Starchy yarn Easter eggs

 It's spring break around here and on Maisy's first day off from school she badly wanted to make Easter decorations.  I happened to have the right things on hand to make these starchy yarn "eggs":

• yarn or string
• small balloons (I blew up a few water balloons)
• flour and water mixture for the starch

 I started out by cutting the yarn into manageable pieces (about 18 inches long).  I mixed about 2 tablespoons of flour with roughly the same amount of water to make the paste.  I let the girls get their strings soaked in the paste and had them wrap it around the balloons.

Just when Maisy thought she was getting the hang of it...

Everything fell off in one big clump.  Yep, time for me to put down the camera.  This project does take some grown-up help.  The process went much more smoothly if I was able to hold the balloon and have the girls wrap the yarn around the balloon.

After each girl had done two balloons, they were done.  I set them on a tray and took them outside to dry.  They weren't fully dry until the next day.

After the string had dried, I carefully popped the balloons and pulled out the remains.  We were left with this:

Our first Easter decoration of 2012.