Easter Basket Ideas Dollar Tree Style

I don't know about you, but I used to struggle coming up with ideas on what to put in my kids' Easter baskets. This year, that is not the case.  While my kids are mostly grown, I still love to give them gifts.  My youngest has very eclectic tastes, but this year I found so many things I knew she would enjoy getting as a gift.  Since she is older, I decided to use one of their baskets that come in pastel colors instead of a traditional Easter basket.  She will be able to use this basket all year, for many different reasons. 

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My daughter does not read my blog, so I am able to share what I am giving her without ruining the surprise. She loves animals, and there are so many things that are animal themed.  

• You Are Pawsome tote bag (the perfect size for pet supplies) 
• animal socks w/ ears (she loves fun socks, the sillier the better) 
• cat with glitter glasses pom pom pen 
• 3D wooden cat with light
• paw print pet bowl mat
• silly frog figurines        

I could not fit everything in one picture, so here is the rest. (sorry it is at a weird angle) She is also getting..

• a hanging shelf to put her goodies on 
• a multi color phone holder 
• 2 different hair masks 
• 2 different colors of LA Colors blush/glow sticks 
• 2 different colors of LA Colors Nail Diva nail tips
• a neon green mini squish pillow 
• chocolate bunnies and candy (not pictured) 

Today we went to visit a Dollar Tree in a neighboring town, and she picked out a few things that are not going to be in her basket, but definitely could be included. 

• unicorn make up brush 
• set of 3 different earrings 
• a glass bead bracelet 
• a 2021 date book 
• a spaced themed cosmetic (or pencil) bag 
• exfoliating glove 
• tri color baseball cap 

If you would like even more ideas here are so more items that we loved  

movie themed playing cards 

pack of 600 Lisa Frank stickers 

movie themed glitter pens 

There were more to choose from, but I picked Descendants, WW84, and Trolls World Tour for the colors of the pens

unicorn and rainbow LED lights 

One of my favorite finds 

1 lb bags of Sour Bears and Worms 

Trolli All Star Mix and Evil Twins 

If you need more ideas, be sure to check out Dollar Tree online. Did you know you can order from the website and get free shipping to your local store?  

A few weeks ago, I was searching everywhere for these adorable 13 inch Easter Bunnies.  I found out that were available online, and your could order in batches of four.  A few days after I ordered I received a notification that they had arrived, and all I had to bring was the confirmation email they sent me.  It was super simple, no mark up or shipping cost, and I had my bunnies for only $4.24    Last week I did find some bunnies in only one of my local stores, but I think that was only because I was there on the day they had arrived. (they sold out in stores FAST!)    Buying items online are great when you need a bigger quantity, or something that is hard to find. (think birthday parties, class parties, and those ever popular gnomes)   Sometimes you need to buy a case, but there are many items you can buy in small batches as well.  I had such a good experience doing an online order, I will definitely go it again.  

I hope I was able to give you some ideas and inspiration.  What is your favorite Easter Dollar Tree find? 

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Fun Easter Egg Coloring Ideas

Over the years, my creative daughter has come up with some really easy beautiful Easter egg designs using things we have had around the house.  Here are a few of our favorite designs.  

If you try this technique you might get dye on your hands, so plastic gloves are suggested.  She held the egg halfway in the dye for a few seconds.  Then she turned the egg just a bit and dipped it back in the dye. She repeated the technique on the other side by turning it just a bit the other way. Dipping the egg this way, caused a layering effect with the color. 

We used paper reinforcement circle stickers to make some pretty designs.  

This egg was the result of putting the stickers really close together. 

This egg had the stickers with more space between them. 

Using a hole punch tool on label stickers, she was able to make polka dots.  She placed the dots on the egg where she wanted them before dipping it in the dye. 

Do you have rubber bands around the house? Then you have all you need to make these cool designs.  For the first design, we wrapped a thicker rubber band around the middle of the egg

When the egg was unwrapped after the dye had dried, there were white stripes around the middle. 

This has always been one of my favorite eggs that I have made. I used multiple thin rubber bands and wrapped them lengthwise around the egg.  I waited until the dye dried before removing the rubber bands. I reminds me of a tiny pink watermelon. 

This egg was made with a combination of a thicker and thinner rubber band. 

This marble looking egg was made with scotch tape. She randomly placed the tape all over the egg in a messy fashion.  Some of it was crinkled. It looked like a mess.  After the dye dried, she removed the tape, and what was left was this really cool effect. 

