Spring is in the air and it’s almost Easter! One of the things I loved about Easter as a child was dying and decorating Easter eggs. I have particularly enjoyed decorating eggs using natural dyes. They turned out amazing, so I thought I would share the instructions so you can give it a try at home!
Many of the ingredients you may already have in your fridge or pantry. The other ingredients you will be able to find in grocery stores fairly inexpensively. I used the following items to dye the eggs:
• Tea (brown)
• Turmeric (yellow)
• Blueberries (blue/purple)
• Grape juice (grey)
• Beet juice (red)
Reading list: If you are looking to add some Easter reads to your weekend, check out these books for young readers from our collection.
Dying Instructions:
Notes: For these eggs, I hardboiled the eggs before dying them. The longer the eggs sit in the dyes, the darker the colour. To achieve a rich, dark colour, let the eggs sit in the dyes for at least 20 minutes. Let eggs dry on a cookie cooling rack.
Tea:
- 3 bags of tea (I used Earl Grey. But you can use other teas. Different teas may create other colours, such as herbal teas, which may turn your eggs a purple or pink colour)
- 1 cup hot water
- 1/8 cup of white vinegar
Steep the tea for at least 5 minutes to make very strong tea. Put the eggs in the water so that they are completely covered. Let them sit in the tea mixture until the desired colour is achieved.
Blueberries:
- ½ cup frozen blueberries (thawed and smashed)
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
Roll the eggs in the blueberries until desired colour is achieved. For darker colour, let them sit in the blueberries and rotate every couple of minutes.
I let pieces of blueberry dry on the egg to get the different colours.
Beet Juice:
- ½ – 1 cup of beet juice
- 1/8 cup white vinegar
Let the eggs sit in the beet juice until desired colour is achieved.
Grape Juice:
- 1 cup of grape juice
- 1/8 cup white vinegar
Let the eggs sit in the grape juice until desired colour is achieved.
Turmeric:
- 3 Tablespoons turmeric
- 1-2 cups of warm water
- 1/8 cup white vinegar
Roll the eggs in the turmeric water mixture until desired colour is achieved.
Paper plate Easter basket:
Now you need a basket to put all your eggs in!
Supplies:
- Paper plate
- Paint, markers, or crayons
- Scissors
- Stapler
- Pipe cleaner or ribbon
- Decorating supplies (optional)
Instructions:
- Paint one or both sides of the paper plate. Let dry.
- Cut four even slits (a few inches long) on each side of the plate.
- Fold up the sides and staple them together at the top to secure. It should now resemble a basket.
- For the handle, attach the pipe cleaner, ribbon, or twine on either side of the basket. You can either staple or use a hole punch to punch a hole on both side and secure the pipe cleaner.
- Optional – decorate the outside of the basket with stickers, decals, glitter, etc.
