Easter Egg Tree

The Easter Egg Tree has been popular in Germany and Sweden for centuries. In the past few years, their popularity has grown here in the United States as well (there are more than 35,000 Instagram posts tagged with #eastertree). Eggs are hung on branches of outdoor trees and bushes and on cut branches inside. This year is a great time for you to start this fun Easter tradition and these paper eggs are perfect for your first tree.

According to Wikipedia, the tradition of displaying these “Osterbaum,” as the trees are called in Germany, was most notably revived in 1965. That’s when German couple Christa and Volker Kraft began trimming their own backyard tree with 18 hand-dyed and hand-painted Easter egg “ornaments.” Each year the tree grew so it needed more eggs. In years past, the Krafts added an average of 700 new Easter eggs. In 2012, there were over 10,000 eggs on the Easter egg tree, and Kraft said that he would not try to hang more.

Easter tree decorations can include any type of egg, from plastic eggs to glass blown eggs, decoupage eggs to paper eggs, the possibilities are endless.
You can create your own DIY Easter egg tree from branches and learn how to make the colorful eggs we used to decorate ours. No matter how you use it, this tree makes a statement spring decoration. They make a great Easter egg decoration for an Easter brunch. The 3-D Easter eggs could even be used in Easter wreaths or in baskets or bowls on your Easter table.

Supplies for the Paper Eggs

Scrapbook paper of your choice – The variety available makes for a huge assortment of colorful Easter eggs.
Glue – I love this Bearly Art Glue
String

Supplies for the Tree

Tree branches
Tall Vase – I chose a glass vase because I liked the way the glass filler looked in it.
Rocks or vase filler

Instructions for Making an Easter Egg Tree

Step 1 – Make Eggs

Before you can make a decorative Easter tree, you’ll need a few eggs to hang on it. For my tree, I’m using 3-D paper Easter eggs. Here’s how I made mine. You can always just cut them out of scrapbook paper by hand if you don’t have a cutting machine.

These instructions are for the Cricut Maker and Design Space. They will need to be adjusted for your design software.

1. Open Cricut Design Space or the cutting software for your machine and create a new project by pressing the New Project box.
2. Click the images tool and type egg in the search box and press enter.
3. Click the + next to “Layers” and click “Single” to get only eggs that are made to be cut out of a single material which is what will work best for this project.
4. Select the egg you want to you. Click “Add to Canvas” to put them on your canvas to work with.
5. Your egg may not be the size you need. Resize it to what is appropriate for your tree. I decided to go with 2-1/2” tall for my eggs. To change the size, select your egg, click within the size box at the top, and type in the dimension you want in inches (for me 2.500), and press enter.
6. Duplicate your egg 4 times so that you have a total of 5 eggs (or 9 times to have a total of 10 eggs so you can make 2 3-D eggs of each color/pattern).
7. Click “Make It” (the green button in the upper right corner), and then click “Continue” (the green button in the lower right corner.
8. Select the appropriate material from the list. If the material you are using isn’t on your favorites list, you will probably have to click “Browse All Materials” to find the appropriate material. Once you have selected your material you can change your pressure if you’re on a Cricut Maker. I usually find that default works fine but you may have a different experience.
9. Load the first scrapbook paper you are using on your mat and click the flashing arrow on your machine to load the mat. Press the flashing “C” on your machine to cut snowflakes out of the vinyl. Unload your mat by pressing the flashing arrow on your machine. Press “Done” in Design Space.
10. Remove the eggs from your mat.
11. You can now load another piece of scrapbook and repeat steps 7-10 as many times as you want.

Once all of your eggs are cut out it is time to start assembling them.

1. Fold each of your eggs in half lengthwise with the pattern of the paper on the inside. Make this fold as even as possible and use a flat object to crease it.
2. Take one piece of your egg and put glue on the back of one half of it. Take another piece of your egg and line it up with the first piece. Hold them together for a few seconds to let the glue set.
3. Repeat with the next piece of your egg.
4. Add a loop to your egg by cutting a piece of string about 6” long and attaching each end to one of the insides of your egg. I attached the string with a piece of tape to make sure that it would hold.
5. Glue the last 2 pieces of your egg onto your shape, one on top of each string. I used a paper clip to hold these together until the glue was completely set since I found that the string made them want to separate.
6. Finally, add plenty of glue down in the center of your shape and then on the two backs that are left showing. Put these backs together and hold for a few seconds until the glue sets.
7. Repeat these steps for each of the eggs you want to make.

Step 2 – Make Your Tree

Once your eggs are finished, it’s time to make the tree so you have a place to hang them. You have several options for this. You can purchase a tree like this one from Amazon for $14.99 or you can go in the back yard and collect some branches to make your own.

1. To make your own tree, collect some small branches from your backyard or other location. You want to find small diameter branches with multiple offshoots to give you more places to hang your decorated eggs.
2. Cut your branches down to be about 2-1/2 times the height of your vase. You can go shorter but I wouldn’t go too much taller or it will be likely to tip over.
3. Trim the outer shoots off of the part of the branch that will be in the vase. This will make your branches more stable in the vase.
4. Do any other trimming you want on your branches. I like lots of offshoots but I don’t want them too close together so I trimmed some off to give my tree better spacing.
5. Now, you need to decide if you want your branches natural or some color. I chose to leave mine natural but you can easily spray paint them any color you want. Just remember to always spray paint in a well-ventilated area (or outside) and be careful not to get paint on yourself or objects around you. Also make sure to let the branches dry completely before adding them to your vase.
6. Once your branches are ready, get a tall vase to use to hold the branches. Add some rocks or other filler to help hold the branches in an upright position and give your tree some extra weight. Add your branches to your vase and arrange them to fill your space and give you a pleasing look. There really isn’t a formula for this, just play around until you like it.

Step 3 – Decorate Your Tree

This is the easiest step, and the most fun. Start putting your eggs on your tree. Place them wherever they look best. Remember to just have fun.
Now you have a cute Easter Egg Tree to use for your spring and Easter decorating. Add some Easter baskets and other Easter decorations to create a cute vignette to add to your home décor.

 

Want some more Spring project options, check out these posts.

You can check out all of my Spring crafts and diy here.