You don’t have to be a professional artist for gourd crafting to be fun! There are numerous projects using raw gourds that can be simple and easy. We are excited to share a series of quick how-to’s for those that want to get their hands into gourd crafting, but may not know where to begin! We hope you enjoy these project sheets and use them as inspiration for your own projects. Please feel free to share them and share your gourd crafting photos with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Our first project is a beautiful, rustic centerpiece made with cleaned, raw egg gourds. This piece can be used for Easter as well as the entire Spring season!

Download the sheet here.

What you will need:
Cardboard box
Gourd Eggs (about one dozen) available at mbgourds.com
Glass containers at varying heights and sizes
Acrylic paint (Robin’s Egg Blue, Off White, and Brown)
Paintbrush
Toothbrush
Green Reindeer Moss

Step 1: Cut holes in a cardboard box for your gourd eggs to sit in without falling through.

Step 2: Decide how many blue, brown, and white eggs you would like to have and paint each accordingly. For the brown eggs: just leave the gourd as its natural color. For blue and white eggs: First, paint the top portion of the egg, let dry. Then flip it over in the cardboard hole to paint the bottom half. These eggs took two coats of acrylic paint to cover completely.

Step 3: Once the eggs are dry, dip a toothbrush in brown acrylic paint mixed with water. The more water the more transparent your “specks” will be. Flick the toothbrush to speckle the eggs to your desired effect and let dry.

Step 4: Fill various glass containers will green reindeer moss found in the floral section of most craft stores. Arrange the eggs in the containers. Enjoy your beautiful Spring display!

We always feature the works of local gourd crafters & artists in our Retail Store in Carlisle, PA! Here are just some of the creative, beautiful gourd items available now for Spring. Add a handcrafted, one-of-a-kind piece to your home!

 

Happy Friday, everyone! We’re especially in the spring spirit today because it’s the first day of our Spring Open House events for 2012, which includes paint-your-own Easter eggs, baskets and birdhouses!

Last week we posted some ideas for crafting and painting gourd Easter eggs. Now that you have your eggs, today’s post is all about creative Easter baskets. Don’t forget: we have raw gourd eggs available for sale online or stop by our Retail Store today or tomorrow (3/16 and 3/17) to paint your own. We provide all the necessary supplies.

Blooming Easter Basket:

 

This beautiful basket is so cheerful and easy to make. Simply hot glue faux forsythia flowers to a plastic or metal bowl. Cover a wire hanger with ribbon, shape the wire using a coffee can, and hot glue to create the handle.

Papier-Mâché Basket:

 

This Easter Basket project is a great one to do with the kids. These “bird’s nest” baskets are made with shredded pieces of brown paper lunch bags and dictionary pages. Visit countryliving.com for the full instructions on how to create your own.

Rose Basket:

 

This beautiful rose basket is made from crepe paper. The bucket underneath is a simple plastic bucket made for mixing paint.

Abby Candy Dish Basket:

Our Abby Gourd Bunny is originally meant for a candy dish, however this unique gourd can be filled with any Easter treat or decoration. Just fill with Easter grass and your painted eggs for a lovely display or give as a gift!

We’d love to see your creative Easter baskets! Please share them on our Facebook page or Twitter page.

 

To continue our Gourd Easter Egg theme from last week, we have more inspiration coming your way. Painting and dying Easter eggs is a wonderful tradition. We have so many fond memories of dying Easter eggs each year with those we love. Continue a tradition with painting gourd Easter eggs! Your masterpiece and memories will last from year to year.

This coming Friday and Saturday (March 16th & 17th) we are offering the opportunity to paint your own gourd eggs at our retail store (as well as baskets and birdhouses!) Bring the family for this great activity. The cost ranges from $1.00- $12.00 and we supply all the gourds, paints and other supplies (No reservations needed). Kids can even enter their painted egg in our Kids Art Contest! Read more here.

Here are some gourd egg painting ideas to get the inspirations rolling:

Doodle Eggs:

 

To make these stark black and white doodle eggs, first paint your gourd eggs white and let them dry. Then, simply take a sharpie and draw different patterns, flowers, etc. on the egg. Let your imagination run wild!

Speckled Eggs:

 

We just love the look of these speckled eggs and they can be used in so many different crafting and decorating applications once they’re painted. Some of these eggs are tea stained and some have been dyed blue using blue food coloring. Since your gourd eggs will already start off as brown, you may be able to skip the tea staining step or use it to alter the natural gourd to your desired brown color. Creating the speckled effect is very easy – just dip brown craft paint with a toothbrush and splatter away.

Chalkboard Eggs:

 

Chalkboard paint is just so much fun. In addition to its endless uses, why not use it on your gourd Easter eggs? Include a few of these lovelies in an Easter basket and personalize with chalk for the recipient!

Gilded Eggs:

 

Probably the most simple painting project with gourd eggs, create these gilded gems by spray painting gourd eggs with different metallic spray paints. Display in a basket or glass container to make an elegant statement.

Isn’t gourd egg painting fun??

Bring the cheerfulness of Spring into your home with our 2012 Spring Collections. Bunnies, chicks, ducks, wildflowers, eggs, carrots – all hand-crafted from dried gourds. These unique pieces will last from year to year.  Just click on the photos to learn more about each product.

 

 

 

This Easter decorate your home with eggs! They are simple, beautiful, and nothing says springtime quite like them. There are a lot of projects that use real eggs for centerpieces and decor. When you use GOURD eggs, however, you have a special piece that can last from spring to spring. Here are just a few projects to try using gourd eggs. We found all of these projects on Pinterest!

First, purchase your raw gourd eggs here. You can paint and decorate them however you like! The inspiration is endless.

