Easter Pails

     Hi Everyone! Today I am featuring Easter pails that I made for my grandchildren. Sadly, my grandchildren live quite a distance from their Nana and Papa, and because of this I have to come up with creative ways to send them gifts for each of the various holidays.

(You can click on any of these photos for a closer look.)

     For Easter, of course my first thought was an Easter basket, but I realized that those baskets would be tossed around during shipping, their contents scattered about the inside of the box. I clearly needed something with a lid and these pails fit the bill perfectly.  

     Each pail began life as an unused paint can. You can find them at your local hardware or paint store. They were easy to repurpose for this project and the perfect containers to hold Easter goodies. 

     I started out by covering each pail in strips of coordinating patterned papers from the All Seasons paper pack by The Paper Studio. To frame them out I used solid cardstock punched with my Martha Stewart punch in hues to match the various color schemes.

     Then came the fun part! I knew right away that I wanted to use my Create A Critter cartridge for these. This cartridge has the cutest animals and there are so many to choose from!  :o)

     Each little critter was cut with my Cricut Expression using all of the various layers and then popped up on pop dots for dimension. I also added wiggly eyes to each one to make them all come alive. I purchase my wiggly eyes at Michael's, Hobby Lobby and Walmart.  They generally come in large bags containing all different colors, sizes and types.  Below are some close-ups:

     First up is the blue bunny. She is for my oldest granddaughter, Missy, whose favorite color is blue. The wiggle eyes are pink with eyelashes--aren't they so cute?!? I love the little heart-shaped nose on this bunny!  :o)

     Next up is the lavender bunny. She was made for Sissy, whose favorite color is purple, of course! These wiggle eyes are yellow with curly lashes, as well. You can see how dimensional they are when they are popped up from the background. They would have been adorable mounted on Action Wobbles, too!

     Since my grandson, Sammy, loves the color green, this darling little frog was the perfect choice, don't you think? His wiggle eyes are big, but don't have any girlie eyelashes, lol!  ;o)

     Last, but certainly not least, Baby Sissy's Easter pail was crying out for a darling little chick. Didn't she turn out cute?

     Mommy and Daddy's pails were done simply and cleanly.

     The lids needed a bit of embellishment, too, so I measured just inside the rim and, using my Cricut Expression, I cut large circles from each of the patterned papers. I then cut the flowers out using the Flower Shoppe cartridge in coordinating colors.

 

     The flowers were cut in various coordinating solids, but they would have been just as cute in patterned papers.  The edges are all inked and the petals curled.  

     As you can see here, the upper flowers are scored and folded in mountain and valley folds for plenty of dimension.  Each lid is topped off with a flat-backed glass pebble, which is backed with coordinating polka dot patterned paper from The Classic paper collection by The Paper Studio. I used hot glue to secure the flower layers and the glass pebbles.  

     You might be able to see in this photo that the pebbles act as both a flower center and a handle for the lid. 

     The tags were cut from the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge and left relatively plain so as not to compete with the fancy design of the pails (not to mention that Nana was quite tired and running out of steam by then, lol!)

     You can't see them in any of these photos, but I included a paint can opener with each Easter pail so the kids could actually get to the goodies inside.  I simply created a paper pocket on the backside of each pail to hold it and I attached ribbon to the top of the opener to pull it out (and help keep it from getting lost).  I apologize for not including photos of this part of the project...I forgot...my bad!

     I hope you have enjoyed this Easter project.  It was fun to "think outside the box" and use something unexpected.  As you all know by now, I love to upcycle and recycle, so this project was right up my alley!  :o)

     In my next post I will show you the contents of these pails and the bag toppers I made to coordinate with each child's critter.  Until then, have a great day and I hope to see you soon!

Merilee