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!

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.

Gourd Easter Egg & Basket Painting at our 2011 Spring Open House

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??