36 Easy and Eco-Friendly Easter Crafts

My least favorite thing about any commercialized holiday is how much consumer waste gets produced, and Easter is no different.

To be perfectly honest, it’s not even the consumerism itself that bothers me, because I LOVE myself some holiday-themed novelty foods. Show me a package of egg-shaped Oreos or Sriracha-flavored Peeps, and I will show you my credit card! It is literally the resultant trash that I cannot stand, the candy packaging and plastic grass and plastic eggs and cellophane wrappers and cheap decorations that everyone knows will be in a landfill by May.

Fortunately, over the years I’ve built up a couple of ways to solve my holiday trash problems. Today, I’m showing you my favorite craft projects for an eco-friendly Easter–no plastic allowed! And next week, I’ll show you my favorite craft projects for upcycling that Easter trash that you somehow managed to find yourself with anyway–we’ll talk about awesome ways to reuse candy wrappers and plastic eggs and all the rest of that crap.

So for today, instead of feeling like you have to go out and purchase new decorations and baskets and toys and treats, choose something from my list of my favorite eco-friendly Easter crafts. Make something that you’ll love to reuse, and save yourself from adding new items to the global waste stream.

EASTER BASKETS

• candle jar basket. Reskin a jar candle to look like a mini basket. This would be a cute way to give a new candle as a little Easter present! Or, fill the empty basket with treats for a small and sweet Easter exchange, perhaps for a roommate.
• fabric basket. Here’s how to sew a basket completely from scratch.
• felt bunny and chick baskets. Take advantage of how easy felt is to work with!
• felted sweater basket. A felted wool sweater has such a glorious texture. It’s perfect for an Easter basket!
• hungry bunny bag. I especially love the idea of this bag as a non-traditional, slightly macabre Easter basket alternative for a teenager.
• Mason jar baskets. Need a little baskety something but want to keep it low-key? Pop sweet treats into a Mason jar for an instant and beautiful basket alternative.

EASTER DECORATIONS

• chalkboard place cards. A reusable, Easter-themed place card isn’t hard to DIY–you just need corrugated cardboard and chalkboard paint!
• bunny sachet. This simple sewn bunny makes a cute little favor to put at the place settings for your Easter dinner. Or, tuck it into the basket of an older kid.
• clay egg garland. Use any paintable, air dry clay for this decoration. I’m especially fond of homemade salt dough!
• crocheted bunny. String several bunnies together into a garland, or applique them into an Easter dress or homemade basket.
• Easter basket liner. If you, like me, repurpose an everyday basket as your kids’ Easter basket, then put it back to its regularly-scheduled use the next day, you’ll appreciate this project. Sewing a liner for that everyday basket makes it instantly Easter-themed, and you can easily save the liner for next year.
• Easter egg candle. A poured candle is easy to make inside a carefully cracked egg. Display it in an egg cup!
• egg carton egg holders. Dye and paint a cardboard egg carton to hold sweet Easter egg treats instead.

• embroidery hoop Easter eggs. Upcycle an oval embroidery hoop into a decorative Easter egg. Use the fabric to show off all your embroidery skills, or just glue buttons and sequins to it! You can carefully remove the fabric to store between holidays so you can continue to use your embroidery hoop year-round.
• fabric carrot. This would make a fun present for a little kid with a play kitchen. Otherwise, set several carrots in a bowl as a cute decoration.
• Mason jar treat holders. Reverse stencil old Mason jars to have cute Easter theming. Fill them with treats, or pop a votive candle inside.
• paper bird’s nest. Upcycle old magazines or scrapbook paper into cute papier-mache-style bird’s nests. Fill with treats, or enjoy as-is!

• paper wreath. Paint and markers allow you to upcycled just about any matte paper into a cute bird’s nest wreath. Or is it a bunny’s nest?
• Peeps painting. Here’s a fun group or party project. Everyone can paint their own Peep, and the painting itself makes an adorable decoration!
• pom pom bunny. This is a versatile holiday craft–make it with kids, and it’s a cute kid’s craft. Make it in secret, and it’s a sweet non-candy present for a kid to find in their basket.

• toilet paper tube candy holder. Pre-package your treats and party favors using completely upcycled materials.

EASTER TREATS

• vegan cupcakes. Enjoy an Easter treat–including jelly bean egg toppers!–that have no animal by-products.
• bread bunny dip bowl. Bake your favorite homemade bread recipe into a bunny shape, then hollow out its guts for spinach and artichoke dip!
• Easter egg fruit pizza. Here’s a mostly healthy treat that kids can help make. Just bake your favorite cookie dough in the shape of an egg, add cream cheese frosting, and decorate with fruit!
• Italian Easter bread. This sweet bread with an egg baked in the middle is a delicious and festive treat.

EASTER EGGS

• birdseed-filled cascarones. Traditional cascarones contain confetti, but THESE cascarones contain a treat for the birds! If you’re trying to regrow your native landscape, wildflower seeds are another good option.
• cement eggs. Fill an eggshell with cement, and have the weirdest Easter eggs in the neighborhood!

• chalkboard egg. This is a simple, kid-friendly way to make an egg that can be decorated and re-decorated every year. This is a great choice for kids who are REALLY into decorating eggs and would color them all day, every day if they could. Now they can!
• Easter egg softie. Want a huggable, squeezable Easter egg? Sew it up and stitch an adorable face on it!
• embroidered felt Easter egg with a pocket. Looking for the simplest, most eco-friendly, most beautiful, AND easiest to store Easter eggs? This is what you’ve been waiting for! Felt is easy to hand-sew and easy to embellish, so this project is even suitable for younger kids to help with. The egg includes a pocket for treats and prizes, so it’s perfect for egg hunts.
• embroidered real egg. There is a whole world out there of people who hand-stitch onto real hollowed-out eggs. Join them!
• nature-decorated Easter eggs. Have an outdoor walk, then decorate cardboard egg bases with your treasures.

• papier-mache Easter eggs. These are more time-intensive than your typical Easter craft, but they’re a great option for making fillable eggs that will last for years.

• Spawn egg cascarone hunt. You can theme these cascarones any way you want–here, they’re Minecraft Spawn eggs! Play in your own yard, and have the peace of mind that the upcycled paper confetti and decorated eggshells will decompose into your lawn. The eggshells are even great for your soil!
• sugar egg. Detailed, beautiful decorations like this is where homemade really shines! Channel your inner artist and craft the afternoon away making these precious sugar eggs.

• wood burned eggs with watercolor staining. There is a LOT that you can do with these eggs! Wood burn a picture or pattern onto them, and/or paint or stain them with liquid watercolors. For a fun family art project, let the youngest kids paint the eggs with watercolors first, then older kids/adults can woodburn a picture on top, like a reverse coloring book.

Do you have a favorite eco-friendly Easter craft? Tell me about it in the Comments!