Okay folks, this is the first of many Easter projects I have underway and I must say, I’m smitten! If you follow me on Instagram, I showed in my stories my process of making these. I also shared a “sneak peek” picture and the response has been overwhelming. They’ve already been featured by Oriental Trading and others, all before I have even shown them in use. And trust me, if you think they can’t get cuter—they can! Needless to say, I’m so excited to share the easy how-to with you now.
The inspiration for the project were Chipwood Baskets that I found on Oriental Trading. I loved their natural finish, size and simple-casual feel. They are also super affordable. You get 12 for $6.99. I immediately could picture them on my Easter table. I figured I’d use one at each place setting to hold Easter eggs. I thought they would even be cute as is, but then my imagination took over!
I thought of the bunny first, but I’ve featured bunnies for Easter a lot in the past so I decided I needed to think of two more animals. Naturally, a chick and lamb came to mind and, frankly, I really liked the idea of using feathers! For the bunny and lamb, I wanted the ears to look like they were part of the basket so I used thin basswood (available at craft stores) and even though the wood doesn’t match perfectly, you can barely tell and I think this detail is what makes them look professional and a little less like a craft. Always my goal when doing these things.
So let’s just get to it.
Materials
- Chipwood Baskets (Available at Oriental Trading)
- Basswood 3/16″ x 4″ x 36″ – for the bunny and lamb (Available at craft stores like Jo-Ann Fabrics)
- Faux Flowers (Flowers should have a 1″ or smaller diameter. Pick a variety of colors. I used yellow, white and shades of pink. For the leaves, you can use any faux leaves, I just used the green fringe leaves that were part of one of the flowers.)
- Yellow Feathers – for the chick
- Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
- Acrylic Paint (black, pink, white and orange)
- Fine and medium paint brushes
- Craft knife
Instructions
For Bunny
Cut Out Ears: Using a pencil, draw two bunny ears on your basswood (I will follow up with a template, so message me if you need it). Using your craft knife, cut out the two bunny ears.
Paint Insides of Ears: Create the insides of the bunny ears using your medium paint brush and your pink and white paint. I like using both to create a little dimension. For a lighter, water color effect, just use more water.
Glue Ears to Basket: Once your paint is dry (doesn’t take long), glue ears to the inside rim of your chipwood basket. After the ears are in place, glue on your flowers to the front rim. Note: it makes it easier if you first glue on your leaves and then layer on the flowers on top.
Add Face: I suggest lightly drawing your face first with a pencil to get the correct placement. When you are ready to paint, make sure you don’t add too much water or your paint will bleed. Try practicing first on the basswood to get a feel for your brush and paint.
For my bunny faces, I painted two black oval eyes set wide apart. I then painted the pink nose. Using a little more water, I then added light pink cheeks. Once the paint was dry, I outlined the bottom of the nose with black and added the black mouth. The last step was adding two small white dots to the eyes and white lines for the whiskers.
For the Lamb
Similar to the bunny, you cut out two lamb ears from the Basswood and paint the pink insides. The ears then get glued to the front of the chipwood basket. Next, add the flowers and leaves. For the face, it was similar to the bunny, but I made the eyes closer together and didn’t do the cheeks or whiskers.
For the Chick
Are you ready for some feather fun! The yellow bag of feathers I got from Jo-Ann Fabric had many shades of yellow that really added extra dimension to the chicks.
For the feathers, you’ll want to make sure that you add the feathers so that they curve backwards toward the rest of the basket and not out towards you. I slipped them into the corner slots and glued them to the inside of the basket. Please message me if you have any questions.
Once done with the wings, I added two small feathers to the top before adding the flowers. I then added the flowers similar to the bunny and lamb.
For the face, I painted black oval eyes like the bunny and lamb. (Note how you can also add eyelashes! There really are no rules.) I then mixed my orange with some of the pink paint to create a darker orange. I used this for the bottom/opening of the beak. Once that was dry, I added the top orange triangle. And don’t forget to add small white dots to the eyes.
In my next post, I’ll show you how (and why) I created these cuties as well as this fun Blooming Easter Basket (basket from Oriental Trading, I just painted the outside white).
A special thank you to Oriental Trading for sending me products to use in this post. They are only some of the great finds they have in their Easter collection and I’ll be showing more of my finds from them in the next couple of posts leading up to Easter.
