As my readers have seen (in previous posts), although they’re a little rustic, I’ve had so much fun utilizing my footed planters almost every season.  I love to recycle & re-purpose my seasonal decorations to save money.  So, once I decided to use them for Easter too, as always, I didn’t want to put too much money into the decoration because like everyone else, I’m watching my pennies.  It all worked out though once I found these cool 15″ Egg-shaped Chinese lanterns.

Usually, I place multi-colored flowers around my huge homemade Easter tree, as you can see in this photo:

Recently, I created a new (sunny, yellow bunny) theme in my family room (check out that post too – http://seasonalhome.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/yellow-at-easter-its-not-just-for-chicks-anymore/), so I also changed out the multi-colored flowers (I typically place at the base of the tree) for yellow & white.  Making this change made them available for use in my outdoor display.  And of course, once I found the inexpensive egg lanterns (pictured above), my inspiration and idea was complete… on a budget, as always!

First, I added some recycled styrofoam to the inside of my planters to help me secure my flower stems and egg lanterns.

Also, knowing my eggs would be tall and lightweight, I thought it would be a good idea to add a recycled piece of PVC pipe (shhh!  don’t tell my hubby that I raided his sprinkler system stash of these).  Once I inserted the PVC pipe through the center of my styrofoam, I used my glue gun to add hot glue to the bottom inside the planter, where the PVC pipe meets the bottom (of the planter) and between the PVC pipe and styrofoam, to add more stability.

I also decided that I wanted a little more display bang for my dollar.  So, before I put my egg lanterns in place, I threaded a strand of white-wire Christmas lights (FREE, since I already had them!) through both of them and secured the female end of the plug to the smaller egg so the light strand wouldn’t slip back down.  That way, I can light my egg topiary at night to double my decorating dollar!

Next, I fed the PVC pipe through both of my (8″ & 12″) egg lanterns and used floral pins to secure the bottom egg to the styrofoam (inside the planter)  and then, used a little bit of low-temp hot glue to keep the eggs together.

Finally, I added the florals (recycled from my indoor Easter Tree) around the base of the eggs and my egg topiary was complete.

I made 2 and placed them on both sides of my front door.

The cost to create these decorations – less than $10.00!

Look at how cute it looks to hang a few more along my front porch eaves to bring the look out even further!

I have a small, wrought iron table on the same porch, on which I made a sweet rustic bird display.  If you check out some of my older posts, you’ll recognize all of these items (from previous designs) too.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!