Easter is almost upon is so this week we thought we would provide some super easy projects to work on during the holidays.
Easter Card
First up is a simple Easter card. You can make these with minimal tools, all you’ll really need are a pair of scissors and some glue or double sided tape.
1. Take a plain coloured, blank card (or just fold a piece of card in half).
2. Next find a cute printed paper, this could be from an old card, from wrapping paper or anything you like really.
3. Cut the patterned paper down to fit a portrait sized rectangle and tape or glue it to the centre of your blank card.
4. Now you’re going to make an overlay. To do this cut a piece of card that copies the size of your blank card but reduce the size by 2cm all the way around. You can make the overlay straight sided or like we’ve done maybe add a shaped edge by freehand or with a craft tool, if you have one.
5. Once you’ve cut out your overlay we get to the tricky part. Now you need to use your scissors to cut an egg shape out of the centre of your overlay piece. You can use a die cutting machine if you have one, which is more precise, but I kind of like a wobbly egg myself! Just make sure it’s a central as possible.
6. Once you have you’re egg cut out its time to glue or tape your overlay on to your blank card. Then write a little message on the card et voilà, there you have it, a cute, easy and fun Easter card!
Easter Bracelet
This is a lovely project to do with kids. It’s easy and suits ages from 4 years upwards. You’ll need some elastic cord, some alphabet beads and some spacer beads of your choice. You can make it more egg-cellent by adding little Easter stickers to the beads if you want to, or like us you can spell funny Easter messages like ‘Eggcellent’, ‘BunnyBaby’ or ‘Chickadee’.
1. Cut a piece of elastic cord that’s long enough to wrap around your wrist twice.
2. Thread beads onto the elastic in the design of your choice, making sure to spell the words you want in the middle of the design, with spacer beads either side. If you are worried about beads falling off while you do this then use a piece of sellotape to stick one end down to the surface you’re working on. That way the beads won’t fly off the other end.
3. When the bracelet is full of enough beads to fit around your wrist tie the two ends together in a couple of slip knots. You can paint a little clear nail varnish on the knot if you want extra security.
Spiced Raspberry Hot Cross Buns
If baking is your thing, then here’s one you can do in time for Easter and in the comfort of your own gorgeous kitchen! It’s a twist on the traditional hot cross bun recipe, using raspberries instead of citrus fruits. If you’d rather stick to the classic flavours then substitute the raspberries for mixed peel and a little orange zest.
For these buns you will need:
- 500g strong bread flour
- A sachet of dried yeast
- ½ tsp salt
- 75g caster sugar
- 250ml milk
- 180g sultanas
- 65g freeze dried raspberries
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- For the cross piping
- 75g plain flour
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tbsp caster sugar (for the glaze)
1. Sift the bread flour, sugar and salt together in a bowl then mix in the yeast.
2. In another bowl, mix the milk with 65ml warm water.
3. Gradually add the liquid to the flour mixture until you get a soft dough.
4. Lightly flour a work surface then tip out the dough and knead for 5-6 mins until smooth and stretchy.
5. Next add the raspberries, sultanas and ground cinnamon into the dough and mix until they are evenly distributed.
6. Now leave to rise in the bowl for an hour. I always pop a tea towel over my bowl, not sure why, my Gran always used to do it!
7. Lightly grease a large baking tray and then pull off 80g pieces of the dough and make them into balls.
8. Place the balls onto the baking tray, keeping them evenly spaced apart and then leave them once again, covered with a tea towel, for another hour.
9. Preheat your oven to gas mark 8, 230°C or fan 210°C.
10. If you want a cross on your buns (a must really) then you can make the flour piping by combining the plain flour, tablespoon of caster sugar and 80ml of water until the mixture is smooth. Transfer to a piping bag and with a small plain nozzle and pipe a cross over the top of the buns when they are ready for the oven.
11. Bake the buns for 15 mins as specified, then turn your oven down to gas 6, 200°C, fan 180°C, cover with foil and bake for a further 10 mins.
12. While the buns are cooking, in a pan heat 2 tbsp of water and sugar for the glaze until all the sugar is dissolved. Brush over the buns when they are just out of the oven.
Allow to cool for 10-15 mins and serve warm. They taste great cut in half, toasted and served with butter!
We hope this has provided you with some Easter inspiration. Happy Easter.