She spent a little more time placing the tape on this egg. She cut the tape into small pieces that resembled pieces of grass. 

Tie dye kits are available now, but these tie dye eggs were made by two of my kids using different techniques without a kit. My daughter made the egg on the left, and my son the one on the right. My daughter likes to make a mess, and just dipped her finger in different colors of dye and painted the egg in random places with her finger. My son didn't want to get dye all over himself. He dipped different parts of the egg in the color and quickly wiped off the excess dye.  Which type of eye dyer are you?  Messy or neat? 

This year we will probably only color a dozen eggs.  Everyone is too old for the Easter Bunny to come over and hide eggs, so there is not reason to make a lot.  I did find a golden egg kit at the Dollar Tree this year that I am excited to try.  I will let you know how it turns out.  

What are your favorite egg coloring techniques? 

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Easter Bunny Nutter Butter Cookies

Easter is only a month away so I am going to re-share an oldie but a goodie.  Back in 2012, I first shared how to make these fun Easter cookies. You can see the original post here.

I had bought the Nutter Butter cookies on sale, and when I saw I had a few other supplies (flat marshmallows, white Wilton candies and heart sprinkles, I decided to surprise my kids with the bunny cookies. 

Hmm, my photos in 2012 were not the greatest.  I remember using a small digital camera. It was night, and without a lot of light in my kitchen, which is why these pictures are on the dark side.  While the photos are not high quality, you can see how I put together the ears.  I had experimented with a couple of different cookie cutters, and settled on this mini oval/egg shape for the ears. Once I cut out the shape, I pinched  together the marshmallow to make the ears a bit thinner. 

I melted the Wilton candy melts in the microwave, and covered each of the cookies in the chocolate. 

I placed the cookies on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. I then attached the marshmallow ears, and heart nose before the candy melt hardened. Using a small squeeze bottle, I drew on the eyes and mouth. I had used a pink food marker for the inside of the ears. 

The peanut butter in the Nutter Butters, and the white chocolate covering on the bunny was a delicious combination.  I know my kids loved it, and these bunnies disappeared quickly. 

I may have to make some again soon.  

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How to Make a Bunny Cake

Disclosure: This post has affiliate links to the supplies I used to make this bunny cake. 

This Easter we ate our holiday meal at a friend's house.  She made the made the ham, my daughter made the extra cheesy au gratin potatoes, our boys made the deviled eggs, and I made the Easter Bunny cake   A bunny cake is not that hard to make, and might become a yearly tradition in our house from now on.   

To make an Easter Bunny cake, bake your favorite cake recipe or box mix  in two  8 inch or 9 inch pans,  I believe I used 9 inch pans so my bunny will be slightly longer and thinner than if you use 8 inch. 

Once the cake has cooled, cut it in half down the middle 

Add a little bit of frosting between the two halves and place them on their side like in the picture.  This will become the body of the bunny.  Cover the body with lots of frosting. My edges were a little uneven, so they got a little more frosting to even the edge out. 

The next step was to figure out  what size to make the bunny head. so I got out some of my cookie cutters. I was trying to decide between my Wilton 4 piece circle cutter set and my Wilton bunny head set. Either shape would work out well, but I decided to go with the circle head  because we were running late on time, and I thought it might be easier to frost.  

I used the 3 inch cutter , but it is your preference on how big or little you would like to make the bunny head.  

Using the cookie cutter, cut the head piece out of the second cake. Since you will not need the remainder  of the 2nd cake, you can then  crumble up the rest make Cake Pops, or cut out small bunny feet. I decided not to have feet on my cake

Frost the bunny head, and attach it to the body piece with some frosting.  I had my daughter help me choose what candy to use for the face, She went for a simple look with just jelly beans.  

The bunnies ears are made out of pink and white cardstock attached to toothpicks. 

We had to travel about 20 miles with our bunny on a cake plate.  She did get bumped a little bit so she looks crooked in this picture, but I wanted to show her tail.  I used a pink egg shaped marshmallow for a quick and easy tail. I thought the pink tail looked cute with her pink nose.  If you prefer you could use a small circle cutter and use cake, a cake ball, or Sno Ball Snack Cakes  for the tail instead.   You might have also noticed that our bunny cake does not have coconut on it. My kids and I do not like coconut at all, so I did not add any.  If you do like it, you can cover the frosting with a coating of coconut to give it a different look, We swirled the frosting a bit, to give it some texture  

The cake is now ready to eat and enjoy!   

