The Eggcellent Eggspress – Egg Carton Train
Oh yes, the excited for this year’s School Egg Decorating Competition is GROWING!!! Last week, we showed you a our winning Space Eggsplorers entry.. and this week, we are sharing Pip Squeak’s Eggcellent Eggspress, complete with Egg Carton Train and Eggster Bunnies! I know that these are winning entries.. because we made these LAST year and kept them well under social media wrap until after the judging. My kids take the Egg Decorating Competition at school very seriously!
I think.. like her brother’s entry, this Egg Carton Train design resonanted with the teachers, as it incorporated school elements (the train was call “School Name” Eggspress and also included the Head Teacher as an egg). It has some fun puns (EggMa, instead of grandma) and included popular culture (a Harry Potter Egg, going ot Eggwarts). All in all, you could tell Pip Squeak hat lots of fun creating her 16 (!!) Egg Characters and it clearly tickled the teachers. Competition last year was tough.. so I think she did really well to win!
Top Tips & Tricks for the School Egg Decorating Competition:
- Teachers like a theme or a “scene” – the Egg Carton Diorama’s always go down well. But you can go bigger and more abitious
- If the theme is also linked to a school topic – than even better. So our Solar System Eggs really resonanted as Red Ted had this as one of his school topics. But it isn’t essential as our Eggspress shows (we did name it the “School Name EGGspress” and labelled one of our eggs with the head master’s names.. so I think that helped!).
- Make it funny! Yes, you **NEED PUNS** and you will simply have to make it up. Teachers have a busy day and though they may be impressed with your art work, they also like to smile. Make them smile… even better make them laugh! So lots of EGG related puns. Thing EGGcellent, EGGstatic, EGGxplorer, EGGcited, EGG-head, cracked Eggs, Scrambled Eggs, fried eggs.. add other languages like “Oeuf” and see what you can come up with!
- Good quality paints can make all the difference to that finished look – have a set of these Gloss Enamles Paints (UK affiliate links), they are not super cheap, but they have lasted me aaaaages. Here is a great set for US readers.
- Finally – if you can – plan ahead and take your time. Then you can have more fun with your creation.. and you will have more time to think of funny details to add!
Remember.. they don’t have to be super complicated to win.. surprise your teachers! Pip Squeak one year, made a VERY quick and easy Cress Head Hair Dresser Salon and it surprised the teachers so much, she won!
The Eggcellent Eggspress – materials needed:
- 3-4 egg cartons
- Craft stick
- Cotton reel or Paper Roll
- Masking Tape
- Cotton wool
- LOTS of blown out eggs (learn how to blow out eggs) – Pip Squeak created 16 Egg Characters
- Paint
- Cardboard
- Glue gun
- Tissue paper (for decorating)
- Paper for speech bubbles and details
How to make an Eggcellent Eggspress for the Egg Decorating Competition!
This video just shows you the finished Egg Carton Train in a bit more detail. It is NOT a how to video.. follow the written information below!
Egg Carton Train How To
Let’s begin by making the egg carton train! As this forms the basis of the Eggcellent Eggspress.
Using a 6 egg, egg carton, cut half of the lid off (see picture). Also remove the closing flap.
Cut down the central nobbly bit that keeps the eggs separated.
Insert the craft stick into the back. And secure the remaining half of the egg carton box lid with masking tape. We used masking tape as you can easily paint over it.
Hot glue gun your cotton reel to the top.
A bit precarious… but squish the craft stick through the “loose” part of your egg carton lid and secure with some masking tape both on the outside and inside.
You are ready to get painting!
Paint your egg carton train black (or in your desired colour).
Whilst that is drying you can get started on your passengers..
The best bit about creating an EggSpress for the School Egg Decorating competition, is that you can have LOTS of fun with the characters… you can have a Harry Potter going to Eggwards, you can have the Eggster Bunny, and of course an EggMar with her dog… I think this bit Pip Squeak REALLY enjoyed creating. We kept it simple, mainly using sharpie pens to decorate. Quick and easy.. and she made LOADs of characters (including the head mistress.. teehee that always gets you bonus points in a School Egg Decorating Competition).
Apologies that we don’t have any more step photos.. clearly we were busy decorating the Eggspress. But this is what we did:
- We got a large piece of cardboard and drew on some tracks. Pip Squeak add brown sleepers in paint.
- Then she got some tissue paper and decorated the remaining space in green with “pink and blue flowers” (scrunched up tissue paper).
- I can’t remember when we added the wheels to the Egg Carton Train.. but we either stuck the train down first and then added the wheels vice versa.
- Pip Squeak also added a long 12 egg egg carton as a station platform and added some characters to that (I do love the Egg Dog!! So cute!).
- Finally she cut out speach bubbles and name lables on paper and glued those on too! Ta-daaaaa!
Need more School Egg Decorating Ideas? Take a look here:
