How To

String Easter Eggs | Easy Easter Craft

Looking for a fun and easy Easter craft? Bring bright color to your home with simple, inexpensive string Easter eggs.

A white dish holds decorative string eggs in various colors, with a few more eggs placed on the pastel-patterned tablecloth beside it.

Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine

Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan
Colorful Easter crafts serve double duty: they commemorate Easter, but can also provide a fun and vibrant welcome to spring. These easy-to-make string Easter eggs are the perfect Easter-meets-spring craft.
Colorful string eggs are an easy Easter craft.
Colorful string Easter eggs are an easy spring craft.
Photo Credit : Nat Rea

This string Easter eggs project uses homemade wheat paste — a lightweight, yet sturdy medium that holds the eggs together, and the same glue used to hang circus posters back in the day — as well as colorful embroidery floss, which you can find at almost any craft store. The process does get messy, so get your workspace ready to withstand the goop; well-placed kraft paper is key. (Don’t use newspaper, which will bleed ink when it gets wet.) You’ll also want to have plenty of rags available for wiping your hands. The good news, though, is that the whole thing cleans up easily with water.

Once they’ve dried, you can use the string Easter eggs to fill glass vases or bowls, or you might want to dangle them from some branches in a vase. (Just don’t hang them up outside; they’ll likely soften and fall apart if it rains.) It’s a fun and festive way to invite spring color inside.

Materials for Making String Easter Eggs

  • large sheets of kraft paper
  • 4 cups water
  • medium-sized saucepan
  • whisk
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • medium-sized bowl
  • small balloons
  • embroidery floss, 2-4 skeins per egg (colors of your choice)
  • scissors
  • pushpins or clothespins

Instructions for Making String Easter Eggs

STEP 1: Cover your workspace with sheets of kraft paper. STEP 2: Make your wheat paste: Put the water in the saucepan and whisk in the flour, stirring until the mixture is smooth. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring, until the mixture begins to thicken and bubble. Remove from the heat. The paste will continue to thicken as it cools. Transfer the paste to a bowl, and set aside until it’s cool enough to touch. (At this point, the paste will keep, covered, for two to three days in your refrigerator.) STEP 3: Blow up the balloons to about 2 to 3 inches in length; tie them off, and set aside. STEP 4: Cut the embroidery floss into 3- to 4-foot lengths. Look closely at each piece of floss: Notice that it’s made up of six thinner threads twisted together. Separate each length of floss in half, so that from one strand you now have two, each one made up of three threads. You’ll use one of these thinner (three-thread) strands for each egg. STEP 5: Gently coil one three-thread strand into the glue, dunk to coat, and then remove, being careful to avoid knotting it. Wipe off the excess with your fingers. This part can get messy, but you want the strand to have just enough paste to coat well; using too much will cause the strand to stick to the balloon.
Wrap the floss around a balloon in a crisscross pattern.
Wrap the floss around a balloon in a crisscross pattern.
Photo Credit : Rea, Nat
STEP 6: Wrap the strand around a balloon in a crisscross pattern, in vertical loops, or in overlapping spirals. Strings should cross over one another enough to build a structure that will hold up without the balloon there to support it. STEP 7: Dip more strands into the paste and add to the balloon until you achieve the look and coverage you want. STEP 8: Repeat with any number of additional balloons.
Hang string-wrapped balloons to dry.
Hang string-wrapped balloons to dry.
Photo Credit : Rea, Nat
STEP 9: Hang the balloons up to dry. (Pin them to a board through the lip of the balloon, or clip with a clothespin.) Let them hang for a day or two, until they feel thoroughly dry to the touch. STEP 10: Pop the balloons, remove them — and voila — you’ll greet the new season with an array of pretty, lacy Easter eggs!
String Easter Eggs | Easy Easter Craft
Hang string Easter eggs from tree branches for a festive decoration.
Photo Credit : Rea, Nat
Have you ever made Easter string eggs? If not, this might be the perfect year to start a new Easter crafts tradition!

See More Easter Crafts & Recipes: Italian Easter Bread Recipe Greek Easter Bread Recipe Coloring Easter Eggs with Homemade Egg Dye

Caroline Woodward

More by Caroline Woodward

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  1. Many years ago, I made a large Easter egg “basket” using a similar technique! The only difference was I used a large balloon, and a thin mixture of Elmer’s glue and water. I left a rough opening, which I trimmed with rick-rack once the egg was dry. I placed Easter grass in the bottom and filled it with candies and small toys as one would a regular basket!

  2. Many years ago, made with a large balloon leaving open area at the tied end of balloon. When popped placed the grass inside, little bunnies, creating a landscape. Used tuna fish can covered with ribbon to perch egg on.

  3. Balloon deflated before string was dry- I had hung them outside to dry. Live in Louisiana, too humid perhaps? Granddaughters so disappointed. Me too.

  4. I’ve seen other projects that mix equal parts water and flour, without cooking it. Have you tried that? I was just wondering if I could skip the stove top part.

  5. Have used laundry starch years back. It seemed to last well. Don’t remember if we had to cook it or not or just dissolved in warm/hot water.

  6. I made these years ago, and am still using them. I store them in a shoe box during the year.