My kids are on spring break this week, and we're sick, so I decided to revive a craft that I did for Real Simple last year for their Family Issue.  Real Simple produced a very open ended version of my ideas, which I thought was really cool, but when I designed it, there were several specific finished products that they didn't share.  The original crafts can be found here, and we used food coloring for all of them.  Today, my kids and I used watercolors, because I love that way that even the most novice crafter can create very impressive results with them.

I'll give you a step-by-step in case you too are marooned with your kids inside on these beautiful Spring days.  I also think this craft is perfectly appropriate for an adult who just wants to make a little something special for Easter.

I started by tracing an egg template that I had left over from when Elliot and I made this Easter egg garland way back when he was two years old.  I keep all of my templates in a file so that we can pull them out each year.  A similar template can be found here.  I traced the egg onto good quality watercolor paper.  Four eggs fit on each 8 1/2" x 11" piece.  I then cut each large sheet into rectangles, leaving the extra paper surrounding the eggs.  This encourages you and your kids to paint right up to the edge of the egg shape.

I then gave my kids a wide variety of brushes and some vinyl letters, which are found at office supply stores.  If you would like to, place the letters on the egg shapes to spell out a message which will reveal itself in due time.  Paint the egg shapes, trying different patterns (dots? stripes?) and experimenting with the different brushes.

Allow the paint to dry, peel off any vinyl letters you used, and cut out the egg shapes. If you've painted over the pencil lines too thoroughly, just retrace them quickly.  Punch holes at the top of  the eggs with a hole punch (two holes per egg works best for a garland) and then thread them with ribbon or twine.  Hang your very colorful Easter egg garland in a sunny window.  The watercolor eggs also make wonderful cards for Grandma.