4/5/10

2nd Annual Martha Stewart Easter Egg Challenge

Dear Friends:
Another Easter, another Martha Stewart egg fail.

Martha Stewart's version:

our version:
Here's my conclusion: you cannot wing Martha Stewart crafts. They're just about impossible to begin with, but to come close to having yours end up remotely like Martha's, you've got to be ultra prepared, and that means buying the specific craft tools called for and freeing up at least 4 hours of your time, not counting all the gathering of her rare tools.

I did make some changes this year despite what you might think from the results. Per Martha's recommendation, I used food coloring instead of a Paas kit, but even still, my eggs ended up all spotty and mottled.

The basic gist of Martha's egg dying process this year was to block off a section with tape, dip the egg into one color, then tape it off again in a slightly different area and dip it into another color. I didn't use the vinyl tape Martha called for but I did test out a few different kinds of tape I had on hand, ultimately deciding on gaffe tape. (Uh, shoulda sprung for the vinyl.)

So... as usual, the eggs didn't turn out so good, but on the flip side, the Easter egg hunt was a blast and the following senior year superlatives were given out to the stand out eggs of the class:

Class Clown: Spotty Red

Most Likely To Succeed:
Most Athletic:
Best Couple: Black-n-Blue and Messed-Up Orange
The final lesson? Of all the magazine covers, Martha's are the hardest (by far) to recreate--they always look a little too perfect and maybe it's just me, but I can never seem to come even close to them. If anyone has had more successful results on these eggs, I would LOVE to hear from you!

Also, This month's Martha Stewart Living had not one, not two, but THREE covers. (Please stop reading my diary, Martha.) Stay tuned for cover attempt #2...

11 comments:

Matthew said...

Next year we will get the proper tools and succeed! Gotta say, Black-n-Blue and Messed-Up Orange are an incredibly cute couple.

Mary Anne said...

haha, great cover recreation! I love "the worst". Your eggs don't look so bad in my opinion! (Although, granted, they don't look like Martha's.)

Mary Anne said...

p.s. I guarantee it that Martha's eggs are a SHAM. i.e., photoshop CENTRAL!

jenious said...

I took one look at that cover at the newstand and knew I'd never be able to recreate that perfection. I give you major credit for your efforts and dig the Black-n-Blue and Messed-Up Orange eggs. The Most Athletic shot is hilarious.

Jessica said...

Hilarious class awards! I totally agree with the peeps above. Martha's stuff is always doctored and unrealistic. Bon Appetempt is like the REAL version of Martha Stewart!!!
- Jess

The Displaced Baker said...

I give up on Martha Stewart crafts. I attempted to make the Paper Eggs in April's issue and they came out nothing like the pictures in the magazine. I even bought all the tools and the exact same brands it said. I give up :) But your eggs came out beautiful!

Amelia Morris said...

Thanks for the support, guys. It makes me feel better to hear about other failed Martha crafts. I would just DIE to follow the craft editors through an initial idea to the publishing stage, you know?

Marsha and Mark said...

Eggscellent post. P.S. we hope Black-n-Blue and Messed-up Orange don't break up.

Eric See said...

I'm glad you tried it! That was better than I did!
Your eggs made me smile. Keep up the great blogging!
Eric

Megan Taylor said...

Eggs in bed are my favorite! So cute...so NOT a fail! I'm very impressed...

p.s. Thanks so much for your sweet comment on Poem,sweetpoem. I'd love to hear of some good books you've read...I'm always interested :) xoxo

sara said...

i think your eggs actually look pretty good...but maybe that's because all of our eggs this year had 2-year-old fingerprints in other colors on them.