DIY Pottery Barn Knock-Off Easter Eggs

Pottery Barn Ad

When it comes to any holiday decorating I do what most women do...spend countless hours on Pinterest and the Internet scouring for great ideas I can do myself for a fraction of the cost!*Insert one cheesy grin* Often I look to Pottery Barn for some timeless and classic decor ideas and they have yet to disappoint with countless sparks of creativity or ideas for blatant copying! This photo in particular stuck out to me as inspiration for a Spring/Easter themed centerpiece for our dining room table. I love the faux cherry blossom branches with the hanging eggs spelling out "Happy Easter" in particular.  Our dining room is the first room you set foot in our home and our dining table is one of the first things you see when you walk in so I like to spruce it up according to whatever season or holiday may be around at the time. In my ideal world I would be moderately wealthy and able to purchase anything at Pottery Barn to decorate my home to my hearts desire each holiday and season...Things would be set out and lovingly gazed upon without grubby chocolate covered fingers and the potential of being knocked down and destroyed by our sons. Actually, they are pretty good about not touching things or playing with my decor in our home but they are rambunctious and mistakenly bump into tables while running around racing cars or the like. 

 .49 Eggs @ Hobby Lobby

Back to reality... the set is no longer available through PotteryBarn.com but I believe the retailed somewhere in the range of $15-$20 for the set. They are oh so adorable, but I can use $20 to buy a couple days of groceries or some new bow-ties for the hubby, haha. I just cant justify paying that much for fake eggs. So I went in to thinking mode and remembered the paper mache eggs that Hobby Lobby sells! Light turns on in my brain, I can make these for a fraction of the cost! They are a "true egg" size at 2 1/2 inches tall. Is "true egg" even a real description? *shrugs* They also have larger sizes available for more Easter craft fun! My local Hobby Lobby sells the 2 1/2 inch eggs for .49 a egg and if you go at a time when paper mache items are 30% they are a steal! 

Here is what you will need:

-11, 2 1/2 inch paper mache eggs

-White Spray Paint or Craft Paint

-Spray Primer

-Pearl Straight Pins

-Glue Gun 

-White Ribbon

-One Nail

-Print out of " HAPPY EASTER"

-Scissors

You need 11 paper mache eggs to spell out "HAPPY EASTER". Start by using either craft or spray paint to get a white base on the eggs. I experimented with Krylon's Satin finish in Ivory and thought the eggs were coming out too yellow. So, I re-sprayed all the eggs with a gloss white I had on hand. To do this I just threw them all in a shallow cardboard box and sprayed, let them dry turned them over and sprayed again. It probably took a good 2 coats on each side to get them covered well. I would suggest using a primer if you are going the spray paint route it will save you some time and paint! I would also like to take this time to talk about the awful stickers they attach to these babies and the PAIN IN THE BUTT they are to remove!! I tried many ways to remove them, knives, scissors, razorblades, dynamite, and there was no better way than to scrape them off with my finger nails! *Note knives, scissors and razor blades started to cut in to the paper and dynamite, well bon voyage egg!! It was a time consuming and annoying process but there was honestly  no around removing them with my fingernail... Insert one amazing, patient, and loving hubby who is willing to do this for you, such as my own did for me, and you can avoid doing it all together! Thanks hubby ;) 

 EXACT ribbon I used available
 in the fabric section of Hobby Lobby

I bought some 1/4" white satin ribbon at Hobby Lobby and cut 5" pieces for each egg. I thought I would easily poke a hole into the egg with my straight pin and be on my merry way to creating some Easter bliss but it took something a little stronger than a straight pin to cut through those puppies! I ended up using a extra nail I had laying around to puncture a hole in to the top of each egg so I could easily slide the pin in...is it weird I have nails and screws and random tool like items in a drawer in my kitchen for emergencies? Haha. Fold your ribbon in half lining up the ends as best as possible and slide the pin through near the edge and add a bead of hot glue over the hole you created at the top of your egg. Slide the pin through and hold down to make sure there is contact between the bottom ribbon and the glue to ensure a good grip! You could go the route of writing each letter on the egg with sharpie, but I wanted a uniform and more professional look that I know my shaky hand could not provide by handwriting each letter. You could modge podge each letter or use sticker letters from your local craft store, but I like to do things in the fastest, easiest way so I just printed out the words "HAPPY EASTER" in a 96pt size font. I picked a fairly chunky and bold font so the words were easy to cut out and wouldn't be prone to ripping apart before I even applied them. I just used my handy dandy glue gun to glue each letter to the eggs. *Once you lay the paper word on you CANNOT move it or you will rip the paper off the egg, trust me on this. Because of the roundness of the egg the letters aren't perfectly flush to the eggs surface but I am okay with that. The project cost me around $7 to make and I am thrilled with the results! I picked up two cherry blossom like branches at my local Michael's and hung the letters off to create a Pottery Barn-like centerpiece!

FInal Product <3

                                             {QoK}