The egg carton’s primary purpose is to escort eggs from the chicken coop to your home, where it either gets tossed in the recycling bin, or with the help of some ingenious humans, mutates into bug eyes, seed starters, sorting trays, cat beds, flowers, molds, lights, and creatures of all kinds. Finding a second life for an egg carton has never been a problem, but using it as a canvas to paint portraits and patterns on never occurred to me until I came across the work of Enno de Kroon. His “eggcubist” portraits play with the viewer’s perception, looking strangely deformed because of the peaks and valleys of his unorthodox canvas. They’re also very cool and look deceptively easy to paint. I found focussing on vibrant colours, patterns, and simple shapes worked best for children, and proved easier to execute. They’ll love the results.
Materials
- egg cartons
- paint and brushes
To find large egg carton trays, head to a shop which sells eggs and see if they’ll give/sell you a few, or at least let you know who their supplier is. I tracked some down in Kensington Market (Toronto) at a shop specializing in everything chicken. They weren’t exactly eager to part with them even for money, but when I mentioned they were for children they handed over a few.
Instructions
Have children come up with a simple pattern or shape they can easily repeat. They can make a rough sketch on paper as a guide. Next, decide on some vibrant colours and start painting. Results are unique and impressive, and can easily be displayed on a wall, or used for sorting and storing a variety of objects. Think marbles, beads, earrings, teeny toys…
ArtClubBlog 
This is so pretty! I love this idea, it’s sort of 3D art! Beautiful!
-Kate
Thanks so much for your comment. The results were such a nice surprise because of the 3D effect,totally inspired by the artist Enno de Kroon!
I absolutely love this and will be saving my egg cartons.
Thanks so much for your comment, and I hope you enjoy making them!
These are beautiful! I love your large cartons, I may need to pick up a bunch of eggs just so we can do this. I love the 3D effect. Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness.
Thank you Brooke, and thanks for dropping by! You’ll just have to do a lot of baking, throw in a few omelettes, and you’ll finish your eggs in no time 😉
How fun! I really love this. Thank you so much for sharing at Sharing Saturday!! We hope you will share with us again next week!!
Thanks Carrie, and for hosting the parties.
This came out sooooooooo cool! What a fun idea! I wanted to invite you to link up at TGIF kid oriented linky party – http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/search/label/Linkey%20Parties – I know my readers would love this too!!
Beth =-)
Thanks Beth. Looking forward to your link party, and thanks for the invitation!
Wow!! These are beautiful!! What kind of paints did you use?? We’ve done this with tempera paints but the colors were not this vibrant. Help, please! 🙂 🙂
Thanks Cheri.We used Liquitex acrylics, although I’m sure any brand will do. We also diluted them slightly with a bit of water. Good luck!
This is really interesting to look at, and I bet it was interesting to do, too. I hope it’s okay I pinned it for later. 😉
It was very cool to do, and was quite a discovery coming across the work of artist Enno de Kroon. No problem with the pinning. If anything, I owe you a thank you!
Beautiful!
Glad you liked it!
Can I use your idea for an elementary class?
Absolutely! I’d be honoured 🙂
So interesting and beautiful! Thanks!
So glad you liked it Cristina 🙂
I really love this idea i have a bunch of egg cartons saved and this is a perfect way to use them!