Beaded Easter Eggs

Just a quick note to say hello and wish you a rejuvenating Easter, Passover or other Springtime celebration! I've been busy making beaded eggs this week and they are easier than they look (but not so easy to photograph - pix coming next week, I promise!).

This is an economical project that you can use as a decoration year after year. It's also another one of those beady things that's easy to do in front of a movie, as long as it doesn't have subtitles!

If you want to try your hand at making some beaded eggs, I recommend starting with:

• a blank Styrofoam egg
• pre-strung seed beads
  
• thick craft adhesive such as The Ultimate glue
• hard beading needle or thin sewing needle
• popsicle stick

Use a popsicle stick to smear glue over one end of the egg and press the end of a seed bead strand into the glue. Shape the beaded strand into a coil. Don't worry if the beads don't completely cover the end of the egg. You can fill it in with single beads later.

Wind the beaded strand around the egg, adding more glue sections as you go along. When you reach the end of the strand, just add the beginning of the next strand. If the knotted thread ends show, you can trim them off after the glue dries and glue a single seed bead there to fill the spot. Alternatively, you can use a needle to press the knotted end into the Styrofoam.

Continue smearing glue and wrapping the beaded strands around the egg until you reach the other end of the egg. Coil the end of the strand as tightly as possible and then cut off any extra thread. If necessary, go back and glue a few beads inside the coils on the top and bottom of the egg.