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

C. and today, I am showing you how to decorate Easter Eggs. In this video clip we will be showing you how to make small wooden eggs into more natural painted designs, something a little bit closer that you would find in a bird's nest in the woods rather than an Easter basket. So the basic materials for this craft are plain wooden eggs that you can find in the wood aisle of your craft store. They are usually very smooth so there is no sanding needed. You are going to use a variety of paints in whatever colors you would like; a paintbrush and maybe a toothpick or a very fine liner brush to make little dots and things.

You might want to do some research before doing this, if you have a specific -- if you want to have a very accurate egg to make. For instance, Robin's eggs or a very basic blue then there is probably thousands and thousands of other kinds of eggs that you can make and of course, you don't need to be scientifically accurate for this. You can make an egg that doesn't exist in nature, but it's fun to at maybe get little kids involved with learning about nature using this craft and then they can see these eggs and learn about them rather than trying to find eggs in the wild which is a little bit harder and also, you don't want to be messing up any nest for our future birds. So let's get started.

I like to use two colors of paint when I am working like this. Sometimes the effect is a little bit more unique. Of course, you can always use just one color, but I will show you how to use two. You are going to just put out a little bit of each color next to each other on your little palette or a Styrofoam plate and these should be post colors, ones that mix relatively well and just take a little bit of each color and paint it on and you can blend right on to the egg. We are using acrylic paints which clean up with just regular water and they mix extremely well. So as you can see, there is a little bit of a lighter spot. I really want to highlight that and then I am just mixing it with the darker color just to get a little bit of variety because in nature, nothing is the same color. The same egg might have three shades of blue on it depending on the -- any kind of number of factors and you probably only be able to do half of it at a time. Wait for that to dry and when you have the whole egg coated, it will be something like this and then you will want to start putting on spots if the type of bird egg that you are doing has spots.

Again, I like to use two colors because I found that using just black by itself is a little bit too harsh even if it looks like black spots on the egg. You don't need too much paint for this and then I like to lighten it up just a little bit with some brown and then you are going to take your toothpick, mix it up just a little bit and then just start putting on little spots. You can also go ahead and use an old toothbrush to splatter the eggs. I would probably test out that on a piece of paper first just to see how your splatter is going to look and you just make spots and little marks until your heart's content and again, don't worry about them being all exact or perfect because nothing in nature is and that's the beauty of it. So then when you are all finished making all your spots. This one I did with the toothbrush, an old toothbrush that I am never going to use again for brushing my teeth and you are just going to -- now you are going to seal it. I like to use decoupage medium when it comes to sealing even painted things and because it dries clear and it comes in matte and glossy textures, it's also cleanable with just regular water and soap. So it's easy for kids to clean up and you are just going to brush it on and even though it's white right now, it will dry clear. Just brush the whole thing again, probably in two coats because you will only be able to paint about half of it and then wait for that to dry. Just get a nice even coat. Try to brush out in neat streaks. Let that set and then when you are finished, you have a lovely little egg which is great for Easter, but you can also keep it out in a little nest all year along as decoration. Now after we clean up, we will be going to our next video which is sealing and preserving your eggs. So stay tuned for that.