Coloring Easter eggs

Coloring Easter eggs

Preparation

Before decorating your eggs, you need to hard-boil

them. Place the eggs in a large saucepan. Add cold

water - enough to completely cover the eggs. Place on

medium-high heat and bring water to the boil. Reduce

heat and simmer eggs for 9 minutes. Remove pan from

heat. Fill pan with cold water and let the eggs cool

completely before decorating.

If you're working with dyes of any sort, it's a good

idea to prepare your work area so you can avoid

messes. Cover your work surface with plastic (a

garbage bag will do - split it open and tack it to the

edges of your work surface with tape). Cover the kids,

too - a kitchen apron tied loosely around the neck

works well, or just have them wear old clothes.

11 Ways to Decorate Easter Eggs

1. Dying eggs with food coloring

To make food coloring dye, combine 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon

of food coloring with 2 tsp. vinegar in a mug or jar

large enough to contain one egg. Fill with cold water

and stir. Drop eggs in dye. The longer you leave them

in the dye, the darker the color. Experiment with

different combinations of colors - red mixed with blue

makes purple, yellow with a drop of red makes orange,

blue and yellow makes green, etc. When you remove the

egg from the dye, pat dry with a paper towel.

2. Coloring with crayons

Use crayons to draw all over the eggs. You can draw

pictures or just simple dots and patterns. You can

stop there, or you can drop your crayon colored eggs

into food coloring dyes (see above). The parts that

are covered with crayon will show through the dye.

3. Odds and ends

You can decorate your eggs using all kinds of craft

supplies and a little white glue. Try gluing on

sequins, buttons, glitter, or beads. Glue on stickers

or color with markers. Be creative!

4. Natural Dyes

In place of food coloring dyes, try using natural

dyes. Combine the dye (see below) with 1/2 Tablespoon

of vinegar with some cold water in a saucepan. Add raw

eggs (make sure there's enough water to cover the

eggs) and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 to

15 minutes (the longer you simmer, the darker the

color will be, but simmer at least 8 minutes so that

the eggs cook thoroughly).

Color chart:

Brown - the outer layers of onions, tea or coffee

Yellow - turmeric or saffron

Red - cranberries

Purple - beets

Green - spinach

Blue - blueberries

5. Elastic band art

Wrap elastic bands around hard cooked eggs, then drop

them in food-coloring dye. Remove eggs, pat dry with

paper towel and remove rubber bands. The parts of the

egg covered with rubber bands will not be colored.

Once the rubber bands are removed, you can drop the

egg into a different color dye.

6. Painting on eggs

Use undiluted food coloring and a paint brush to paint

on hard boiled eggs. Let the eggs sit in egg cups

until dry. You can also use tempera paints in place of

food coloring.

7. Sponge painted eggs

Pour some acrylic paint into a shallow dish. Add a

little water to thin the paint. Cut natural sponge

into small pieces. Clip one piece of sponge in the end

of a clothes pin. Dip the sponge into the paint and

dab the egg with it. Put the egg in an egg cup to dry.

8. Waxing eggs

Light a taper candle and drip wax all over hard cooked

eggs. When the wax is set, drop the egg into food

coloring dye. Remove from dye and pat dry with paper

towel. Scrape wax off of the egg. You can drop the egg

into a different color at this point, if you wish.

9. Marbled eggs

In a mug or jar large enough to contain one egg, place

1 Tablespoon of oil, 1 Tablespoon of vinegar and 1

Tablespoon of food coloring. Add enough water to cover

egg, stir quickly with a spoon and drop in hard boiled

egg. Pull egg out quickly and pat dry with paper

towel.

10. Swirled eggs

Use a sharp knife (kids should be supervised) to make

1 to 2 Tablespoons of crayon chips. Fill a large glass

jar with very hot water. Drop in some crayon chips.

When the chips start to melt, drop in a hard cooked

egg, swirl the egg around with a spoon. Remove the egg

and let it air dry.

11. Easter bunny eggs

Use food coloring dye or natural dyes to dye eggs in

solid colors. Dry with paper towel. For each bunny

egg, cut two oval shaped ears from colored paper. Glue

the ears to the top of the egg. Add googly eyes. Use

markers to add a small triangle for a nose and some

whiskers. Glue on a cotton ball for a tail.