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Dare to Share #206

It is Friday night, and you know what that means... 

It is time to Dare to Share!! 

Are you ready for Easter?  Now that the weekend is here, I am finally feeling like I am almost ready.  I have the menu planned, the eggs to color, and items for my kids' Easter baskets.  We have a plan on place on which service I am going to, and where we will be eating Easter dinner. A good friend of mine also has a small family, so we are eating dinner together, and making different items so we both don't have to make a full meal. It is half the work for both of us, and we wont have an excessive amount of leftovers.  

This week I shared a round of my past Easter posts in Last Minute Easter Ideas.  Most of this crafts, and recipes can be made quickly if you are still looking for inspiration.

I have a couple of Easter features this week, that would both be great for your special meal, and can be whipped together last minute. 

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I loved this Cheesecake with Chocolate Sprinkle Bunnies by As the Bunny Hops.  You can decorate a store bought cheesecake with a pop of color and fun. 

The kids will love these Easter Chicks Lemon Cookies by The Gold Lining Girl.  They are quick and easy to make using a box mix.  

My co-host Kim from Kandy Kreations also had a great idea that you can do at the last minute.  She has a printable for an Easter Candy Wrapper that is a coloring page.  Kids will love coloring the cute picture and then wrapping them around a candy bar to give to a special person. I know I would love getting one! 

Now it is time for this week's party.   You are welcome to link up anything that you would like to share.  If you are chosen as a Dare to Share Feature, your post on the blog and my social media.   This party is also seen on Kandy Kreations for double the exposure.  Kim also chooses posts to feature on her blog and social media.  

Link up and HAVE FUN!! 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

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Easy Chick Lemon Cookies - Dare to Share Feature of the Day

Oh my!  I just love the cuteness!  I adore these Easter Chick Lemon Cookies by The Gold Lining Girl. They are perfect for the Easter holiday and the start of spring. Another thing that I love is that they are quick and easy to make, and from a box mix.  They are perfect for throwing together at the last minute this holiday weekend.  Be sure to stop over to The Gold Lining Girl to get the full recipe/directions on how to make these sweet cookies.   

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Last Minute Easter Ideas

Disclosure: There are some affiliate links to the supplies I used making these Easter crafts 

Easter is now only a few days away.   I am so not ready!!  Yesterday I realized I still need to buy eggs, and I also still need to buy some of the food for our Easter dinner. Eek!   Does anyone else feel a bit rushed in their preparations  when Easter is in March?   Over the years I have posted several Easter posts that I thought I would share again, for anyone needing some last minute ideas like me.  

My first picture is of my Bunny Treat Boxes .  They are still one of my favorite Easter crafts. They are quick and simple to make, and kids love them.  The supplies you will need to make them are mini square containers , mini white pom poms, white chenille pipe cleaners, and google eyes.  I found my supplies at the dollar store and craft store.  The dollar store does not always have the mini containers in stock, and can be hard to find, so I linked to the same ones on Amazon.  You can see the full tutorial to the Bunny Treat Boxes here.

If you like other spring animals as well.  You might like my Chick and Lamb treat boxes.  They are made in a similar manner but you would need round mini containers.

These Spring Animal Boxes were a lot of fun to make. All you need is cardboard tubes, a little bit of paint, and some basic craft supplies.  You can fill them with a small bag of candy, or small toy. 

One year I decorated the table with Easter Egg Buddies make from dollar store plastic eggs. 

My daughter made this craft for Easter a few years ago.  She found an extra large chenille stem at the craft store and turned it into a Bunny Head that is cute on it's own, but can also be added to a wreath or decoration. 

One year  I made a water proof Easter Wreath using an item you normally would not use on a wreath.  

Over the years we have shared some Unique Egg Coloring Techniques

Last year we shared a few new techniques like this one in the picture above.  You can see how we made it and a few others here.

Need some food ideas.  We got  your covered there too.  My kids look forward to my Leftover Ham Casserole every year that is made with our leftover Easter ham. 

We also have an Easter morning tradition for breakfast.  Pretty much every holiday, on the night before I whip up a batch of Make Ahead Stuff French Toast.  The family loves it and it makes busier morning breakfasts for much easier.  All you need to do is take it out of fridge and put it in the oven. 

I also have dessert covered.  Several years ago I made Easter Cake Pops. This was when my blog was pretty new, so remember that when you see how bad the pictures are. ;) I really should make them again, because my kids loved them, and they did turn out pretty cute. 

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