DIY Easter tree, egg ornaments & garland

Easter tree in a pot with garland hanging above, photo

My grandmother and great-grandmother were both crafty. My great-grandmother specialized in tatting, crochet, and ribbon roses. My grandmother dabbled in many handicrafts, including painting china, sculpting clay roses, découpaging, quilling, welding, and making 3D pictures (I’ll teach you the latter someday). She even made adorable miniature Play-Dough Christmas scenes inside gilded duck eggs. Oh, how I wish I had a picture of them. (This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, I may earn a small commission. You can read my full disclosure here.)

Close up of an Easter egg ornament, photo

My grandmother made clear plastic oval ornaments for us grandkids one Christmas, and we received another one year after year. She made these for me when I was in my peach faze. Before that was my lavender faze. Every gift my grandmother gave me (bless her heart) was my favorite color.

My grandmother intended these ornaments as Christmas decorations. I loved them, but I never hung them on my tree because the peach and pink colors didn’t seem Christmasy to me. But those colors and flowers are perfect for Easter. After years of being stored in Christmas ornament boxes, I finally made an Easter tree on which to display them.

The branches that I used to make the tree I found while hiking in St. George, Utah, over Spring Break. They’re dry, brittle, and sun-bleached, but perfect for my tree. And free is always a bonus. I wanted to dress them up with fake cherry blossoms, but I could only find peach blossoms at the craft store. I think it works better anyway. Cherry blossoms might have been pink overload.

I added a few sparkly ornaments with the same color palette that I bought on a whim many Christmases ago to use someday as Easter ornaments. Someday finally came.

Easter tree displayed in front of a mirror, photo

I’m displaying my Easter tree in front of a mirror in our dining room, but mirrors can make a photos look cluttered, so I took most of the photos without the mirror so you can see the tree better.

The clear egg ornaments, the Easter tree, and Easter garland are all fun and easy to make, and I’ll show you how. Enjoy, and Happy Easter!

How to make the Easter tree

SUPPLIES

tree branches (from nature or a craft store)
floral foam ( I bought mine at Hobby Lobby)
ceramic or stone flower pot, bowl, or urn (if you use plastic one, you’ll need to weigh it down with a rock underneath the floral foam)
moss ( I bought mine at Hobby Lobby)
bunch of faux cherry or peach blossoms (I bought mine at Hobby Lobby)

TOOLS

non-serrated kitchen knife
hot glue gun & hot glue sticks
optional: pocket knife or craft knife (if you need to whittle the end of a branch or two)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Use a ceramic container or something similar. I tried it first with a plastic pot (because it was what I had on hand), but it wasn’t heavy enough, and the tree toppled over easily. Use a kitchen knife to carve away at the floral foam to make it fit inside your container about ¾ inch from the top.

2. Insert the ends of the branches into the floral foam. If the ends are gnarly and difficult to insert, whittle them down slightly to make them more pointed.

3. Cover the floral foam with your entire bag of moss. Arrange it so that it hides every inch of floral foam.

4. Remove all the blossoms and leaves from your stems. When buying a bunch of blossoms, choose the kind that are easy to remove by hand. It goes much faster.

Glue blossoms and leaves to the branches, photo

5. Hot glue each blossom and leaf to your branches. Glue them in natural spots: nubs and ends of branches.

6. Hang your Easter ornaments on the tree with thin ribbons.

How to make the Easter egg ornaments

SUPPLIES & TOOLS

clear glass or plastic balls, ovals, or egg-shaped ornaments
hot glue gun & glue sticks
pre-made mini paper, silk, or ribbon flowers (available at craft stores)
clear iridescent Easter grass (available at craft stores)
ribbon, mini pearl strands, lace, or any other embellishment you wish

INSTRUCTIONS

1. First, fill your ball with Easter grass. Remove the metal hanger/cap, crumple up a fistful of Easter grass, and patiently stuff it in the small hole at the top of the ornament. (This ornament was decorated first, but I discovered that it’s easier to fill it first, then decorate it.) Replace the cap.

Gluing flowers onto the ornaments, photo

2. Glue on your flowers, ribbons, or other decorations. My grandmother grouped hers near the top, but you can place them any way you want.

How to make the Easter garland

SUPPLIES & TOOLS

Silhouette Cameo^™
1 sheet of adhesive cardstock
2 sheets of patterned scrapbook paper
craft glue
⅛-inch pink satin ribbon
a spool of ribbon or flower-shaped trim

INSTRUCTIONS

1. These letter tags are double-sided, so you can hang the garland anywhere. Use your Cameo to cut out your tags and letters on adhesive backed cardstock. I used this Cameo 5-piece gift tag set. I deleted all but the tag at the top right, rotated it, resized it to 4.875 inches tall by 3.125 inches wide, and duplicated it five times. Then I typed E-A-S-T-E-R in the free Lobster font, sized it about 3 inches tall, ungrouped the letters, then placed one in the center of each tag.

2. To cut out the tag pattern on the patterned paper, simply delete the letters and cut just the tags out. Cut six tags on each sheet of patterned paper. Peel off the backing on your adhesive letters and tags. Stick them on the patterned paper.

3. Glue the tags back-to-back. Make sure you spell Easter backwards on the back side of the tags, so you can read E-A-S-T-E-R from either side of the garland.