String Easter eggs (also called yarn or thread eggs) are hollow, lacy eggs made by wrapping glue-soaked embroidery floss around a balloon, letting it dry hard, then popping the balloon. They are messy and slow, and the balloon-popping at the end is half the fun. This guide covers the supplies, how to get the glue mix right so the string doesn’t collapse, and ways to display them. Plan on 30 minutes of hands-on work plus overnight drying. Good for ages 8 and up, with an adult handling the balloons and the popping.
Supplies:
- Embroidery Floss
- Water balloons (latex, so avoid them if anyone has a latex allergy)
- Balloon pumper-upper
- Elmer’s glue (white school glue)
- Water and a bowl for the glue mix
- Wax paper, or a cooling rack and clothespins, for drying
- A pin or tack and tweezers for popping the balloons (adult use)
Directions:
- Blow up the balloons with the pumper, not your breath. They are tough to inflate by mouth. Aim for egg-sized balloons.
- Set up a drying spot. A cooling rack with the balloons clothespinned to it works well, like the one in the paper mache pencils project. Or set the eggs on wax paper after wrapping.
- Cut arm-length pieces of embroidery floss, about 6-8 per balloon. Use one color per balloon or mix colors.
- Mix the glue with water in a bowl, adding the water a little at a time, until the glue is runny enough to soak into the floss.
*Troubleshooting: string that never hardens* Some readers reported that their string never set up. This is not an exact science. The glue-to-water ratio matters: if the string stays soft after drying, the mix was probably too watery, so add more glue. The rule of thumb is to water the glue down just enough that it coats the floss easily.
- Dunk one piece of floss into the glue mix, pressing it in until the whole length is saturated. Hold one end and pull it through your fingers to wring out the extra glue.
- Wrap the floss around the balloon, then repeat with each piece until you like the look. Leave gaps so the egg has a lacy look.
- Clip each balloon to the drying rack with a clothespin, or rest it on wax paper. Keep the balloons from touching each other and from being knocked over.
- Let the eggs dry fully, ideally overnight and up to 24 hours. Pop a balloon too early and the string can collapse.
- An adult pokes each balloon with a pin and lets it slowly deflate. Pull the balloon out through a gap with your fingers or tweezers.
- Throw balloon pieces away right away. Broken or uninflated balloons are a choking hazard for children under 8.
How to display string Easter eggs
Show them in a bowl, or tie embroidery thread to them and hang them from a light fixture, a branch or a ceiling fan. You can use AAA Batteries for Easter Decor for your string lights as well.
If you like these, try the alternatives to traditional Easter eggs.
Comments
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This is so cool. I hate those plastic easter eggs, but love these.
I hate the plastic eggs, too. Oh, who am I kidding, I love those things and I love stuffing candy in them and mixing the colors of the tops and bottoms. Carry on.
it didnt work
This is so gorgeous! I love it!
Thanks Ana!
Very pretty! I wish I had an Ikea light to hang them from.
Oh! Do you have Ikea near you? I will hand deliver one of these to you if you need me to.
We actually have TWO (2) Ikeas near us. I try very hard to stay away because when I go there I tend to spend all our grocery money. I will accept your hand delivery, though.
We live halfway in between two Ikeas as well. I can feel the energy pull from them at all times. I can hand-deliver your light, but you might have to prepare a large, delicious dinner for me…
These are so pretty and I’m amazed when I see how easy they are to make! Thanks for the great tutorial and for sharing!
Thanks Gina! Easy crafts make me the happiest.
These eggs are wonderful!! I thought it would be difficult to take out the baloon but looks like they came out clean 🙂
The balloon just deflated so easily and didn’t stick- it’s SO easy to make these, and my kids had a blast poking the balloons with pins.
Do you just wrap the string around the balloons? Then just hang them up so you can see thru them(balloons)
You use a glue and water mixture to dip the string into, wrap around the balloons, let them dry, and pop the balloons. When the glue and water mixture dries, it hardens the strings so they stay where they are when the balloons are popped.
Love these! They look fabulous. But what I love even more, is the name of your blog. I’m sure there’s a great story to go with it 🙂
Thank you so much! And do you know, there’s absolutely zero stories to go with the name. It just so happens that this is the way my brain works.
This is great! Can I please promote your site in Holland? http://www.hetkleineavontuur.nl
Hi! Of course, and thank you. I just ask that you link back to my site, use only one image, and don’t re-post my content.
These are so pretty! I’ll be featuring them on The Crafty Crow soon 🙂
Thanks Cassi! I’m excited!
This type of material, including mache, is ridiculously fun to work with.
