So Eggceptional!

The beauty of Martha's holiday crafts always leave me a bit speechless - not only because I'm never quite sure how the projects are completed in such bounty and perfection (despite the instructions) but also because they are so splendidly arranged, styled and photographed in the pages of the magazine. I decided to highlight some of my favourite Easter-egg crafts. Many of them are from the recent April issue, which I think beautifully conveys the artistry and imagination involved in holiday crafts. (Note to the Martha Stewart Living editors: I'm still waiting for a special spring "Holiday" issue. I even took it upon myself to design a prospective cover for the glossy, which you can see below.)

Multicoloured and speckled eggs are nestled in fern fronds in hurricane vases. I enjoy the symmetry of the display, offset by the stray fern at the base of the vase on the right: a lovely spring vignette.

The 2009 April issue has a vast collection of decoupage egg projects, which you can see above and below. Eggs of various sizes are dyed or painted and then decorated with precisely cut-out images of flowers and birds, glued onto the shells.

Egg-shaped boxes are painted and speckled and then decorated with butterfly and rabbit cut-outs. I like that some of the butterfly 'specimens' are not entirely glued down to the box; their wings are left to flutter, creating a sense of depth through shadow.

Plain silhouettes of chicks, roosters, bunnies and flowers decorate these eggs and egg-shaped boxes.

This one is kind of over-the-top, with its huge emu egg nestled on a bed of potted flowers. The arrangement is given perspective and creative weight when paired with a similar nest of pheasant eggs.
A simple white bowl is given a nest-like appearance by wrapping it in angora (top left); two cake stands are arranged with egg-cup nosegays of yellow toned flowers (top right); A chocolate cake is decorated with a nest of chocolate shavings and white-chocolate eggs dyed robin's-egg blue with food colouring (bottom left); hollow egg shells are sterilized in boiling water and then piped full of warm liquid chocolate, which solidifies when cooled. The eggs can be cracked, peeled and enjoyed (bottom right).