As Lydia said last week, when she shared her
Easter Bunny Project Round-Up, Easter just wouldn't be Easter without cute, cuddly bunnies. Well, that just so happens to be how my mom feels about Easter and Spring; bunnies are her thing. You could basically say she is a bunny
hoarder collector. ;-)
My mom also happens to be a bit of the crafty type {the old apple doesn't fall too far from the tree I guess} so when I was about 9, she got this fabulous idea to make a basket with little bunnies made out of gardening gloves. I remember we did the project together and it was by far the most fun I'd ever had getting crafty {who knows, maybe that was the pivotal moment that set me on my crafting journey}.
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Here is our original creation! |
Anyways, when she was planning to come down here to visit last month for my newest littles' arrival we got talking about that bunny project we had done so many years before. That was the moment that we decided that we needed to re-create 'the basket' with my girls.
I was at Hobby Lobby that same afternoon dragging my very pregnant behind through the aisles looking for the treasures I would need for my basket. And now, because this project is sooo fun to do, I want to share it and how you can make your very own with you all :)
Can't Get Started Without:
~gardening gloves
~a basket {I used a pink wicker one}
~fiber fill
~googly eyes
~pink and cream felt
~black and pink sewing pins
~moss or faux grass
~glue gun and glue sticks
~miscellaneous decorative embellishments
I USED:
~curly craft hair
~mini craft hats
~mini birds nests
~mini plastic eggs
~silk flowers
~wire
This project is great because although there are a few 'must have' items, there is also a lot of room for creative license by adding any embellishments that suit your fancy.
I started by stuffing my gloves. Stuff each finger and the top third of the hand part but don't stuff the thumb.It is really important to make sure that the gloves are stuffed really full, especially where the fingers meet the rest of the glove. This is to make sure that each finger stays standing straight up and doesn't fall over. We don't want any floppy bunnies. ;)
Because you didn't stuff your thumb, just glue it down and out of the way.
Next, I had to decide which bunnies I wanted to have hats. It is important to place the hats first so you know how far down you want the eyes to be. If your bunny is going to have hair though, then you'll need to do that before the hat.
Take your craft hair and cut it to whatever length you want your bunny to have. For my bunny I cut the hair about 2 1/2" long.
Once I had all of my hair cut. I pinched it in the middle and glued it to the top of the finger.
I then glued on a craft hat.
Next came the eyes. I found some really cute 'girl'ones that had little eyelashes on them.
Glue those babies on and get ready to add those cute little bunny cheeks.
To make the bunny cheeks, we just rolled bits of fiber fill into little balls.
Glue two of these just below your bunnies eyes.
Next, add your bunnies nose by gluing your sewing pin in between each cheek.
The last thing your bunny needs is ears.
We made our ears by first drawing out a template for the outer and inner portion of the ears. We traced out each outer ear portion onto the cream felt and did the same with the inner ear portion onto the pink felt. We then glued the inner ear onto the outer ear.
Once your ears are completed, glue them onto the back of your bunnies head (for bunnies with hats, glue the ears onto the outside of the hat).
Continue to create the rest of your bunnies on each finger of both gloves. Each can be as different as you want. For one of my bunnies, I chose to add some wire glasses.
To make these glasses I used a pliers and pen to shape two circles with a little bit of extra wire on each end.
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They look so cute on this little Grandpa Bunny don't they? |
Once each of my bunnies was finished I realized that they were a little too close together so,
I took an elastic band and tied it just under where my glove was stuffed to. This helped to spread out the fingers and gave each bunny the space it needed.
Once my bunnies were 100% finished, it was time to put them into the basket.
Fill your basket almost all of the way full with moss.
Dig out two little holes where you want your bunnies to sit and place your bunnies in each one. Add some more moss in between each bunny to make them all look like they are individuals.
This is an optional step, but I added some additional, more natural looking moss on top to give the grass some depth.
At this point, the girls were able to step in a really help out. We used all of our additional embellishments to decorate our basket. The girls were really excited because I basically gave them free reign and let them put whatever they wanted anywhere in the basket.
We started by making a nest filled with eggs.
The girls liked the nest so much that they wanted to put eggs all over the basket!
Our last step was to add our silk flowers. I just cut off individual flowers from a bouquet that I had gotten. I let the girls decide which flowers I should cut and where each flower should be placed.
They had so much fun!
And then we went outside to pose with the great new Easter decoration we made together.
This project is such a special one to me. It was so fun to recreate the basket I made with my mom almost 20 years ago with my little girls. I really hope they enjoyed making this basket with me as much as I enjoyed making it with my mom. :)