Nine Egg Crafts for Kids

Eggs and egg cartons can lend themselves to various children's projects, not the least of which is making Easter eggs. As always, skill increase with practice. Check them out.

1. Bouquet of Tulips. Select a clean foam egg carton. Clip the segments free and trim to look like a tulip bloom. Paint a solid color with tempura paint. Take a straight pipe cleaner, twist into a curl at end end, then twist again so the curl is laying flat like a hotplate ring, glue this curl to the bottom of the bloom using white glue. Let dry. You can use cleaned and dried eggshell halves, as well.

2. Cool Color Easter Eggs. Parental supervision required for youngest. Boil eggs. Sharpen two or three crayons over an open bowl or scrape a knife across their length to remove curls of crayon which fall into the bowl. When the eggs are done boiling, while still very hot, roll them around in the bowl, remove and place on paper towel and allow to dry. The crayon shavings will stick to the eggs and melt.

3. Confetti Easter Eggs. You can use a package of vari-colored confetti for this, Put the confetti in a bowl. Paint white glue onto a cool, hard-boiled egg, one section at a time, and dip the glue-bearing section into the confetti. Continue until egg is covered. Let dry. For hard-boiled eggs you can substitute blown eggs, created by picking a hole in each end of the egg with a pin, then blowing through one hole with the egg going out the other, into a bowl if you wish, for cooking. Allow eggshell to dry thoroughly before use.

4. Dinosaur Eggs. Make some egg dough which will harden as it dries, by a five cup 50-50 mixture of flour and used coffee grounds, combine with a cup and a half of salt, and a cup of sand, stir in a cup of water while kneading. The less water you need, the faster it will dry. Pack the dough around plastic dinosaurs. Allow to harden and dry. Nice gift or great for dinosaur bone hunting expedition, they can be broken open with a small hammer.

5. Egg Critters. Gather white glue plus paints, brushes, felt-tip markers, doll type wiggle-eyes, buttons, pipe cleaners, fabric scraps, beads, plastic car and plane model parts, other bits and pieces you can pick up from the department store. Assemble a group of blown eggshells. Let the kids create people, animals, whatever they want. Just make sure they understand they should plan what they're doing because once it's glued together, they're stuck with the result. A box filled with this stuff and blown eggshells would make a great gift for a craft-oriented kid.

7. Paint Palette. Young painters can use a styrofoam egg carton as a palette. Just put different color paints in each pocket. The young artist can use their brush to mix and blend paints for a different color inside the box top.

8. Plant Starter. Kids can create their very own indoor garden with an egg carton. Remove the top. Spoon potting soil into individual cup sections. Create drainage hole in the bottom of each cup with a big needle. Put one seed in soil each cup. Water when soil is dry.

9. Bird Feeder. Remove the top from an egg carton. Punch holes in each of the four corners. Attach strings of equal length, one to each hole, bring them together above and tie together. Fill pockets with birdseed and hang from tree.

Keep in mind that besides blown eggshells and hard-boiled eggs, you can also use plastic eggs.

Also, kids can use egg cartons to store beads, coins, buttons, and other small objects. This can be especially helpful if they have a hobby such as beading.