Craftheads: Here Comes Peter Cottontail!

If you celebrate Easter, then you've most likely dyed an easter egg at some point in your life! I have vivid childhood memories of those tiny color tablets fizzing in in vinegar, a pungent smell portending the creative whirlwind I was about to share with my fellow crafters. This was the first year since high school that I've been home to celebrate this vernal holiday and I was delighted to share the tradition of egg dying with my young nephew and cousin. Ultimately, I had grand, Martha-esque designs for decoupage eggs, but my plans were foiled by a hectic month of April. The traditional dyed easter eggs, however, did not disappoint this ambitious crafter.

Here we have a simple dye job made fancy by some sweet little embellishments - a wonderful way to use up those miscellaneous items in your scrapbook supply that you never quite knew what to do with!

I think these three eggs are my favorites (shhhh don't tell the others!) - I used a special metallic easter egg set (found at any drug/grocery store) over eggs that had been dyed vibrant colors. The kit provided

The eggs above have been dyed solid colors and, once dry, were coated in glue and showered in very fine glitter (iridescent on the left, and pink on the right)

This look was accomplished with a green base dye followed by some yellow sponging. Sponging kits are very easy to find around Easter time - check anywhere that sells regular kits.

The crayon method is probably the first we learn as children - using a clear crayon to prevent dyeing in a certain area, thus creating a pattern. On the left, we have squiggly edges (the egg was subsequently glittered) and on the right is a shout-out to my boyfriend!

Here's a creative cover-up job carefully executed by my mom. My five-year old nephew got a little overenthusiastic with his dye, resulting in a putrid color. My mom salvaged the egg with some sponging and silver metallic papers.

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The artistry need not cease with crafting! I decided to get creative with this year's desserts! My mom used a Christmas tree bundt pan for her carrot cake (oops!) so I appropriated an Easter theme by spreading orange icing over the triangular mounds, forming carrots! Parsley was placed underneath each carrot, and peeps make for a tasty addition.

As cute as the bundt cake is, I wanted to make something a little more involved to bring to my boyfriend's house on Easter Sunday. I settled on this delicious carrot cheesecake recipe from Martha Stewart's website.

For the miniature carrots I used half a block of marzipan - I kneaded several drops of red and yellow food coloring into the marzipan until it was satisfactorily orange and then small rolled balls - about 1.5 cm. I rolled each ball into a conical (or carrot) shape and scored each of them with a toothpick that had been dipped in cocoa powder.

I added the carrots about halfway through the cheesecake's chill-time and again used parsley to simulate carrot greens. Everyone thought they were real!!