Painted Pottery and Egg Shell Surprise

I thought that I would make a little Easter gift for my sister today. My sister has the food blog Bilberry Tart, and is obsessed with buying kitchenware and crockery. I thought I would utilise a couple of bowls that I already owned and use some paints that I had bought. I first used these paints to decorate some tea cups and saucers for my baby shower's favours. Unfortunately, my baby shower was cancelled due to my ill health, but I'll post some photos when we have the rearranged shower. 

I used Pebeo Porcelaine 150 paints and mixed together some Ivory and Opaline Blue.

I decided to paint a simple flower design on to the bowls. These paints are really easy to use and mix well together. If you make a mistake, and the paint is still wet, it will wipe off with a bit of toilet roll or a cotton bud. If the paint is dry then I used a sponge with a bit of soapy water to remove the mistake. I painted the two bowls and left them to dry for 24 hours. Once they have dried for 24 hours to seal the paint you need to bake them in a domestic oven for 35 mins at 150°C. 

As I had some paint left over, I decided to do a little secret message in a painted egg shell. First you need to get an egg and a needle and pierce both ends of the egg. Wiggle the needle around in the hole to widen it a little. You then need to break the yolk inside by piercing it several times with the needle. Once you have done this you should be able to blow into one of the holes and the egg should drip out of the other end. If this does not happen then you may need to widen the hole or wiggle the needle around some more to break up the yolk inside. When all of the egg has been removed, run water into one of the holes and blow through to make sure all remnants have been eliminated. To dry out the egg, I give them 30 seconds in a microwave.

I then painted the egg in a couple of coats of paint. Once this had dried, I used a cotton bud to make spots on the egg.

Whilst this was drying, I wrote out my message on a small piece of paper. As the message will need to fit through the hole in the egg, your message cannot be very long. 

Your message needs to then be rolled up as tight as possible and when your paint has dried and stuck through one of the holes you made initially. I then made a little label saying 'Crack me open.'

I'm sure I'll be posting some more painted crockery in the future, as I think you can make some really beautiful personalised, and inexpensive gifts.