Easter Wreath with Moss Bunny

April 10, 2019 by Cheree' Leave a Comment This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and purchase something, I may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you.) See my disclosure policy HERE.

MOSS BUNNY EASTER WREATH

Cheree here! Julie from Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss shared her darling moss bunny topiary with us recently and apparently moss bunnies are in the air because I have one to share as well!

My sweet daughter and son-in-law just purchased their first house (so I wanted to surprise them with a cute Easter wreath for their front porch). I had moss bunnies on my mind, because what screams Easter more than Jesus and a moss bunny??? 🤗 I was able to make both a cute Spring wreath with this bunny, and a fun mantle decoration with him. He's pretty versatile!

How to Make This Easter Wreath:

wooden craft bunny (I got mine at Hobby Lobby in the Easter section)
oval grapevine wreath
tacky glue
moss mat
scissors
variety of ribbon (I love this polka dot one from Hobby Lobby)
2 inch chipboard letters (or wooden letters would work as well)
hot glue gun and glue sticks

Warning! This is a bit messy so you might want to work outside. 🙂

First, trace your bunny onto the moss mat (be sure to trace your bunny backwards so it will face the direction you prefer when you glue it on). Now, carefully cut the bunny out trying to cut a little outside the tracing so it will be a bit bigger than the wooden piece.

Next, cover your wooden bunny with glue and gently press the moss cutout onto the wood. I used spray adhesive, but you could use regular tacky craft glue or hot glue as well.

You could use bagged moss here, and if you do I would definitely take this outside. 🤗

Lastly, make a cute bow to make him really stand out. To make a super easy bow, I love to use this technique from Brooke over at Re-fabbed. You can hot glue the bow right onto the moss.

Adding a bow really gives this cutie some character. 🐰

I had some chipboard letters on hand along with some chalk paint. So those were easy to make quickly and hot glue to the wreath. I used hot glue to adhere the bunny to the wreath as well. 🙂

This is the Easter wreath that is sitting on my daughter's front porch now!

…and this fella is sittin' on my mantle!

You might remember this Christmas Paper Garland I shared back in December. I was so sad to pack it away after Christmas, so I decided to bring it back out and I'm so glad I did. It's really perfect for Spring!

It was just the touch my mantel needed to complete my sort of hodge podge, whimsical Easter theme I seem to have going this year! 🙂

If you enjoyed this Easter Wreath – you might also like these other Spring DIYs:

DIY Spring Wreath

9 Easy Dollar Tree DIYs for Easter

Dollar Tree Easter Egg Wreath

Bunny Mason Jar Craft

Instant Pot Easter Eggs – 3 Easy Ways!

Natural Dyed Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

April 4, 2019 by Cheree' 1 Comment This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and purchase something, I may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you.) See my disclosure policy HERE.

Natural Dyed Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

I hope you've been enjoying all these Instant Pot Easter egg experiments this week! This is one of my FAVORITES that Cheree has tried for us this week – naturally dyed Easter eggs!

Cheree here!

If you have been following our posts this week, you know I have been having an “eggcellent” time trying different methods of dying Easter eggs in the Instant Pot ! 🙂

Our next method was really cool. If you have never dyed eggs using natural ingredients, I definitely suggest trying a few of these. The red cabbage, avocado and turmeric eggs were my favorites! Who knew that avocado skins turn red???

Don’t have an Instant Pot, no worries – this method works great on the stove top as well! Scroll down for stove top instructions!

In the perfect world, you could boil your eggs in your ingredients right in the Instant Pot and all the stars would align and the eggs would turn the perfect color. I tried this with the red cabbage…

But, unfortunately that is not the case. So for this one you will need a bit of patience (trust me it's worth it). I had a rainy Saturday so it was a great day to test these out!

Instructions for Natural Dyed Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

Ingredients you'll need (these are what I used)

Blueberries
Turmeric
Coffee
Avocado
Red Cabbage
Green Tea
Red Cherries
Yellow Onions
White vinegar

These are the ingredients that I tried, but use your imagination and try some foods you have on hand. You might just be surprised! I know I was. 🙂

Instructions

The instructions are a bit different for each ingredient, so here is a list of what worked for me.

Blueberries: Cook 1 package of frozen blueberries (or fresh) with 8 cups of water in your instant pot. I did mine on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural released for 10 minutes and then quick release. To cook the eggs, add 1/2 cup vinegar to the blueberry mixture. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will turn from light purple to a deep plum the longer they soak.

Turmeric: Add 8 tablespoons turmeric, 8 cups water and 1/2 cup vinegar to instant pot. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These turn from a light yellow to a deep maze yellow the longer they soak.

Coffee: Brew 8 cups strong coffee. Add coffee to instant pot along with 1/2 cup vinegar. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will give you some awesome dark brown eggs!

Avocado: Cook skins of 2 avocados with 4 cups of water in your instant pot. I did mine on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural released for 10 minutes and then quick release. To cook the eggs, add 1/2 cup vinegar to the avocado mixture. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. This color is AMAZING! These will turn almost a salmon red, just gorgeous!

