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Dollar Barn Easter: Robin’s Egg Vase

17 February 2010 18,167 views 25 Comments

by jessica

Morning, everyone! Your very own crazy crafter, Jess from Mad in Crafts, here.

Are you cheap? I am. I have a little panic attack anytime I see a price tag in the triple digits. Do you like pretty things? I do. When my house is clean and decorated, sometime I just sit and look around at it all. Partly because I know it will be many moons until it's actually clean again. Anyway, because of my remarkable cheapness and love of pretties, you can imagine the internal torment that overtakes me when I visit the Pottery Barn website. ((shudder))

A few months back I wrote a couple of posts called A Dollar Barn Christmas where I took items I found at my local Dollar Tree and turned them into home decor that was inspired by all the goodies at Pottery Barn. I was browsing on the PB website a few weeks ago, and got that lovely crafter's voice in my head. "I can make that. I could make that too!"

I am adding a series of posts on my blog, Mad in Crafts, with tutorials on how to make PB-ripped off Easter/ Spring decor for your home. The first post in the series showed how to create the elements for a fancy Easter centerpiece based off of two PB catalog items.

Today's tutorial is redonkulously simple and would be a fun project to do with any bored, little ones you have moping around the house.

To make Robin's Egg Vase Filler, you will need:

1 or 2 packs of 12 styrofoam easter eggs (Dollar Tree): $1 each
craft paint in robin's egg blue: on hand
craft paint in brown or black: on hand
paintbrush: on hand

Total: $1

I mixed up a few craft paints until I got a color that I thought made a reasonably good robin's egg blue color. Holding each egg by it's handy little hanging loop, slop some paint all over each egg. Let dry. Even though one coat didn't completely cover, it was good enough for government work.

After your eggies dry, yank the hanging loops out of the ends. You might end up taking a little bit of the paint and styrofoam with the loop. You can touch up the paint if you would like, but nobody is going to be looking THAT closely. Unless you have some really weird friends. Which I do.

Put the eggs in a cardboard box or on a well-covered surface. Things are about to get messy. Dip a bristled paintbrush or an old toothbrush in black or brown craft paint. If the paint is thick, you will probably need to thin it out, I found. Flick the paint off the brush and onto the eggs with your pointer finger. SPLAT! Kids will love this part. Keep splattering and rolling the eggs around until each egg has splatters all over it, like so:

Ta Dah! You just made a rip-off of PB's Decorative Speckled Egg Vase Filler which is listed as $14 for 12 eggs. That's right, friends, you just saved yourself $26 if you made a double-batch. Plop them in a pretty vase, bowl or apothecary jar and your home is looking more Spring-y already.

Come and check out the rest of my Dollar Barn series (with a special Ballard-Derived feature) this week on Mad in Crafts! And, not to beg, but comments totally make my day. :P

Disclosure: this article may contain affiliate links or other forms of sponsored content. Opinions are 100% the author's. Full disclosure policy.

25 Comments »

melissa said:

Come and check out the rest of my Dollar Barn series (with a special Ballard-Derived feature) this week on Mad in Crafts!

the link in this sentence is busted. Thanks!

# 17 February 2010 at 7:34 am

Rachel said:

That is so creative! I never would have thought they were plastic eggs. Thanks so much for sharing, I’ll be linking.

# 17 February 2010 at 11:02 am

heather said:

Thanks for catching that, Melissa!

# 17 February 2010 at 11:28 am

Sarah said:

LOVE. Can’t wait for the rest of the series!

# 17 February 2010 at 5:30 pm

billybojenny said:

Great idea… They are really pretty, can’t wait to make my own.

# 17 February 2010 at 8:54 pm

Things I covet: Robin’s egg vase filler « a stitch in lime said:

[...] the sake of stuff (decorative balls and the like) but I do have some major appreciation for these robin’s eggs made by Jhill of Mad In Crafts (tutorial featured over at Dollar Store Crafts)! Plus, I happen to [...]

# 17 February 2010 at 10:04 pm

Nancy Grant said:

Very cool! I love this look!
:-)

# 17 February 2010 at 11:40 pm

Tabitha said:

Great idea! I’m definitely going to have to try this. Thanks!

# 18 February 2010 at 10:25 am

Winklepots said:

So cute! I’m going to have to try this one. Thanks for sharing. :o)

# 19 February 2010 at 1:47 pm

Keisha - Cupcake Wishes & Birthday Dreams said:

Oooh! Me likey! I was at Dollar Tree yesterday actually looking for Robin’s Eggs – no dice – but your idea is GENIUS! Thanks for sharing!

# 19 February 2010 at 10:00 pm

SweetLilSmoothie said:

These are AMAZING! I just whipped out a batch of them and they look fantastic. Thank you for this awesome crafty on the crazy cheap!

# 20 February 2010 at 12:44 pm

Tawnya said:

So adorable. Great job! Love your site. The Dollar Tree has made more money from me since I discovered your blog! lol

# 21 February 2010 at 9:45 am

Tammy said:

Thanks for the fantastic idea!!! I just finished making a whole bunch of these and they came out GREAT!!! One helpful tip…I removed the string and stuck a toothpick in before I painted. They are much easier to paint with a “handle” and then I stuck the toothpick into a styrofoam disk (from Dollar Tree, of course) to dry. I love this site…please keep the great ideas coming!!!

# 21 February 2010 at 11:36 am

Amy @ Dealusional said:

Great idea! I’m thinking these would even be cute decorating our tree out front for Easter :)

Amy @ Dealusional

# 21 February 2010 at 6:43 pm

heather said:

@Tammy, thanks for your helpful tip!

# 22 February 2010 at 8:21 am

Owly said:

Featured as a post on my owl blog.

# 26 February 2010 at 9:53 pm

Julie Bagamary said:

GREAT idea. Did you sand the eggs before painting them? I’ve often bought the wooden eggs to let little ones paint but this is even better!

# 2 March 2010 at 7:21 am

JHill (author) said:

@Julie – Nope. No sanding necessary. Since they are styrofoam, the paint takes really well.

# 5 March 2010 at 1:38 pm

Casey said:

This is the most adorable and easy to make project ever. Like Tammy above, I also used a toothpick to hold mine (mainly because i had ripped the loops off before thinking). I can’t wait to get these on my mantel.
I was also thinking that they would look cute put on a wreath. I just have to find a little nest to use.
Thanks for such a great project.

# 8 March 2010 at 7:02 am

Becca said:

Argh! I just left a comment and it disappeared. Anyway, awesome eggs! I made some nest decorations to go along with them. Come check out the DIY at my blog!

The Bee Zoo

# 13 March 2010 at 2:32 pm

Mandy said:

What a fun idea! Not only is it a great craft idea, but I love things that the kids can get involved in. They’ll LOVE splashing the black paint on the eggs. I think I’m going to do an all-white easter table with these as the only color and focal point. Thank you!

# 14 March 2010 at 5:15 pm