Create an egg and moss wreath:

 

This is so simple and beautiful. Glue Spanish Moss to a grapevine wreath. Paint your gourd eggs with beige craft paint and speckle with brown craft paint mixed with water-based faux glaze (1:2 paint/glaze ratio). Use a toothbrush to get this spatter effect.

Easter egg place setting:

 

Use a gourd egg to mark seats in a place seating! Your guests can take home their personalized egg as a favor.

Decoupage your gourd eggs:

 

Source: marthastewart.com via i dream of chairs on Pinterest

 

Use Mod Podge to decoupage beautiful papers or pages from a book to your gourd Easter Eggs for a beautiful display.

More Gourd Easter Egg inspiration coming soon!

Decorate your home for Easter with a unique gourd basket hand painted by YOU! Talented local artist, Wendy Young, will be holding two Easter Basket painting classes on March 3rd at our Retail Store (125 Potato Road, Carlisle, PA). The cost is only $25 and includes all supplies.

The 10am – noon class will be painting the “Chocolate Bunnies Running Wild Basket”:

The 1:30 – 3:30 class will be painting the “Hippy Hop Bunny Basket.”

No prior experience necessary to paint these gorgeous keepsake baskets!!

You may register in store, by calling us at 717-776-6029 x102 or send an email to bethm@mbgourds.com.  Prepayment is required.  Should you need to cancel, you must notify us 3 days prior to the class or there will be no refund. Classes are limited, so please sign-up early.  Join us Saturday, March 3rd  and  welcome Wendy into our gourd family!

 

 

We’re very excited about one of our newest gourd collections – Wildflowers. The new collection could be described as “rustic chic”. Each piece is natural in color with a beautiful flower to decorate the center.

The medium lit gourds are approximately 5 1/2″ in diameter and comes with a green electric light that shines through the vine cut out design.

The small is approximately 4″ in diameter and comes with a rawhide tie around the neck of the vase.

How beautiful would one of these gourds look as part of a rustic bookshelf display like this one?

Perhaps one of the oldest uses for gourds are as vessels for holding and transporting liquids. Dippers, bowls and drinking vessels have historically been crafted from gourds by peoples from around the world.

Have you heard of the drink called yerba mate?  An infusion that hails from Argentina, it has become increasing popular over the years, due in part to its rejuvenating and antioxidant properties.  This link will tell you all about how to prepare the drink and its history, but what we want you to know is that the bitter infusion is prepared in – and consumed from – a gourd in combination with a metal straw called a bombilla. Our raw roger gourds could be used in crafting a mate gourd, if you so choose. They are also offered for sale at Guayaki and other online vendors.

Curing Your Mate Gourd

We recommend that you “cure” your gourd prior to your first use. This helps to protect the gourd for yerba mate use.

1. Using a teaspoon, scrape the inside of the gourd to remove any loose skin and debris.
2. Fill the gourd ½ full with dry loose yerba mate.
3. Carefully top off the gourd with boiling water. Note: when drinking yerba mate later, DO NOT use boiling water as this can burn your mouth and also harms the flavor of the yerba.
4. After a few minutes the water level should go down as it soaks into the yerba leaves. When this happens, carefully top off the gourd again with boiling water.
5. Let the gourd sit for about 12 hours to allow the yerba mate mixture to penetrate the gourd completely.
6. Empty and rinse the gourd with hot tap water.
7. Scrape the inside again (see step one).
8. Rinse with clean hot tap water and dry quickly and completely (see care instructions).

Caring For Your Gourd

Following a timely cleaning and drying routine after each use, storing your mate in a dry location, and inspecting the gourd prior to each use, should keep your gourd clean.

1. Immediately after each use, empty the gourd of yerba and rinse the gourd with clean clean tap water (if you use hot tap water it will help it dry faster).
2. Hand dry the gourd with a clean towel. (A towel will not completely dry the gourd but helps removes the excess water so the gourd dries faster). Prompt and complete drying is necessary to prevent mold growth.
3. Place the gourd upside down on a rack in a dry location and allow it to dry completely. It may be necessary to dry the gourd near some source of dry heat like a home heat radiator. However, be careful not to place the gourd near a flame or where it could catch fire – the gourd is flammable!
4. When your gourd is dry, store your gourd right-side-up in a well ventilated area. We recommend storing it near a window where sunlight can enter the gourd to help prevent mold or mildew.
5. Always inspect the gourd before each use to make sure your gourd is clean.

Purple martins nest almost exclusively in man-made structures like a birdhouse constructed from one of our raw, cleaned gourds. If you’re eager to attract this large swallow species to your backyard, a dried and cleaned gourd can easily be constructed into a birdhouse.

 

 Procedure:

• Select a well-dried and aesthetically pleasing gourd. Remember, thick walls will ensure that the gourd birdhouse will weather the elements well.  Varieties with broad bottoms like Martin and Bottle make good choices here.
• Using a 2″ circle saw, drill a hole roughly 3 inches above the base of the gourd.  Work slowly to avoid splintering the gourd.  The circle saw bit will leave a clean-edged hole.
• The gourd will still be full of seeds and some internal membranes, so you can empty those out through the hole you just cut. Don’t throw away the seeds! They can be planted to produce your own gourds during the next growing season.
• Drill three small holes in the bottom of the gourd for drainage. 1/8″ will do nicely here.
• Drill two holes at the top of the gourd and thread either sisal twine or thin wire through to hang the birdhouse.
• You are now free to paint, stain or seal your gourd birdhouse in any way you’d like. Bright solid colors work well.

If you need some creative inspiration, here’s a selection of gourd birdhouses available at our online store.