It so is. It also takes a lot of the stress out of it if you figure out the little tips and tricks to using it ahead of time. Have you made some cool stuff?
A yarn egg last year that was a complete flop. lol
Love your eggs. But when I tried it, they just collapsed after I popped the balloon. What did I do wrong?
Oh no! The only things I can think of are that you need a ratio of more glue to water, they didn’t dry long enough, or maybe you used washable glue? I’m not sure if washable glue works or not…. If you have the energy to try them again, maybe make your glue-water mixture more gluey and less watery. Do you think any of these sound like what happened?
Have you heard if this works with yarn? Do I need to leave more glue on the yarn since it is thinker? I have one tester drying right now, but thought I would check before I get too far into this!!
Thanks!
Loretta
Ooooooh, let me know! I bet yarn will look really pretty- maybe just let it soak longer in the glue mixture so it gets really saturated?
will Elmer’s glue work when water is added? I tried one several months ago and it all stuck together into a ball when I popped the balloon!! 🙂 love these! and really want to make several people one for this Easter!!
Oh and WHY WATER balloons?
Yes to Elmer’s! Okay. Could you have popped the balloon too early? I’m picturing this caving in on itself if it’s not completely dry. Honestly, it took me a couple of tries before I got it right. But not so many to be frustrating. Oh- and I used water balloons just because of the size. You can blow up regular balloons, but they’ll be HUGE!!!
Wow! These eggs are so beautiful!!! You are a yarn egg genius!
Why I’ve never been called a yarn egg genius before! Blush.
I would love to make these with my classes but we are a latex free school because of health issues. Can anyone think of a substitute for the balloon? I’m stumped.
Ack! That’s a tough one, because you need to have something that deflates so you can remove it and leave the dried string in tact. Unless you can find some sort of clear plastic eggs? Maybe? That’s all I got…. Good luck!
Weg werp handschoenen. Latex vrij.
Heb het niet geprobeerd.
Misschien als je de vingers er af knipt en die probeerde op te blazen.
I tryed making these an Im not having any luck.. The last ine I made the balloon popped before it was fully dry..
My question is when it is fully dry should it be movable at all?? Or rock hard…
Wanting to know what the finished result should feel like?????
The last one I attempted to make was hard but movable if that makes sense… The balloon poped before it was fully dry..
A friend made one also but said her is harder.. What am I doing wrong?
I have tried dipping the string in just glue, I tried the water and glue mixture, and have no luck when I pop the balloon the whole thing falls in. Not sure what I am doing wrong the last one I did I let it dry for 2 hours. It’s looks like the string is glued to the balloon so when I pop it it falls in.
Yuck, I wish I could help the people here who aren’t having luck with this project- what kind of glue are you using? Maybe it has something to do with that, or maybe let them dry longer? My glue stuck to the balloons a bit, but when I popped the balloons, it ended up pulling away. If parts of the string started to collapse, I would push it back out and gently separate the balloon from the string and glue.
Love this project. Just made some samples for my Kindergarten spring project. It will be a tad messy for little fingers, but I’m sure they will enjoy it!
Oh, so messy! But they will love it if you are brave enough to tackle it with them. I’d love to see what they do.
I love your egg craft..but I actually thought id get directions to make the dandelion?? That’s what was pictured on pintrest.
Hi Chris- I’m not sure which pin you clicked through from- was it one of mine? If it was someone else’s, maybe they added the wrong link to the pin? Sorry I can’t be of more help! I haven’t done a dandelion tutorial on my blog, so maybe it was part of somebody’s roundup of crafts?
Ps have already pinned egg tutorial to my “spring” page…….
I know most of the dandelion pompom tutorial was pictured on the page…but need clarification for step 2! (not sure what I’m seeing!?)
These are fun to cut a hole fill with easter grass and chocolate eggs and small chocolate easter rabbit instead of an Easter basket
I made these eggs with a flour & water mixture. Yeah, they do tend to collapse if they get wet – but my son could happily bite them without me stressing myself silly. He doesn’t eat them – he just bites them. Boys are so much fun….
Mine didn’t work. I made one with embroidery floss and one with yarn. I used 1 T water to 1 T elmers school glue. I made them at 9pm last night and popped them at 7am. Both balloons POPPED when punctured, no fizzling here. The yarn egg completely collapsed but the floss one might be salvageable. Maybe. I’d like to try again but wish there was an exact recipe to follow.
I used a regular sized balloon and put a treat or toy inside the balloon before blowing it up. And I only blew it up to the size of a duck egg or maybe a tad bigger. That’s a way to get something inside without having to cut a hole!