Egg Dyeing Basics – 5 Tips for Your Best Easter Eggs Ever

1. Preparing the eggs

Boiling the eggs for dyeing seems to be one of the trickiest parts of the whole Easter egg activity! Try this method from Incredible Egg  to get your best boiled egg ever and follow these simple guidelines:

• Start your eggs off in cold water
• Cover the eggs with water by at least an inch
• Allow eggs to sit (off the burner) for 12-15 minutes after boiling
• Dunk eggs in cold water to halt cooking

If you’d rather opt out of the boiling, you can try your hand at blowing the eggs out before dyeing with these tips from Tinkerlab.

2. Egg dyes

Your typical Easter egg dyeing kits can usually be found at a local grocery store during March and April, or they can be purchased online, here. But if you don’t have time to make a run to the store or you’re just looking for something more natural, try some of these DIY egg dye recipes:

• Kool-Aid eggs 
• Food coloring egg dye
• Natural dyes made from fruits, vegetables, and spices
   

3. Suggested egg dyeing tools

• Tongs, slotted spoon, soup spoon, or “egg dipper” from a store-bought kit
• Cups or containers for dye – make sure the containers you use are deep enough for an egg to be fully submerged and not overflow once an egg is dropped in.
• Paper towels, newspaper, or for the messiest bunch – old towels!
• A cooling rack, empty egg carton, or other item where dyed eggs can be left to dry – a special drying board can be made by pushing sewing pins or toothpicks into a piece of Styrofoam, as seen at Sunny by Design.

4. Dyeing tips

• Leave eggs submerged up to 5 minutes for lighter colored eggs and up to 10 minutes for darker
• For two-tone and multi-colored eggs – always dye using the lightest color first
• Follow the basics of the color wheel when layering colors – red and blue make purple, but purple and yellow make only brown.

5. Adding designs

• Add decals or sticker shapes before dyeing—like circle stickers to make a polka-dot egg
• Use temporary tattoos to decorate your egg after it has dried
• Draw on dry dyed eggs with permanent marker
• Place rubber bands around eggs at various angles before dyeing
• Draw on your eggs with a crayon before dyeing
• Add olive oil to your color baths for a “marbled” look following this tutorial from Martha Stewart.

Kayla Lilly is a photographer, writer, wife, and mama making a house a home in eastern Idaho. She met her mister while working at an amusement park and married him a year later after deciding there was no way to live without him. The amusement has continued as they’ve added three kids and a passel of pets to their lives while finishing college and starting a photography business. Drawing inspiration from the whirlwinds of marriage, parenthood, and the media, Kayla blogs at www.utterlyinexperienced.blogspot.com, and spends the rest of her time chasing chickens, organizing junk drawers, diapering toddlers, and photographing everyone willing to step in front of her lens.

Featured image via Better Homes and Gardens.