spEGGtacular TIE-dyed easter eggs!!!

It's no secret that I'm a craft lover. Ben refers to them as "projects" and claims that I spend all of my time on the internet searching for new projects to do. It doesn't take up ALL of my time, but it does consume a generous chunk of my day :)

I found this gem while surfing for DIY Easter decorations. It combines two things I absolutely love, thrift store shopping, and crafting. http://www.marthastewart.com/269788/silk-tie-easter-eggs

My little sister, Mallori, was in town this weekend which was great because I needed an extra set of hands for this one. I followed the directions from the website step by step except I decided to use blown eggs (which were the shells leftover from the massive amount of breakfast burritos I made last week). In theory, this was a great idea because we are still a couple of weeks away from easter, and I wanted to save the eggs for as long as possible. However, it made the boiling step quite difficult.

Here are pictures and thoughts from my EGGciting craft afternoon with Mallori!

These are the ties we used. I've been collecting them from local thrift stores around Austin. The cheapest I could find was $3 each, so please let me know if there is a place I can get them for less! As you can see from the final product, the dark blues and deep reds show up the best.

I should have done a better job at wrapping the eggs in the ties. There is a lot of white area on the eggs from the folds in the silk. I think next time I am going to try and wrap it like a tootsie roll so that the fabric is closer to the eggs.

Here is where the blown eggs caused a dilemma. Because they were hollow, the egg wouldn't sink in the pot. We had to put a salad plate on top of the eggs to hold them down under the lid. Not ideal. I'll have to think of a better way to do this, because it is really a shame to throw these pretty eggs away every year. Not to mention- boiled eggs smell terrible.

Finished product!! Don't they look great? Not too shabby for our first try. How cute would these be hanging by a ribbon on an Easter tree? Can't wait to try it again next year!