Red Cabbage: Cut cabbage into strips. Add cabbage, 8 cups of water and 1/2 cup vinegar to your instant pot. I did mine on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural released for 10 minutes and then quick release. I tried to cook the eggs in this mixture and it just didn't work. This one works better to use hard boiled eggs (made in your IP) and let soak until they reach the desired color. The longer these soak the more vividly blue they become. The ones that I did boil with the cabbage did pick up a texture that was cool to see come out as they soaked.

Green Tea: Brew 8 cups strong green tea. Add green tea to instant pot along with 1/2 cup vinegar. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will go from a light yellowish green to a deeper greenish/brown color.

Red Cherries: Cook 1 jar red cherries with 8 cups of water in your instant pot. I did mine on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural released for 10 minutes and then quick release. To cook the eggs, add 1/2 cup vinegar to the cherry mixture. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will range from pink to dark pink the longer they soak.

Yellow Onions: Cook the skins from 4 large yellow onions with 8 cups of water in your instant pot. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural release 10 minutes and then quick release. To cook the eggs, add 1/2 cup vinegar to the onion mixture. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will turn a burnt orange/tan color.

Stove top Instructions

For vegetables and fruits: Boil veggies or fruit in 8 cups water for 20 minutes or until cooked down. Let cool and strain. Add 1/4 cup vinegar to the mixture along with hard boiled eggs. Refrigerate and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color.

Coffee and tea: Go ahead and brew; cool and add 1/4 cup vinegar and hard boiled eggs. Refrigerate and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color.

Spices: Heat 8 cups of water and add 8 tablespoons spice and 1/4 cup vinegar. Cool and add hard boiled eggs. Refrigerate and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color.

I love, love, love this idea if you have kiddos at home who enjoy being in the kitchen or love to do science experiments! Plus, because you are using all natural ingredients, these are completely safe to eat. 🙂

These eggs are just GORGEOUS!!!

A fun idea is to let the eggs soak at different intervals and see how the colors change. Do them for 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, etc. You will get some awesome shades! 🙂

These natural dyed eggs turned out just beautiful! I'm seriously obsessed with them. 🙂

Looking for some more Easter decorating ideas??? Here ya go! ❤

Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

How to Dye Easter Eggs with Silk Ties (In the Instant Pot!)

Dollar Tree Mason Jar Craft

Easter DIY: No Sew Burlap Bunny Pillow

Dollar Tree Decorating: Easter Fun

Dollar Tree Easter Wreath

Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

March 18, 2019 by Cheree' 4 Comments This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and purchase something, I may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you.) See my disclosure policy HERE.

Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

If you have an Instant Pot, you may have already found out how handy it is for hard boiling eggs. But maybe you haven't thought about dyeing eggs in it as well! PPP Team Member Cheree spent the last week busily trying out all sorts of Instant Pot Easter Egg recipes – here's a traditional Easter egg dyeing method adapted for the Instant Pot. 🙂

Cheree here!

I was curious to see if you could really dye eggs the traditional way (with food coloring) in the Instant Pot. Turns out, you can!!

I'm so excited to share this with you because being new to the Instant Pot, I had no idea. Don't have an Instant Pot, no problem – you can use the dying steps with plain ole hard boiled eggs as well! 🙂

Instructions for How to Dye Easter Eggs in the Instant Pot

Supplies:

Eggs
Food Coloring
Vinegar
Ramekins
Instant Pot Trivet (this should come with your Instant Pot)

Instructions:

Place the trivet in the bottom of the instant pot and add 1 cup water.
Place an egg in each ramekin and add 10-12 drops food coloring and 3 tablespoons vinegar to each ramekin.
Fill ramekin with water to cover egg; repeat steps for up to 6 ramekins per batch.
Place ramekins in the instant pot (3 on the bottom and another 3 stacked on top).
Lock lid into place and use the manual high pressure for 5 minutes.
Allow the instant pot to natural release for 5 minutes.
Fill a large bowl with ice water.
Do a quick release for the remaining pressure and immediately place eggs into the ice bath for an additional 5 minutes.
Remove the eggs from the ice bath and allow to dry.

These were super easy! This technique has instant results just like traditionally dying eggs. If you prefer darker colors, you can let the eggs sit in the dye for a longer time. Be creative with mixing the food coloring to create some fun and unique colors! 🌷

Looking for some more Easter decorating ideas??? Here ya go! ❤

Natural Dyed Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

How to Dye Easter Eggs with Silk Ties (In the Instant Pot!)

Dollar Tree Mason Jar Craft

Easter DIY: No Sew Burlap Bunny Pillow

Dollar Tree Decorating: Easter Fun

Dollar Tree Easter Wreath

Easy DIY Gnomes

March 7, 2019 by Cheree' 3 Comments This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and purchase something, I may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you.) See my disclosure policy HERE.

