How to Make Easter Egg Dye Three Ways to Decorate. KinderArt.com

Find out how to make your own Easter egg dye and discover three ways to decorate your eggs.

By: Andrea Mulder-Slater

Hop This Way

When my daughter was younger, decorating at Easter consisted of me boiling a few eggs and letting my kiddo cover them with stickers, or paint them with washable watercolours. Later on, I broke out the glue and tissue paper. More recently, we’ve been experimenting with traditional dye baths, which are the most fun because when else can you stick your hands into multiple containers filled with colourful concoctions?

It’s easier than you might think to decorate Easter eggs with your kids. And if you’re really concerned about the mess, just grab a dollar store tablecloth or some newspapers and cover the heck out of your work area. Or – if it’s mild enough in your part of the world – take the materials outside. Because, kids.

First…

BOIL THE EGGS

Boil some eggs until they are hard (place eggs in boiling water for about 8-10 minutes). Or – if you want to save the eggs – blow them out instead (find out how to do that here).

Then…

MAKE THE DYE

This part is super easy. All you need to do is combine the following ingredients in a container and let the mixture cool.

1 cup hot water. I used boiling water from the kettle.
1 teaspoon vinegar. A little more is fine. So is a little less.
10 to 20 drops food colouring. The more you squeeze, the more intense the shade.

Note: If you would rather not use food colouring, check out my all-natural Easter egg dye recipes using cabbage, coffee, turmeric and other edible items.

Now it’s time to dip!

You can dip once. You can dip twice. You can double dip. You can do a half and half dip. What I’m saying here is that there are no rules.

But, if you want to get fancy, here are three ways to kick things up a notch.

CRAYON RESIST EGGS

The concept here is simple. Start by making designs on an egg using wax crayons… Visit Crayon Resist Eggs here for full instructions.

MASKING TAPE BATIK EGGS

To make these funky eggs, start by placing pieces of masking tape randomly on an egg… Visit Masking Tape Batik Eggs here for full instructions.

MARBLEIZED EGGS

This technique is best left until you are finished decorating since you will be adding 1 tablespoon of olive oil to your dye baths… Visit Marbelized Eggs for Easter for full instructions.