I don't know about you, but my kids are SO excited for Easter this year. Dexter asks practically every morning, "Is it Easter yet??" It's kind of adorable, but also really getting old. But I can't really fault him. All he remembers about the holiday is chocolate eggs, plastic egg hunts in the back yard and a lot of jelly beans. He's five, so he can be forgiven.

But leading up to the big day, I try and find ways to keep him excited while also satisfying his NEED for it to be Easter already. So we tried out these fun Paper Plate Easter Basket Crafts.

Not only is this a fun and pretty craft, but it's a GREAT one for kids because it helps them with hand eye coordination through lacing the ribbon, cutting shapes and painting.

Here's what you'll need:

Paper plate
Hole puncher
Skinny ribbon
Pastel card stock
Crinkle cut paper shreds for filler
Pink paint
Paint brush
Scissors
Pencil

Directions

Draw a line down the center of your paper plate with your pencil, and then connect that line to draw a half circle onto one half of your paper plate.

Cut your half circle out with scissors. This can be difficult for kids, so be sure you get it started for them. And have patience! Kids are notoriously slow at cutting.

Paint your paper plate basket with pink paint and let dry. Pink is my son's favorite color, but you can paint your basket any color you like. Be sure to put down newspaper or an old towel so they don't make a mess. Kids LOVE to paint, but they don't have the greatest control.

Once your plate is dry start punching holes along the handle and top of the basket. You can show your kids how to do this, but it might be faster to do it yourself.

Start weaving your ribbon in and out of the holes starting in the middle of your plate and finishing in the middle of your plate. This is a great time for a coffee break while you let the little ones do their thing. It takes a lot of concentration for them to weave the ribbon in and out, and in my experience they can get a little frustrated and have to start over.

Tie your ribbon into a bow. Again, this is a great thing to help your kids learn tying if they're not already good at it. Learning is FUN!

Now cut out Easter egg shapes from your pastel colored card stock. If you're going to let the kids do this part (which I highly recommend!), make sure you sketch out the egg shapes with pencil so they can follow the lines. And always make sure you have sketched a few extra than you actually need, as kids tend to make mistakes. Once they are all cut out, it's time to glue them inside the paper plate basket. You can use hot glue, as it's really quick to dry, but if you're letting the kids do it, it's probably best to just use regular Elmer's glue.

Turn your plate over and glue your crinkle cut paper onto the back.

If you're going to display it on a wall (and kids will usually insist on this!), just wait for it to dry, and you're done! But my kids wanted to actually PLAY with their baskets, which can end up in a big mess. So if yours want to play, I would suggest taking another paper plate and gluing it to the back so that everything stays inside. Easy peasy!

You're going to love this! Let me know if you give it a try!

This post originally appeared on It's A Mother Thing.