I'll never do it. Maybe you can do blown eggs and sell them to me next year? NO really.