I love baskets. As a matter of fact I collect baskets, but finding an Easter basket that doesn't look prissy for boys is a chore I find very difficult. So I came up with Easter buckets.
I went to Lowes and purchased 2 buckets (the larger ones in the pictures) for my 2 boys at the time. Later I had to go back and get 2 more buckets after the next 2 boys came along (they were little so I got smaller buckets - in a couple of years I am sure we will have to get them bigger buckets, but right now the smaller ones are easy enough for them to handle). I am sorry that I don't have step by step photos (I made these a few years ago), but I will tell you what I did.
****Remember...It is better to paint several thin coats than 1 thick coat.
1) Went outside on a beautiful day, turned the buckets upside down and spray painted primer on the buckets. On a sunny day it doesn't take long to dry. Also, if your children are old enough, they can help with this.
2) After the buckets were evenly covered with primer and dried, I covered them with white spray paint. You might could skip this step if you use white primer (I could only find grey primer).
3) While the paint was drying I cut out "egg" shapes from contact paper. I used a size that I thought was a good size for the bucket. (From the pictures you can see I used smaller eggs for the smaller buckets.)
4) After the paint was dry. I placed the "egg" contact paper all around the bottom of the bucket about 1/3 of the way up.
5) I spray painted the bottom 1/3 of the bucket green.
6) After that paint was dry, I spray painted the top 2/3 of the bucket sky blue. The blue should barely overlap the green (you should not see any white).
7) After that paint was dry, I removed the contact paper "eggs" and we had white egg shapes. I then gave my boys (just 2 at the time) paint pens and let them decorate their eggs (you could use sponges or whatever). When I made the 2 buckets for the little boys, I decorated the eggs for them (they weren't old enough). When we re-do their buckets in a couple of years, they will get to decorate their own "eggs."
8) I wrote their name and the year that we decorated them on the bucket. They are now beginning to get beat up, but that's part of the beauty of it. The boys also added their own art work to the bucket. I think Champ put a sun in the sky, we put grass stems next to some of the eggs, etc. You could put clounds in the sky (I would do this when I did the egg shapes with contact paper if you wanted to add clouds). You could paint chicks, bunnies, etc. I am not that artistic.
*On Lee's bucket, I tried something different. I was having a hard time getting the contact paper to stay on (I had to keep pressing it down), so I tried painting his without the contact paper and then drew "egg" shapes on the bucket for him to decorate. I don't like it as well.
Every Easter we get lots of comments on their buckets.
I love them because they are more durable than baskets, don't look too "prissy" for boys and the boys are proud that they decorated them themselves.
If you try this, let me know how it turns out. I would love to see pictures.
~Jena
