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Monday 9 April 2012

Sparkly Easter Bunny Footprints

Every year when the Easter Bunny visits our home he leaves a trail of footprints. Sometimes these footprints are made with kids' finger paints and other times with chalk. This was the first time that the Easter Bunny has visited us in a) a rental property, and b) a house with carpet, so a new footprint method was required. Something non-staining and easy to remove was required. 

A while back on Pinterest I spotted an idea for Santa footprints made from baking soda and glitter. This idea sounded perfect for the Easter Bunny - and it was!  The result was quite effective with just the right amount of magic sparkle. 

Sparkly Easter Bunny footprints lead to the girls' Easter goodies

Here's how the Easter Bunny left his footprints...


What you'll need
Baking Soda (aka Bicarb Soda)
A sponge
Scissors

How you do it
First you'll need to start by making a stamp for the Easter Bunny's footprint. I made this out of a kitchen sponge. I cut out one large circle for the foot and one small circle for the toes. I had extra sponge left over so I cut out an extra toe stamp so that Kim could help to speed things up a bit.

Once the sponge is cut into shape run some water over it and then squeeze it out. You want to make sure the sponge is damp enough to pick up the glitter and baking soda mix but not wet enough to make the baking soda dissolve!

Now mix together your baking soda and glitter in a bowl. There's no particular ratio. Just mix together until you're happy with the combination to work with your carpet colour. Make sure that the bowl is big enough to easily fit your sponge in while your working on the footprints.  

Once you're happy with your glitter and baking soda combo, get to work stamping those footprints.
Now I found that a few techniques worked well. Most of the time I sort of twisted the sponge onto the carpet. This got quite a bit of baking soda on the footprint which makes them stand out. Sometimes this also left the right amount of sparkle. Other times it didn't. In this case I patted a little extra of the mix on top until I was happy with the result. I guess it all just depends on the type and colour of carpet you have, the glitter colour you've chosen and how much you want the footprints to stand out. I made the footprints lead out our front door, down the corridor and to the nearest emergency stairwell in our building - which thankfully is only two doors down. The carpet in our apartment is quite dark, however the carpet in the corridor is much lighter so I found that I needed to apply a little extra here for it to stand out as much.

Stamping on the footprints with a damp sponge

Adding some bunny toes

More toes

I was really happy with the result and the kids loved it. The proof was in the pudding when Ava came running into our room in the morning squealing with delight about the glittery trail of footprints that the Easter Bunny had left behind. Success!

Aha! So that's how the Easter Bunny got into our apartment... through the emergency stairwell!

Glittery bunny tracks


Not my footprints!

Bunny prints leading through our apartment

Ava points out the Easter Bunny's footprints on Sunday morning

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

7 comments:

  1. Would this work on hardwood floors?

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    1. I haven't tried it on hardwood floors so I'm not sure. Baby powder sprinkled on or even chalk might work. I've used fingerpaints to make the footprints in the past when we had floorboards but you need to clean them off pretty quickly incase the colour seeps into the woodgrain (if the floor isn't thoroughly sealed). I learnt that the hard way!

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    2. Have u got any ideas for white tiled floors?

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    3. Our old house had light coloured tiles throughout. I painted Easter Bunny footprints with finger paints on the tiles and it worked well. It cleaned off much more easily than the floorboard mishap mentioned above! In fact, the tiles were installed over the top of the floorboards so I was never too fussed that footprints didn't clean off the floorboards in the first place ;) Make sure you place the footprints towards the centre of each tile as the paint may stain the grout. If your tiles are small this may be a little tricky. Also, I wouldn't used paint on unsealed or porous tiles. Alternatively maybe you could make a simple template out of cardboard and sprinkle on coloured glitter. Glitter glue could work too.

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  2. How adorable!!! I must try this with my housemate. She delights in the cutesy.

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  3. Was it hard to clean up?

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    Replies
    1. It vacuumed up pretty easily. A little glitter always hangs around for a while (like anytime you use glitter!) but after a few vacuums it's usually all gone.

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