EASY DIY GNOMES

Y'all, I can't even wait to share this little DIY Gnomes craft with you! I'm gonna be honest, I've never bought a gnome, made a gnome, had a gnome in my home (ha!), nothin…..but, I'm OBSESSED with these little fellas!

**Update – made this little fella for St. Patrick's Day and wanted to share with y'all because there are just SO many opportunities to make gnomes all year round!

I wanted to make mine for Valentine's Day (and of course got a really late start on it, yikes!). So, my fuzzy sock selection was very limited. 🙁 To save you time, go straight to Walmart for fuzzy socks (they were the only store in my area that still had a small selection).

Supplies you'll need to get started:

2 pair of fuzzy socks (for the body and hat)
craft fur (for the beard)
rice or dry beans
wood beads or knob (for the nose)
pom poms (for the tip of the hat)
variety of embellishments (I used some felt hearts I had on hand)
hot glue gun and glue sticks
rubber-bands

How to Make the Easy DIY Gnomes

Add about 1 pound of rice to a jar and stretch the sock over the jar to fill (or use less rice if you don't want your gnome as chubby). 🙂 Secure a rubber-band around the top as pictured.

Next, take another fuzzy sock and place over your body until you are satisfied with how it looks. You can roll some of the top sock under to make it shorter if you prefer your hat smaller.

For the girl gnome, I cut 2 pieces of fur and hot glued it on along with the wood bead centered between the fur. For the guy gnome, I cut 1 piece of fur (eye balling it) so it would cover his bottom half from side to side. Then, hot glued his nose on in the center of his beard.

The fun part is embellishing the gnomes to give them personality. I hot glued a pom pom onto her hat and tied up her beard into pony tails! So cute! 💗

and just for kicks, I tied her hat in a few spots and added more pom poms.

I added a tad of blush to their sweet noses so they have a bit of a flushed look. 🤗

💜💜💜

Such a fun craft to do with the kids and can be used for any holiday or season by switching up the socks. Love that!!!

I've wrapped up a few for my fellas to give to their special gals and goodness, complete CUTENESS OVERLOAD!!

and….because the PPP Team is full of awesome creatives, we made this happy little printable for you to use as well!

You can wrap them up and give to your special Valentine with this simple Gnomes Valentine printable that can be printed off in color OR in black and white.

PRINT HERE

I have “gnome” doubt that your Valentines are gonna ❤️ these cuties!

Looking for a bit more DIY inspiration??? Here you go:

Valentine White Trash Candy

Valentine Juicebox Printable (Great for Classrooms with Food Allergies!)

3 Quick and Easy DIY Valentine Crafts

DIY Dollar Tree Candy Jar

Dollar Tree Valentine Project

Valentine's Dollar Tree DIY

(FREE!) DIY Valentine Tree

DIY Wood Bead Garland

Christmas Paper Garland

December 4, 2018 by Cheree' Leave a Comment This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and purchase something, I may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you.) See my disclosure policy HERE.

Christmas Paper Garland

Y'all, I've been kind of obsessed with the idea of making this Christmas Paper Garland for a few months now!! When Laurie showed me this garland (similar to her Fall Paper Garland), I knew I had to make one for Christmas this year! 🙂

Here's what you'll need:

12 pieces of 12 x 12″ scrapbook paper (in 2 different shades)
scissors
9 foot bendable faux moss wire
green floral tape
hot glue gun
paper trimmer
white colored pencil
white pom poms (I used a garland I found for 50% off and took the pom poms off)

How to make the Christmas Paper Garland:

Start off by drawing a leaf to use as a template. I found an artificial leaf laying around that looked about the right size and traced it.

I found that the easiest way to make these was by using a trimmer to cut the scrapbook paper into 3” strips. Then stack them 2 at a time and lay the “template leaf” on the strip and cut them in an assembly line fashion. You'll need a ton, so just keep cutting! 🙂

This would be the perfect time to put on a good movie…… and get to cutting! 😉

Next, draw a line with the white pencil down the center of the leaf. It doesn't have to be perfectly straight, it will give your garland some character. Now, fold each leaf in half and throw them in a bowl for later.

To start the garland, cut off a 6″ piece of floral tape (you'll need to pull this to stretch it out to activate the sticky part of the tape). Wrap the first leaf stem onto the wire using the floral tape.

Wrapping it about 3 times worked pretty well for me. Add the next leaf … and the next … and so on … keep going, tearing off additional floral tape as needed.

After the garland was completed, I took 3 of the pom pom balls and hot glued them together to make berries (don't you just love the berries??).

I made about 11 of these berry bundles and then hot glued them onto the garland every few inches or so.

I was SO happy that I used the bendable wire, it gave me so many options to drape the garland on my mantle.

After playing around with my mantle, I decided to add a tiny red and aqua pom pom to the berries. This tied in my stockings and some of my bottle brush trees (which BTW I got last year after Christmas for 90% off )!