Homemade Dinosaur Eggs/ Geology eggs

Geology eggs, paleontology eggs, dinosaur eggs, gem eggs, dig your own fossil eggs... You know the type. You get the kits where, with a small tool, you can dig a treasure of some sort out of the plaster mix.

I thought they'd make a terrific party favour for Miss 4's birthday party, however the bought ones cost too much. So here's how we made our own.



I tried a bunch of different recipes: flour, coffee grounds and plaster (became VERY smelly after a few days), flour and plaster of Paris, cornflour and plaster of Paris, plaster of Paris with a small bit of sand together. They all turned out VERY hard. and although Miss 4 had an absolute blast using a hammer to smash them to pieces and extract the treasures, they weren't what I wanted for a party bag.

The successful recipe:

(makes around 6 palm sized eggs)

2 cups of sand
4 heaped teaspoons of plaster of Paris (approx. 1/3 cup)
Powdered tempura paint to colour
Water
Treasures, dinosaurs or gem stones.

First mix the dry ingredients together. Add water a little at a time until the mix would make a good sand castle or has the consistency of cake icing.

Put a spoonful of the mix in the palm of your hand.

Add the treasures.
I've shown the gems here, but I also made some with plastic dinosaurs and with real gem stone (from a cheap box of mixed stones).

Add a second spoonful of the mix and then mould into an egg shape. I found gently tossing the egg from one hand to the other made it all come together nicely and smoothly.

Leave to dry for a few hours, or overnight depending on your drying conditions.

I made the digging tools from chopsticks cut in half and sharpened with a pencil sharpener.

Usually with party favours I worry about how many to buy and how many I'll have left over, but this time I've made plenty because I'm sure my kids will have a blast with the ones left over... perhaps we can even use them for an Easter Egg hunt in a few weeks time, Or they could be hidden in the sandpit for discovering later.