Easter Decorations

Our Easter Preparations

Here is a sneak peek at some more of our Easter creations.  

Firstly an altered mint tin which is for a party favour.  It is painted, stamped and decoupaged.  The shapes were cut using my favourite Easter 'Quickutz' dies.  In the background you can see some decoupage eggs which started out as cheap polystyrene ones from the pound store.  I then painted them with emulsion and applied motifs cut from paper napkins/serviettes.  A bit fiddly, but the effect is brilliant, as they look like hand-painted creations!

Next is a little gift bag sewn with felt shapes cut using my trusty Sizzix machine.  I have also stitched about 15 personalised versions which you may have spotted in an earlier post.

Easter Trees

So far I have put up the trees in the family room and dining room, so now just the lounge to go!

Family room

Dining room

I made many of the hanging eggs, these ones feature free motion machine embroidery and raw edge applique;

I designed and quilted a wall hanging in matching colours, it was my first ever attempt, so don't be too critical!  

And finally some cones I made for our God-children which are waiting to be filled by the Easter Bunny!

Postscript

Easter Sunday

I didn't manage to take many pictures on the day itself - Too busy getting the table set and lunch ready for a total of 31 guests.  We normally have between 40-50, but Easter was so cold this year I felt we should have less as the weather wasn't conducive to having people sit in the garden.

 We did consider placing some of the girls around the kitchen table to give the rest of us a bit more room.  In the end we decided against it and just shifted out a couple of sofas as we felt it would be a greater act of family and community for us all to be together.

If you look carefully at the above picture you can see Mr.Larkin and bad kitty in the family room making the most of the last few minutes of quiet before the fun began!

Alice was in charge of seating and we had made some very simple place cards so that people stuck to her plan.  The cards actually looked really good, but the glitter and inking details haven't been picked up all that well by the camera. 

The outside of the house wasn't left out - I took this tree......

..and painted and decorated it.

The 'Crown of Thorns' made its debut this year.

Everyone was very well behaved and so a little guest made an appearance.  Here 'he' is in my study being got ready. One threw oneself into the role and the method acting was worthy of an Oscar.  The only down side being that all alcohol had been given up for Lent and so Mr. Bunny was a little happy from the wine at the table.  As a result almost every guest got a present and a kiss, although I'm pleased to say the Priest escaped the kissing part!

All the children and women received a 'proper' present, but the men got a bag of mixed chocolate nuts and raisins packaged with an Easter theme!

I hope you all had a very Happy Easter shared with those you love xx