As a newlywed I didn't have lots of seasonal decorations--try none. One of the joys I've found of being a new home owner is decorating for the seasons. I'm trying to amass an arsenal of seasonal decorations, a little more each year so I have something to put out as the months change. After-season sales and DIY projects have been my friends for seasonal decor.
Paint chips have lately been a go-to as well since they are inexpensive, colorful, and versatile. The folks at Sherwin Williams also gave us a free paint-chip deck when we were last there picking out some interior paint. I don't know if they normally do this, or if they just felt sorry for us because we were really indecisive about picking our paint colors (although giving us a million colors to choose from doesn't help the indecisive). Either way, that paint chip deck has had many lives so far--from helping us choose paint colors, to a Valentine's banner, and now an Easter-Egg Banner.
To make the banner I used an oval paper punch (1 5/8" by 1 13/16") I got off of Amazon (once you go Prime it is hard to stop). That gave me the Easter-egg effect with ombre paint colors. This was also really quick versus cutting all the egg shapes out by hand.
Next I used a small hole puncher (1/16") to make two holes across the top of each "egg." I threaded some waxed cotton through a large hand sewing needle to link the eggs together on a chain. The waxed cotton helps keep the banner in place and the eggs from shifting around. That was a tip I got from this website.
In the past I had sewn the paint chips together using a sewing machine (for the Valentine's banner), but they tended to shift around or flip over). The waxed cotton did the trick, and I would recommend this material for other banner projects.
I hung the Easter-egg garland at my entryway table, and added a hyacinth from Trader Joes. The smell of fresh flowers is heavenly and reminds me the spring is coming--even with all this snow! Let me know if you have any other ideas for paint chips.
