Ostara Crafts
Silhouette painted eggs:
You'll Need:Make sure the eggs are completely dry and room temperature so they don't "sweat" while you're working with them. Cut out various small shapes from the paper, pivoting the paper rather than the scissors as you work for a detailed edge. Designs that are about an inch across work best and will adhere to the egg nicely-larger designs may be used if they can be fitted around the curved shape of the egg, such as flowers with deeply cut petals.
Lay out the newspapers in an outdoor wind free location or garage with ventilation. Turn the paper cut outs face down and lay them on the newspapers. Lightly spray them with spray adhesive and wait about 30 seconds. Apply the cutouts to the eggs, pressing firmly to adhere them well.
Fill each pump bottle with a different color of paint, thinning it as needed to produce a lovely spatter spray. Experiment by spraying the newspapers until you achieve the right consistency and spatter. If using toothbrushes, pour a few drops of each color paint onto a palette or butter tub lids and experiment with diluting it a little bit. Run your finger over the brush head to spatter the paint.
Place each egg in the stand or lay them on a soft rag so they don't roll around as you work. Spray the eggs with various colors of paint overlapping the colors to create a sort of tie-dye effect. Allow the paint to dry completely and turn the eggs over, then finish your painting job so the egg is completely covered with speckled paint. Allow to dry. Carefully remove the paper shapes to reveal white images on the rainbow colored eggs. Other things can be used to create designs as well, such as lace, small dried flowers, scrapbooking shapes, interesting confetti, and so on-just spray with adhesive, attach to eggs, and paint.
Decorated Flower Pots:
You'll Need:Use a cloth to dust off the pots in preparation for painting them. You can either paint the pots in solid colors and embellish them further with glued on accessories, or you can paint them alone the entire design-create woodland scenes, random patterns, spirals and pentacles, or even animal skin patterns like leopard spots or zebra stripes.
If you choose to embellish the pots, make sure the paint has dried completely and the pots do not feel cool to the touch. If they feel distinctly cool, the paint's moisture has entered the porous clay but has not yet evaporated and may cause the glue not to stick properly. When you're sure the paint is dry, start gluing on your glitter, sequins, rick-rack, fringe, or whatever tickles your fancy. Allow to dry completely and then either display them as-is, or fill them with silk or real spring plants. Be aware that moisture may make some of the glued on decorations come off over time.
Ankle Dance Bells
You'll Need:You'll need different sizes for children, women with dresses and men with pants, and so on, so make small, medium and large ankle bells. Small is about 9 inches or so total length, medium is about 12 inches, and large is about 18 inches. For one set of ankle bells, cut the Velcro tape to the desired length and separate the halves. Put them back together again with about three inches of tape extending past the ends of the connected halves. Form an open circle with the tape, making the exposed soft loop portion face toward the middle and the rough hook side face away from the middle (this avoids scratched naked ankles and irritated guests). Run your fingers along the tapes where they are connected to smooth out any wrinkles on the inside of the circle.
With any kind of pen, pencil or marker, make six evenly spaced dots on the overlapping connected portion of the tape. Securely stitch a bell to each dot, going through both layers of tape and using plenty of thread as needed. Repeat for the other matching ankle bells so you have a pair. To wear them, use the exposed portions of the tape to secure the bells to the ankles, strapping them on tightly and pressing the halves together firmly so they don't fall off while dancing.
*Excerpt taken from: Sabbat Entertaining: Written by: Willow Polson; Citadel Press, Kensington
