Coloring Designer Easter Eggs Without an Egg Dying Kit

Coloring Designer Easter Eggs Without an Egg Dying Kit

We think we came up with some pretty fabulous egg designs. Just about everything we used to make the eggs in the basket above is in the photo below. You'll find detailed directions, as well as a list of supplies for the individual designs by following the links. While we utilized various techniques to achieve the results you see, all of the eggs have one things in common, the basic egg dye recipe.

Egg Dye Recipe
Why buy packaged egg coloring kits when you probably already have everything you need right in your pantry?

To make a rainbow of egg hues, you can use either liquid or paste food coloring, although I find using paste gives extra bright and, depending upon how large a dab of paste I use, more intense color.

You'll need a separate cup for each color, large enough to hold an egg and the liquid. Dissolve a dab of paste food color, or about 6-8 drops of regular liquid food color, in 1 cup of hot water. Stir in 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar and your egg dye is ready to go!

Egg Dying Tips

• Before you can color Easter eggs, you'll need to boil eggs, click here for how to instructions for making perfect hard boiled eggs.
  
• Covering your work area with plenty of newspaper or other paper makes clean up afterward a snap -- just gather up the mess and throw it out in one fell swoop.
• An empty egg carton makes a good drying rack, but liquid tends to collect at the bottom so use caution when lifting eggs out of the drying rack and blot the bottoms carefully with a dry paper towel so the color doesn't run
• Making sure eggs are completely dry between color coats is probably the one most important tip for great Easter eggs - absorbent paper towels, used to carefully blot the eggs, can help finish the process
• Wearing rubber gloves will help your fingers avoid getting stained with food coloring -- and they will regardless of how careful you are.
• If you don't want to color boiled eggs, you can also use hollow egg shells in which the contents have been "blown" out. Follow this link for directions on how to make blown eggs.
• After Easter use up all those egg with the recipes at this link: Top 10 Things To Do With Leftover Easter Eggs
  

Designer Easter Egg Designs (click links or photos for complete how-to instructions)

Abstract Eggs (pictured right) -- Who knew that a jar of rubber cement could help you make such great looking Easter eggs?

All-Natural Onion Skin Dyed Eggs -- No dye necessary here, onion skins do the work for these natural look Easter eggs.

Banded Eggs -- Various sized rubber bands help to make Easter eggs with bands of stripes criss crossing their surface.


Dinosaur Eggs (pictured left) -- The clever use of ordinary cheesecloth gives these eggs a unique dinosaur-like appearance.

Sticker Stencil Eggs -- A few supplies from the stationary store (or your desk drawer) can help make egg dying easy and stylish.

Marbled Eggs (3rd picture down from top of this post)-- This design creates unique marbled colored Easter eggs -- no two are ever exactly alike!

Spatter Dyed Eggs (pictured below) -- The kids love to do this one -- all it takes is some egg dye, an old toothbrush, and a small stock or skewer.