Tissue Paper Mache Easter Egg Sculptures

Last week we were working on paper mache Easter eggs using torn tissue paper, glue mixed with water, and balloons. We experimented with larger balloons and water balloons that were left over from last Summer. The large balloons are great for a hanging decoration, but seem way to big for an Easter basket.  The water balloon size could be used for a hanging decoration and for a basket. Here are the large ones:

Cassie helped with the first layer or so, but got bored with the process so I ended up finishing these larger balloons.  If you were going to do this with a preschooler,  I'd recommend using the water balloon size to keep their interest! Some preschoolers may be fine with the larger ballon too.  To start this project, I tore some tissue paper:

I set the ballon in an old container while working on it so it wouldn't roll around.  For the water balloon, we used a small plastic cup.  We used two parts glue to one part water for the the mixture to put the tissue paper on the balloons.

Make sure to get off the excess glue mixture before applying it on the balloon. Cassie was not a big fan of the sticky glue mixture, so I gave her a wet paper towel to keep wiping her hands. Also, do not use bleeding tissue or your balloon or it will look muddy in color. I mention this because a few bleeding tissue pieces got mixed in with the non-bleeding kind.

Do a layer,  let dry,  and repeat this process for at least 2-3 layers.  When they are dry,  you can pop the balloon---Cassie really loved this part!  They may be a little flimsy in some areas, but once the ballon is popped ---I found you could blow air back in to them. Kind of cool! The water balloon eggs were not as flimsy.

Cassie did have fun with the process and was curious about these drying balloons in our kitchen each day! Boy, was our kitchen  an artist's workshop! I envisioned these Paper Mache Eggs to be transparent, with light sparkling through them, but they still turned out beautiful! You could use X-mas lights to put in them,  but I haven't gotten that far! Here are our water balloon size easter eggs:

I want to make more of these water balloon sized eggs.  They are a much better size for a preschooler too! They look beautiful hanging  too! Here are our large eggs again: (Notice there is glitter thrown in too!)

I was looking in the book: Scribble Art by MaryAnn Kohl and noticed the idea of making a starched yarn balloon shape (String Thing) and adding tissue paper over that.....maybe we'll try that too!  That may give us me more of the transparent effect that I was looking for because less layers of tissue paper would be needed!  Check out this site for Mary Ann Kohl books and free activity ideas: http://www.brightring.com/index.html

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