Easter Cupcake Toppers - free download

I decided to make Easter cupcakes for my daughter's preschool tomorrow. I added "Happy Easter" and "Jesus" paper cupcake toppers to go with:

It's not a Christian school, so these toppers will really just be for our extended family and the preschoolers will simply enjoy a special treat in honor of the Easter celebration. (With assorted sprinkles, of course!)  :-) 

But ... I've uploaded the cupcake topper daisy artwork as a free download for you. You can use them on cupcakes, or any other cake/treat, or even string them into a spring-colored Easter banner. To go on cake or cupcakes, glue a "Happy Easter" back to back with a "Jesus" topper and a toothpick in the middle will stick it right in place. For a banner, glue them along a pretty ribbon and decorate your fireplace mantel or Easter buffet.

DOWNLOAD FILE

(This is a .pdf file. An 8 1/2 x 11 page that opens with Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Now, I have no idea how bunnies worked their way into the Easter holiday. It's not the focus at our house, but my little ones made these two adorable buck-toothed bunnies at a recent party:

They make me laugh and the kids had a ball making them. My wonderful friend pulled the whole thing together for a preschool spring break activity. Jelly beans poured into [clean] children's socks, cinched at the neck with a ribbon, rubber bands to top the head, then snipped at the cuff of the sock to create two floppy ears:

Now, I recommend dry beans or something other than tasty treats that your child may suck on THROUGH the sock in the car on the way home!  Note the interesting belly on the pink one! :-)

I do hope you have a blessed Easter, remembering Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, His gift of eternal life!

The No-Egg Egg Tree for Easter

Paper crosses decorate my tabletop "egg tree" for Easter:

Oh, yeah, I guess I shouldn't call it an egg tree since there are no eggs. :-)

One of my hurricanes got a fresh look for Easter. And it cost me nothing. Nada. Zed. I found a terrific narrow branch for the tight spot in my living room that this will be going to. I anchored the stem in some local "pretty" rocks my daughter loves to collect. A satin ribbon and silk peony adorn the hurricane:

The delicate smaller branches are decorated with assorted-size crosses cut with decorative-edged scissors. The variety of scrapbook papers I chose from my scrap pile were all patterned on both sides. A small hole punch and fringy ribbon rounded out my supply list:

And it doesn't even matter if the pattern was upside down ... on the one cross I photographed up close ... because you didn't even notice ... right?  ...  :-)  (I'm sharing this idea with all the visitors to DIY day at A Soft Place to Land and Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog.)

Through the Seasons with my Footed Bowl

I'm decorating for Spring with my sweet little birdie and her two little blue eggs:

My friend gave me this large footed glass bowl at Christmas:

For Valentines Day I removed the large plum candle and potpourri and replaced with a red candle I already had. I added red ribbon and glass beads:

Now for Spring I shopped the house for my two little, yet heavy, cast iron birdies. One is resting in the bowl with two blue wood eggs and natural shavings nest from my Easter supplies:

As my kids say - "She's the mommy birdie caring for her babies in the eggs and the daddy bird is looking for food and keeping them safe from bad guys. Like Spiderman." Yeah, something like that.  :-)

Linking to: DIY Day, Get Your Craft on and Tip Me Tuesday.

Easter Cross Candle Decor

If you want to introduce some of the Original reasons for Easter into your holiday decorating, I have a simple idea for you today:

A candle trio to represent Jesus on the cross next to two sinners. Naturally, the sinless Christ is the white candle, while He has two red candles on either side. Each one is placed on a wood base to represent their crosses. These rustic wood slices were found at a craft store. A plain strand of twine adorns a simple grapevine wreath, which surrounds Jesus' white candle as a symbol of His crown of thorns:

This is sitting on my hall table, but I think it would make a special centerpiece for Easter dinner/brunch.

Tip: In the right side column of my blog is a section called "Topics." Clicking any topic listed will bring up all posts I've done on a given topic, like Easter, kids or spring. Here's all my posts to-date on Easter, for example.   :-)

Wall Art Shadow Boxes

I was doing some major cleaning of our storage boxes and found some art treasures hidden since our last move!

This set of scripture shadow boxes was included in my book Inspirational Home. You can easily create this look for your home, too. Use colors to suit your room, these neutrals go in my dining area. (How about pinks for a girl's room?)

Start with your faux flower. Find two coordinating ones of good "realistic" design that are also very flat. Then choose a coordinating background paper with a small pattern. Use it to cover the back of the shadow box to provide depth without distracting. Then type the scripture "The Lord is good" and "His love endures forever. Psalm 100:5" Cut these out and, using large pearl-head pins, pin them in place. If you can't pin into your backing, you can cheat by snipping the pins to shorten them and glue them in place:

To enjoy more ideas for making your home inspiring and unique ... check out Inspirational Home: simple ideas for uplifting decor and craft in my Etsy store where I have a special right now of buy one get one free!!

Next up: Easter!