Dying Easter Eggs – Easter Egg-stravaganza
OK, so the kids noticed on the calendar that Easter is approaching and they want to make a huge production of dying eggs. In the past, the little stickers you bought at the store sufficed, but now they want the real thing. Here are some old standards with a few new ideas for you.
One important note: When the kids get really excited about egg dying, don’t feel sorry for them and pour the left over egg dye in their bath water so they can have more fun (no matter how much they beg and plead! Especially if it’s food coloring). Someone might panic and declare a citywide medical quarantine if they see your kids dyed all sorts of strange colors in their Easter finery.
Before you decorate Easter eggs, cover the entire table with newspaper. Keep a huge roll of paper towels or rags handy for messes. Have each kid wear one of dad’s old (now disposable) tee shirts.
Making Easter Egg Stands
Cut toilet paper roll cores into one inch cylinders and use for egg stands. Decorate with stickers or paint.
Decorating Eggs
Traditional Method
Hard boil eggs. Fill several mugs with boiling water and add 1-2 tsp. vinegar. Place a few drops of desired food coloring in each mug. Place eggs in mugs for several minutes until eggs reach desired shades.
Remove with a spoon. Place on paper towel to dry. When dry, polish with a small amount of shortening on a paper towel. Buff until glossy.
You can draw or write on the eggs with a light colored or white crayon before dipping. The drawing will remain white after the egg is dipped.
To clean out mugs, put a little bleach water in the cups and soak for a few minutes.
Natural Easter Egg Dyes
If you would like to try dying eggs naturally, try the following:
- Yellow– yellow onion skins, turmeric (1/2 tsp. per cup water) celery leaves
- Orange–any yellow dye plus beet juice
- Red–beets, paprika, red onion skins
- Pink–cranberry juice
- Blue–blackberries, grape juice concentrate, red cabbage
- Brown–black tea, white oak, juniper berry, coffee, barberry
- Light purple–blackberries, grapes, violets
- Green–alfalfa, spinach, kale, violet blossom plus 1/4 tsp. baking soda, tansy, nettle, chervil, sorrel, parsley, carrot tops, beet tops or dip yellow egg in blue dye
Hard boil eggs with 1 tsp. vinegar in the water. Place dying ingredients in non-aluminum pans, cover with water and boil 5 minutes to 1 hour until desired color is achieved. Use enough material to make at least 1 cup dye. Crush ingredients as they boil to extract as much dye as possible. Strain the dye. Most dyes should be used hot. Let each egg sit in the dye until it reaches the desired color. Some dyes will take longer than others to make the desired colored on the egg. Remove the egg and let dry.
Glitter Eggs - Place 1 tablespoon each of glue and water in a cup. Stir the mixture and then paint the eggs with it. Sprinkle with glitter. This can also add sparkle to already dyed eggs!
Decoupaged Eggs – Tear small pieces of wrapping paper, napkins, stickers, or clip art. Mix equal amounts of glue and water. Paint egg with glue mixture. Place paper on top and then cover with more glue mixture. Let dry.
Spotted Eggs – Place 1 tsp. of cooking oil in dye. Dip the egg. The oil will cause the dye to make an irregular pattern on the egg.
Waxed Eggs – Dip a portion of the eggs in melted paraffin or candle wax. Then dip them in the dye. Remove from dye. Dry and peel off the wax. The egg will be white on one half and colored on the other half. You can also dip in dye before waxing to get two colors.
Hollow Eggs – Poke a hole in one end of an egg with a very small needle. Poke another slightly larger hole in the other end. Then blow on the small end and the egg will come out the other side. Decorate as desired.
I always enjoy reading your newsletter. I love dying Easter eggs naturally. Here is an added twist on naturally colored eggs featured on my blog:
http://magfood.blogspot.com/2010/03/easter-eggs.html
I want to wish a Happy Easter, filled with blessings, to the Living on a Dime Family – Jill, Tawra & family, and the readers who visit here.
Know that my wishes to those who celebrate something different, or not at all, carry the same good thoughts.
Thank you Chris. Hope you have a wonderful Easter too.
Another fun and funky Easter Egg craft is to blow out hollow eggs as you suggest, make the holes a LITTLE bigger, FILL with Jello Jiggler Recipe:
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups boiling water (Do not add cold water.)
1 pkg. (8 serving size) JELL-O Brand Gelatin, any flavor
Directions
Make a small hole in each end of a raw egg and blow out the contents. Rinse well and let stand to dry for at least a day. Prepare Jello according to instructions on box. Pour liquid Jello into eggs, with a small funnel, sealing the eggs with a tiny piece of tape. Leave in refrigerator to set. Crack and peel! Kids love them!
PLEASE – If you are going to use cores for easter egg stands, it is more sanitary to use paper towel cores rather than toilet paper cores. Most paper toweling is pulled from a stand or unrolled as needed while holding onto the roll, whereas many people could have inserted their hands/fingers INSIDE toilet paper cores to unwrap tissue, if it is not on a roller. Don’t expose little ones to germs unnecessarily.
I don’t worry about this too much but some of you might. My kids and grandkids hands have been in much more unsanitary places then what is on the inside of a toilet paper roll. Just taking them into a public restroom and getting them out without touching anything is almost impossible so I don’t think too much on these things. Course there is always what happens at school and the things they touch there and then put in their hands in their mouth.
The first time you find one digging around the cat box or chewing on a dog turd (excuse me for being indelicate) they found outside it pretty much is down hill from there no matter how I try or careful I try to be.
To create stripes on your eggs, dip the egg only partway.
You can immerse the egg totally in one color, then when dry, dip it partway into another to make another section of color. For example, immerse egg totally in yellow. When colored and dry, immerse it partway into blue. That end will be green, the other end will be yellow. Now immerse the yellow end into red, making one end orange, the middle yellow, and the other end green.
You can use the resist crayon technique to create other designs in white, or yellow overall.