Adding a bit of holiday cheer to your Easter celebration shouldn't take a month of Sundays. Here are 25 quick, easy, and creative ways to get in the spring spirit. Be the first to receive our Ultimate Guide to Easter Eggs full of tips, tutorials, and decorating ideas by downloading it here.
Photography: Anna Williams
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Decorated Egg Weights
Don't let your tablecloth blow away. Anchor your party table covering with plastic eggs filled with jelly beans. Secure gingham ribbon around the eggs with hot glue, and thread through openings you've hole-punched into the corners of the cloth.
Don't fill Easter baskets with store-bought plastic: Make your own recycled "green" grass in just a couple of minutes. Run leftover wrapping paper or colored paper scraps through a paper shredder and crinkle with your hands to make a basketful of grass.
For a simple but beautiful table setting, make daffodils from our printable template, baking cups, and any extra candy. To use these as place cards, write names on the petals.
The fabled “golden egg” never looked quite so cool and organic: Ours were dyed in bright colors, then brushed with copper or gold leaf. You just need time to boil the eggs and let the colors dry before you leaf them.
Fill glass jars with colorful layers of bulk candy for quick and festive centerpieces. Or, create an Easter basket effect by nestling a white-chocolate bunny or lamb in green paper "grass." Finish with ribbon and a tag, or attach a note to the lid using double-sided tape.
Surprise little bunnies with candy carrots on Easter morning. Simply fill clear plastic pastry bags with orange jelly beans and tie closed with green rickrack or ribbon.
Make your Easter table bloom with tiny flower arrangements inside hollowed-out eggshells. Break an egg at the top of its shell, drain the contents, and carefully rinse out the inside. Next, fill the empty shell with room-temperature water and place it in an eggcup for stability. Finally, insert small cuttings of your favorite blossoms (we used lilacs, lily of the valley, and violas).
Try a twist on Easter baskets, and make a paper basket bouquet for every place setting. All you need are small brown paper bags, baby-food jars or shot glasses, and your favorite blooms.
To bring some last-minute Easter charm to your dessert table, use our printable template to march bunnies across a garland, sit them atop cupcakes, or offer sneak peeks into gift bags.
Give eggs a quick new look by decorating them with old or new stamps. Working in sections, coat a blown-out eggshell or a wooden egg with water-based glue sealant (such as Mod Podge); position stamps so they overlap. When done, paint a thin layer of glue over entire egg.
To remove stamps stuck on paper, soak in warm water for 15 to 20 minutes, then peel away; dry them facedown on kraft paper.
Disguise candy bowls as fuzzy birds' nests for your Easter gathering with this simple idea. Cover the outside of a bowl with double-sided tape and wind a ball of yarn (we used mohair) around the bowl until its exterior is hidden. To finish, securely tuck the loose end behind the wrapped yarn.
Transform humble peat pots into festive Easter baskets. The inexpensive vessels, commonly used by gardeners to sprout seeds, get a holiday makeover with the addition of ribbon, trim, jelly beans, and small chocolate eggs.
Exuberant egg-and-crepe-paper daffodils and tulips are a breeze to make -- and you don't have to worry about the arrangement wilting. Place each flower in a small glass or vase, and set several on a cake stand for an attractive holiday centerpiece. Add a bloom to each place setting to unify the look.
Spread out your spring flowers across the Easter table by using eggcups as vases, which are perfect for holding pink lilies of the valley, species tulips, grape hyacinths, narcissus, violets, pansies, bleeding-heart leaves, and other small wonders.
