Hama bead and paper plate Easter decorations

This Easter craft was inspired by the Hama bead aquarium that we made last year, which I was reminded about recently when I wrote about ways to display your finished Hama bead projects. They are simple Easter decorations, combining two of my favourite crafting materials - paper plates and Hama beads.

This craft was a fantastic joint effort between the children. Mia helped me to paint the paper plates while Harry was at school, and then Harry made the Hama bead Easter eggs. Some of them he finished a little while back when we bought the pegboard, and he also made a couple of new ones just for this craft.

The Easter Eggs are made on the Easter Egg Hama bead pegboard. It's a great pegboard, because it is shaped in a way that means you can make eggs of all different sizes. It's also very versatile, with lots of ways that you can place the beads to make different patterns while still keeping the overall shape obvious. I'm planning on making lots in a smaller size that we can use for an Easter Egg hunt around the house and keep from year to year. I've also made some tiny Hama bead Easter Eggs which we used as cake toppers!)

We painted up plenty of paper plates. You need two for each frame, one is used as the background and the rim of a second is used for the front of the frame. With older children you could think more carefully about the background that will be visible in the frame, perhaps a lovely scenic background with hills and sky, or a pattern which matches the Easter Egg which will be displayed. You could also decorate the outside frame with stickers or other collage materials.

When the paint is dry, cut out the centre from half the paper plates to make the outside of the frame. Staple them together with the tip of the rims together, so that a 3D frame is formed. Tie cotton thread securely through the top of the Hama bead egg, then use a needle to push the other end of the thread through to the back of the paper plate frame, underneath the rim so that the egg is hanging down slightly. Leave a long tail on the cotton and use a long strip of sellotape to secure. If you want to hang your decoration, add a loop of yarn or ribbon. Otherwise they can be propped up on a shelf or mantlepiece.

Hama bead creations are great for hanging because you can so easily tie thread through the holes. Even if the hole is slightly closed after ironing, it's very easy to poke through again with a needle. You do need to make sure that the cotton is tied tightly to the top of the egg and that the cotton is taped firmly to the paper plate, as the finished Hama Easter Egg can be quite heavy.

You can find all my Hama bead crafts on my Hama beads page - there's lots to inspire you all year round!