Karen Kormondy: Hi, my name is Karen Kormondy with Ipso Crafto in Washington D.

C. and today, I will be showing you how to decorate your Easter Eggs. We have a lot of varieties to decorate using both hard boiled eggs, preserved eggshells with the yolk and white blown out, glittered eggs, dcoupaged eggs with magazine clippings and tissue paper and then some non eggshell projects including using wooden eggs and also sequined eggs which are very glamorous. We will also be making the egg dioramas with eggshells and also little miniatures and fun little things. So some basic materials that you will need include eggs, either hard boiled or preserved, small wooden eggs and Styrofoam eggs, some food coloring, some vinegar, boiling water which you always have to be very careful about, some regular nails to break holes into the eggs.

Now let's go over a few safety tips before we get started. If you are working with hot water to boil the eggs and also to dye the eggs you want to make sure that any children are aware of this and that they are safe from the area. You also need to take into consideration food safety. If you are boiling the eggs you want to make sure that they are well boiled so there is no raw egg that you will possibly be eating and if you are removing the egg yolk or egg white you want to clean your hands and the surrounding areas very well when you are done to protect yourself from any kind of food-borne illness. Also, we will be using sharp objects, no sharper than a nails, but still if young children are involved you just want to be very cautious and just keep an eye on that. You want to make sure that your area is protected and that you are not wearing your Sunday best so that if there is any dye or glue or paint spillage, you are not ruining anything that is really special and dear to you.

So, a little bit about myself. I have been crafting since I can remember. My family is a very crafty family. We like to sow, we like to paint, pretty much anything that we can get our hands on, we will try it. Since I was three I have been dyeing eggs with my family, doing different painting and decoupage projects, using glitter and sequins and everything that I can imagine and then when I moved to Washington D.

C. about three years ago, I continued doing all these things, but I realized that there wasn't a craft store in this city and I decided along with my partner Christian to change this and so in August 2007 we opened Ipso Crafto and that's basically all about me. So when you have all your materials and your area protected, let's get started. So our first segment will be about basic egg dyeing and you will just need some food coloring, some vinegar and some hot water. So stay tuned.