Impress your family and visitors on Easter Sunday by serving dyed eggs for breakfast or just use these eggs to decorate the breakfast table with.
These dyed eggs can also be used for an Easter Egg hunt, the kids will love to find the eggs or turn the dyeing of the eggs into a fun family activity.
I'm sharing the 4 methods that I used to dye the eggs further down in the post. You can either use boiled eggs or blow the eggs and use the empty shells only if you do not want to eat the eggs.
TIP: If you are going to eat the eggs, use food colouring to dye the shells. (See method). Eggs have porous shells and some of the food colouring might seep through the shell into the egg, but it is quite safe to eat the eggs as you can see in this post on how to make marbled eggs.
How to dye eggs:
The great part of this whole egg dyeing thing is that you do not need a lot of supplies to turn ordinary eggs into spectacular looking ornaments or decorations.
You will obviously need eggs and apart from a few odds and ends to use as stencils, the main ingredients for dyeing the eggs are:
- food coloring
- half a cup of boiling water (125ml)
- 1 tablespoon vinegar (15ml)
Add a few drops of food coloring to the water and vinegar until you get the color you desire.
Stir well and allow to cool. Dip the hard-boiled eggs (or blown eggs) into the mixture and leave until the shells are the shade you want. Remove and drain on a kitchen towel.
Tip: Make temporary stands for the eggs while they dry by cutting toilet paper rolls into 5cm thick circles.
The 4 methods that I used as stencils for the dyed eggs:
Wax crayon drawing
Use wax crayons to draw patterns or pictures on the egg. Make a dye solution with food coloring and put the eggs in the dye. Take it out from time to time to see how strong the colors have become. The dye will not penetrate through the wax drawing and your drawing will show clearly.
Candle wax stenciling
Light a candle and carefully dribble the melting wax on the egg shell. You can make random patterns or even try to write a name. Let the wax harden and dip the eggs in the dye until the desired shade is reached. Remove the eggs from the dye solution and let dry completely. Use a knife to carefully scrape/lift the wax from the eggs. (If you want to use blown eggs for this one, rather blow the eggs after you have removed the wax drippings, as the fragile shells are sure to break).
Stocking stenciling
Another way to decorate eggs, is to place a small flower or leaf on the egg. First moisten the egg with water, then position the flower or leaf where you want it to be. Press lightly so it sticks to the egg shell. Cover the egg with a stocking and tie it securely with string or sewing thread so the flower or leaf will stay in place.
Put the eggs in natural or food dyes. Take out when the colors are the way you want them to be and place the eggs on a tray. Leave to dry thoroughly without touching the eggs.
Cut away the stocking and peel off carefully. Peel the flowers or leaves off the shell to reveal the outline where the dye has not penetrated.
Elastic band stenciling
Tie wide elastic bands 2-3 times around the egg. Place the eggs in the dye solution and leave until the shells darken. Remove and blot dry with a paper towel. Leave to dry completely before removing the elastic bands.
Conclusion:- Scroll back up to the first photo in the post to have a closer look at the eggs.
The leaf prints will maybe look better on a white-shelled egg. The green egg has the rubber band stenciling, unfortunately the rubber band came off when I first had a peep at the color, so I could not put it back into the dye.
I am quite impressed with the candle wax method. You can really make lovely decorated eggs with this method and it is definitely my favourite of all the methods.
The drawing with the wax crayon did not show very clearly and the yellow dye also did not come out really yellow, again a white egg will be better to use with the yellow dye. I used glass decoupage pens to draw the little duck again and added grass as well. Poor little duck... I feel bad for him because he could have looked quite different if I was able to really draw. 😢
Note: It is very rarely that we find eggs with pure white shells in South Africa. The eggs that you see in my photos are normally how our eggs look... maybe it has something to do with all the sunshine we have here... 😉 even in winter.
Have fun when you dye eggs for Easter this year.
Image Source: All photos used in this post are my own.
Other Easter Egg Fun posts: How to Make Your Own Marbled Easter Eggs