Plastic Easter eggs are SO toxic for the environment. Fortunately, there are tons of eco-friendly options that you can DIY!
I like to use my stuff over and over, so tbh, I hated plastic Easter eggs even before I became more environmentally aware. They’re so delicate! If a two-year-old can crack something just by stepping on it, then clearly that thing does not have a place in MY house.
And yet my kids have always had a bounty of Easter eggs for backyard egg hunts and decorating and displaying and hiding tiny treats inside, because I am obsessed with DIY Easter eggs. Every year, I can’t stop myself from making a few more of my favorites, AND finding a couple more new handmade egg projects to try.
Here are my favorites!
Papier Mache Eggs
This is my ABSOLUTE favorite Easter egg to make, although it’s also the most time-consuming. But it’s SUPER eco-friendly and a really cool plastic egg dupe. Like, you can hide an entire Hot Wheels car in there!
Easter Egg Stuffies
These egg stuffies are the cutest, and I love how easy they are to customize via fabric. You could make them fancy with floral pastel prints, or absolutely thrill a kid by using novelty prints of their favorite characters. To make them in a variety of sizes, just resize the pattern before you print it!
Woodburned Eggs with Watercolor Paint
This is a surprisingly kid-friendly project that’s adaptable to whatever time and effort you want to put into it. A kid who can hold a pencil can be taught to safely use a woodburner, as the adorable egg on the left shows. But if you’d rather keep burny bits in adult hands, you can do the woodburning and then let the kids paint your masterpiece with watercolor paints. The egg in the middle shows just how intricate a woodburned design can be–imagine if I’d then been brave enough to watercolor it!
Book Page Decoupaged Eggs
If the idea of using a blown-out real egg gives you the squick, just use any old egg form. This would actually be a great way to reuse a cracked plastic egg!
Embroidered Felt Eggs
These embroidered eggs were an early quarantine project, and I love them! Even little kids can push a blunt needle threaded with embroidery floss through felt, and even novice sewists can create cute patterns. But if you love to embroider, I would LOVE to see what kind of decorations you could do! Because felt is on the stiff side, these eggs hold their egg-shape even after you’ve popped a treat inside.
Fillable Fabric Eggs
If you’ve got quilting cotton instead of felt, you can still sew eggs with pockets with just a few additional steps. I like that this tutorial includes a bit of batting; I think it helps the egg hold its shape even with a treat inside.
Sugar Eggs
These eggs are SO FANCY! You can make the basic egg form and the royal icing decorations even if you’re not the best food crafter. But if you ARE the best food crafter, I can’t wait to see all the beautiful details you’ll add!
Felted Wool Easter Eggs
The secret ingredient of this project is wool roving that’s already dyed beautiful colors! Even very little kids can have a lovely time mashing wet roving over an egg form in warm, soapy water (it’s a delightful way to spend a nice afternoon outdoors!), but more finicky crafters can felt all kinds of nice details onto their eggs.
LEGO Eggs
Okay, I know that LEGOs aren’t eco-friendly… but don’t you already have some kicking around? Reusing stuff you already own IS eco-friendly!
Chalkboard Egg
If your kids are beyond obsessed with decorating Easter eggs, then a few chalkboard eggs will save you! Paint some wooden eggs with chalkboard paint, then give the kids chalk pastels and a wet dishrag. My kids LOVED this activity! If you ever make the perfect chalk decoration and decide that you want to keep it forever, spray the egg with polyurethane sealant. I wish I’d done that with the egg in the above pic!
Baking Soda Clay Eggs
DIY Baking soda clay is the perfect medium for these eggs, because it dries so nice and white. That makes it perfectly paintable!
Tissue Paper Decoupaged Eggs
These can be a little fiddly and a LOT messy, but buying pre-cut squares of tissue paper makes for a good shortcut. The color tends to bleed, so do not forget a final coat of sealant!
Cement Eggs
I was so impressed the first time I made these eggs–they really do come out perfectly! I do think they need more embellishment, though, like the gold paint in the above image. Or maybe I just have to have all my Easter eggs as gaudy as possible…
Watercolor Stained Wooden Eggs
For this project you need wooden eggs, liquid watercolors, and a plastic sandwich baggie. If you let your little kids experiment with color mixing then, yes, most of your eggs will be as brown as mine are in this photo, but hey–sometimes eggs are brown! Also, you can secretly collage or paint on top of them later.
Do YOU have a favorite eco-friendly artificial Easter egg craft? Tell us about it in the Comments!
