Easy Easter Crafts That Go Beyond Decorating Eggs

It's Easter, and that means all things festive, fun and of course, chocolate. But it's also the perfect time to spark the little ones' creativity in preparation for the Easter Bunny. So this year, move beyond the age-old egg dying.

There are plenty of great activities you can do as a family that are simple, but make great keepsakes. Here are some of our favorites to try out this year.

1. Cotton Ball Animals

This one doesn't require anything fancy, just a bag of cotton balls, paint, glue and construction paper. To create a baby chick, take a yellow piece of circular construction paper and glue cotton balls to it. Then, take yellow paint and paint over the cotton balls. Once it's dry, you can add all sorts of things to it — googly eyes, card stock hands, cutout feet and, of course, a beak. 

You don't have to stop at fuzzy birds. You can also create bunnies or lambs — just change the shape of your base construction paper and color of the cotton balls as necessary.

2. Potato Easter Egg Stamps

Have leftover uncooked potatoes from your Easter meal? Believe it or not, they make a great family-friendly arts & crafts project! Start by slicing the potatoes in half long-ways. Then, get the kiddos involved and let them draw their Easter egg design. Will they go with squiggly lines? How about zig-zags? It’ll be up to their creativity!

Once their Easter egg designs are complete, grab the potatoes back from them and use a kitchen knife to carefully cut out the shapes. Next, stick a toothpick or wooden skewer into each potato half and voila, you have your potato stamps ready to go. And that means it’s time to get your paint ready. You can either use regular acrylic paint, finger paint or use your Easter egg dyeing kit to mix up some color. To apply, use a paintbrush and make sure to brush plenty on your potato stamp.

Then, let your kids stamp away on cardstock, or pieces of cardboard cut into the shape of eggs. 

3. Shaving Cream Eggs

Warning: This one can get pretty messy, but it's also tons of fun for the whole family. Painting with shaving cream is a great way to get different textures and patterns out of paint. To do this project, cut out a bunch of cardstock into the shape of eggs. They can be big or small, but with younger kids, the bigger the better.

This is where the fun begins. Take shaving cream and spread it out on a foil-lined cookie sheet (this will help with clean up). Let your kids put in dabs of various acrylic paint colors or egg dye from your kit. Then swirl the paint to combine — it can be a plastic fork or toothpick. 

The designs are endless; you can make swirls or a marble look, straight lines or even hearts. After the design you want is achieved, take those cardstock eggs for a dip in the shaving cream paint face down. After you press them onto the shaving cream, wipe off any excess shaving cream and let it dry. The result is a beautiful springtime egg! Get creative and make other shapes as well.

4. Pipe Cleaner Bunnies and Carrots

Grab a pack of multicolored pipe cleaners, a few small pom-poms, googly eyes, glue and a pencil for this one. For little kids, you may have to do the first part for them. 

Take your pipe cleaner and wrap it tightly around a pencil or pen to make a coil. Take another pipe cleaner and shape it into an “M”. This will be the bunny ears. Then, stick the M through the coil and pull down until you see the bottom sticking out. Fold over those two pieces for the bunny's feet, and add google eyes plus a pom-pom nose! 

For carrots, use an orange pipe cleaner, and instead of the "M" cut a few pieces of green pipe cleaners to stick on top.

Bonus Easy Easter Craft: Egg Sun Catcher

If you’re feeling like enjoying a nice spring day in your backyard, this project is perfect because you’ll have to gather some items from the great outdoors! For this easy Easter craft, you'll need clear contact paper, pretty flowers and leaves from outside. You'll also need a marker, scissors and tape. 

Now, let’s get started! Tape down a piece of contact paper to your table with the sticky side up. Draw a large egg with your marker. Stick the flower petals and leaves on the inside of the egg. You can create a design or just place them randomly across the paper. 

Once you’re done with that step, stick a second piece of contact paper on top and cut out your egg. From there you can use tape or construction paper to create a border around your egg. Hang it in the window and watch the sunlight come through!

Which easy Easter craft will you pick to do as a family at home? Check your local Food Lion for your festive craft hour supples. And no matter what you choose to make, we hope that you’ll have a wonderful holiday and make some happy memories with the people you love. Happy Easter everyone!