How to Dye Easter Eggs in Just a Few Easy Steps

Consider an egg your blank canvas: It can be dyed and decorated to any color of the rainbow with natural simplicity or striking detail, and embellished with everything from glitter and stencils to découpage and appliqué. The important thing to remember is that this Easter tradition is meant to be fun for the whole family.

The eggs that are currently in your fridge or sold at the local supermarket will make great dyed Easter eggs, but if you're hoping to create Easter decorations that are a little more unique, think about the other kinds of eggs you can use. As it turns out, basic white chicken eggs aren't the only variety you can successfully dye and decorate for the holiday. If you can get your hands on them, ostrich, emu, duck, or quail eggs all make for unique decorations in a variety of sizes and shapes.

Whether you use traditional dyes or make your own eco-friendly options using kitchen staples, you'll watch with delight as your egg takes on different colors and patterns.

What You'll Need

• Hard-boiled or blown-out eggs
• Vinegar
• Food coloring of your choice
• Measuring spoons
• Tongs
• Paper towels or newspaper
• Heatproof bowl, cup, or deep jar
  
• Decorative elements like washi tape, stickers, or gold leaf (optional)

Instructions

1. Before you begin, protect your work area with paper towels or newspaper.
2. Hard boil your eggs and let them cool completely before working with them. Alternatively, you can blow out your eggs if you'd like to keep them for years to come.
3. Boil water to use for your egg dye.
4. Mix 1 teaspoon of vinegar and 20 drops of food coloring (use more to intensify color) in 1 cup of boiling hot water in a heatproof bowl, cup, or jar deep enough to let you submerge an egg completely.
5. Using tongs, submerge your egg into the dye.
6. Depending on the intensity you'd like, let the egg sit for anywhere from 30 seconds (for lighter, pastel hues) to up to 15 minutes (for darker, more saturated hues).
7. Remove eggs from the dye using tongs.
   
8. Allow the eggs to air dry. Now, you can either leave them as is, or decorate them with craft supplies like washi tape, stickers, or other decorative elements.

Using Natural Dyes

If you don't want to go the food coloring route, consider making your own dye at home. The kitchen is full of ingredients to make natural dye that you can use to decorate eggs using grocery staples such as:

• Red cabbage (light and dark blues)
• Onion skins (oranges, sienna)
• Coffee (light and dark browns)
• Beets (pink)
• Turmeric (gold)

Kids will especially love discovering all the different colors they can create using natural dyes—let them experiment using hard-boiled eggs and full bowls of cold dyes.