Easter egg craft with mixed media!

Level of Difficulty: Easy – For all ages 3 to adult. If you have any questions, please contact us on our website and we will respond as quickly as possible.

Estimated Completion Time: Approximately 15-20 minutes per egg, depending upon the complexity of your design.

List of Materials you will need:

White Cardstock or Watercolor Paper

Faber-Castell Brilliant Beeswax Crayons

Faber-Castell Connector Paints

Faber-Castell Collapsible Water Cup

Paintbrushes

Cotton Rag – an old t-shirt works well

Protective Covering for the table

Paint Smock

Scissors

Optional:

Iron (Note: Adult Supervision is REQUIRED when using a hot iron.)

Ironing Board

Dish Cloth

Introduction:

The technique shown here, called “Resist”, is when you apply one material that is waxy or oily and then go over it with a water-based material that is not waxy or oily and won’t mix – it resists! In this case, I’m using crayons as the resist, but you can also use Oil Pastels. Then I cover this with watercolor paint. Today’s project highlights egg-shaped art in celebration of Easter but you can use this same technique on any shaped paper to create awesome patterns and designs.

Prep:

Cut white cardstock or thick paper into large egg shapes. Make several so you can experiment.

Lay newspaper or other protective covering on your work surface.

Put on old clothing or cover your clothing with a paint smock.

Fill your water cup with water.

Directions:

Step 1:

Use Faber-Castell Brilliant Beeswax Crayons to draw shapes, words or a picture on your paper eggs. Wherever you use the crayons, make sure the color is fully covering the paper. Light crayon marks will not resist the paint, so you need to lay down lots of rich color. When you’re done coloring, shake your paper egg to get rid of any loose crayon dust.

NOTE: Don’t forget your white crayon! Typically we don’t think to color with white crayon on white paper but in this case it’s a little bit of magic…you cannot tell that I’ve added white dots until you paint it and then they magically appear!

Step 2:

Using a wide brush, choose a paint color and load the brush with wet paint. Paint across the egg in stripes or other patterns. Paint right over your crayon markings! Notice that the paint covers the crayon markings but they can still be seen. The wax of the crayon “resists” the paint from penetrating into the paper. And the paint won’t mix with the crayon. Paint your entire egg in the colors of your choice. Set aside to dry.

Painting Basics:

If you add a lot of water to the paint the color will be lighter, more pastel.

If you add less water, the color will be more bright and intense.

You can also mix colors by laying down a swath of one color, say yellow, and then after cleaning your brush, go over this with another color, like green. This produces a nice yellow-green – a new color!

Step 3:

When the paint is dry, you have two options: To leave it as is or two rub the dried paint from the crayon areas. There is dried paint covering all of the crayon markings, but this paint is not mixed with the crayon or the paper, it’s just dried on top. If you like the way your egg looks, just leave the paint as it is and you’re done. OR you can rub away the dried paint from the crayon markings to reveal the vibrant crayon colors below! To do this, just wrap your paint rag around your index finger and rub at each of the crayon markings. The paint should easily come away exposing the crayon color underneath. For each separate crayon marking move to a fresh clean section of your rag. It’s especially cool to rub clean the white markings!

Another example side by side of BEFORE and AFTER the paint has been rubbed away.

Happy Easter!!

Did you Know? – Did you know that you can iron your artwork?! Often when you paint on paper it curls up around the edges, which makes it hard to fully view your masterpiece and makes it hard to hang on the wall. Try this trick.

Adult Supervision REQUIRED when using a hot iron.

Set your iron on a low setting (We used the “Silk” setting on my iron)

Place one half of a thin towel on the ironing board.

Place your artwork on the towel FACE DOWN.

Fold the other half of the towel over your artwork.

Iron the towel over the artwork. Don’t let the iron stand in one area too long – you don’t want it to burn!

Let it cool and Voila! Nice flat artwork!