Colorful Easter Egg Wreath

I planned this project for about a year.  I LOVED the project when I saw it on Pinterest and I LOVE the finished product.  Here is a link to the inspiration blog post by BHG.  BUT it is not as easy as they make it sound!

For this Project you'll need:

-a straw wreath form

 

 -excelsior in green (I found mine at Michaels)

-floral pins

-napkins  (collect these over time, if possible)
-approx. 45 plastic eggs of various sizes (I ended up using 41) 

  [Note: looking back at pictures, I think even more eggs would look good.]

-mod podge - this project used a LOT and I prefer matte

-paint brush
-scissors
-parchment paper
-hot glue gun/glue
  

 
 

Gather your materials.  I used 4 different sizes of eggs.  You only need 1-3 napkins of each color.  You want a variety of colors and different shades of the same color.  And you want some napkins with print and some with gold-foil print.  Other places I found napkins were TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Dollar Tree, Tuesday Morning and Michaels (online).

Once everything is gathered, Step 1 is to cut your napkins in squares.  The instructions I had say 1 inch squares but I found that to be too small/tedious.  I did between 1.25 and 1.5 inch squares.

Step 2: Start gluing the squares onto the eggs using Mod Podge, overlapping the squares.  

a. If a napkin is at all thin or light colored, plan to do 1 or more coats with the squares.  Alternatively (I didn't try this) you could spray paint all your eggs white before this process.

b. In the tutorial, they nicely brush mod podge onto the egg but I had a lot of trouble with that working.  The only thing that ended up working for me was to use my fingers to smear the mod podge on and then smooth more mod podge over the top of each square.  Oh and before you get your hands all gluey, lay out a strip of parchment paper as a place to let the eggs dry (I found it works better than random mail or bubble wrap you have lying around!).

At this point, you get a few eggs done and get excited because some of the napkins are so pretty and you can't wait to see everything come together!

Step 3:  Before adding the excelsior, you may want to tie some twine or fishing line around the wreath as a way to hang it.  Once all the eggs are done and you have the hanging step done, the next step is to add excelsior to your wreath form.  Keep in mind the straw wreath and the excelsior shed.  You can hot glue 1st, but I just placed on the wreath and pinned down with floral pins.  I researched excelsior (because I wasn't familiar with it) and found it's made from wood shavings, which I liked, it makes it seem sturdier than moss or plastic Easter grass.  I found mine at Michael's.  

Step 4:  Lay out the eggs around the wreath, so you get a sense of where you want each color.

Step 5:  Use a hot glue gun to start gluing the eggs in place.  Different sizes and colors next to each other.  Glue in different directions.  After I finished gluing, I spotted three "holes" and ended up making three more eggs to fill them.

Step 6  Hang your wreath and take lots of pictures!  I love mine SO much.  It is SO cheery every time I pull into my house or open the front door to check mail!