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Decorating Easter EggsOld Fashioned Easter Egg Decorating IdeasHere, you'll find some Easter egg ideas to make this Easter a memorable and fun time for your family. As for the mess, before you begin, decide that you will clean it up together and don't worry too much. Even the cleanup can be fun if it's handled right. Easter egg decorating is so much easier when your eggs are prepared properly for coloring. There are three ways you can prepare eggs for painting or dying: you can use fresh eggs, you can blow out their contents, or you can hard boil them. A decorated fresh egg will not last long and will create a mess if broken, but a blown egg that's decorated will last forever. However, eggs are much less fragile hard boiled making them easier for children to handle. How To Hard Boil Eggs For Decorating Easter EggsBe careful not to cook your eggs by placing them in already boiling water. The temperature difference makes it almost certain that the shells will crack. Instead, place the desired number of eggs into cold or lukewarm water and put the pan on the stove. The water should just cover the eggs.Adding a teaspoon of white vinegar to the water will allow the coloring to soak into the shell better, covering them more evenly, and thoroughly. As the water heats, the inside of the egg heats gradually, hardening the contents. Edible eggs can be done in as little as five minutes. But, eggs meant for decorating should be given a few minutes extra. Don't overcook, though, since that too can lead to the shell cracking. But make them extra firm to stand up well to handling. Once the eggs are boiled, turn off the heat and allow the pan to cool gradually until both the water and eggs are room temperature. This may take around 20 minutes. Now, remove the eggs carefully from the pan and place them gently into a bowl. Put the bowl into the refrigerator and let them cool and harden further for at least an hour. Then, remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let the eggs reach room temperature again. Now they're ready for decorating. How To Blow An Egg For Decorating Easter EggsThe first thing to do is collect the eggs, so that you can empty them of their contents. Blowing eggs to empty their contents without breaking their delicate shells is not the easiest of tasks, but it is fun, and it does get easier with a bit of practice.What you need to do for egg blowing is to drill or poke a small hole on one end of the egg and a slightly larger one on the other end with a needle. Then, while holding the egg over a bowl, blow through the small hole, so that the contents can run out of the larger one. Pierce the yolk with a needle to help things along and expect to blow harder in the beginning to get the flow started. You could end up with a lot of mixed yolk and egg white depending on how many eggs you plan to decorate, so plan ahead to use the contents of the eggs to bake a cake or omelets or whatever else you would like to make. Once you have removed the contents of the eggs from the shells, gently rinse the shells thoroughly with clean water in preparation for Easter egg coloring. When the egg blowing is done and the shells have dried, sit your children down to color and decorate the egg shells for Easter. Give them ribbons and paints and dyes and felt pens and let their creativity run wild. You'll find that there is far more joy in decorating Easter eggs at home than in purchasing ready-made Easter decorations at the local craft store. Decorating Easter Eggs With Food ColoringTo make eggs a solid color using food coloring is easy and inexpensive. To prepare the coloring, just add about 25 drops of food coloring to 1/2 cup warm water, or enough water to cover the egg when placed in the cup.How to decorate Easter eggs: Place the egg into a the cup with the coloring and let it sit for a few minutes until it reaches the desired shade. Remove and allow to dry on a paper towel. If you set the colored eggs on a cloth to dry, don't expect to get it clean again in the washing machine. To make two-tone eggs, dip one end into one cup for a few minutes. Allow to dry, then dip the other end into a cup containing the second color. Use wax crayons to write a name on the egg and then color as usual. After the coloring has dried, the crayon can be carefully wiped off if the eggs are warmed slightly in the oven. Using stickers, rubber bands, or small bits of masking tape, you can mask off and apply several colors to a single egg. But, it can get tricky when you try to do more than three. Beyond that, hand painting using watercolors is the way to go. One way to produce eggs with a marble effect is to mix a tiny bit of vegetable oil into the coloring. Then, the dye sticks in a marbleized pattern to make outstanding looking Easter eggs. Decorating Easter Eggs With Natural Food DyeGrandma taught me how to dye Easter eggs with natural food dye. It's safe, all-natural, and it really works.Fruit And Vegetable Dye RecipeDifferent foods produce different colors. Add carrots, cranberries, spinach, or beets to 3/4 cup water in a pot with 1/2 teaspoon vinegar, bring to a boil and simmer until the water turns a pleasing color.Remove from the heat, let cool, and then strain the colored water into a cup. Place an egg into the cup and let it sit in the colored liquid until it reaches the desired shade, this may take up to an hour. Easter Egg Coloring With Onion SkinsRemove the brown outer skin from an onion and wrap it around a raw egg securing it with string or thread. Gently hard boil the egg and afterwards remove the onion skin to reveal a multicolor egg shell.Easter Egg Coloring With TeaPour 1 cup boiling water over 3 tea bags in a small pot and allow to steep for about 15 minutes. Pour the liquid into a small bowl, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar and let cool. Let egg sit in tea-colored liquid until it reaches the desired shade of color, this may take up to an hour. Different teas will produce different shades of color.Decorating Easter Eggs With WatercolorsEaster egg painting with watercolor paint is one excellent way to color the eggs with any design you want. Watercolor paints soak into the shell well, but it may take several coats to get an even appearance, if that's desired. Use a fine watercolor brush or pens. It's always best NOT to eat the eggs once they're colored with watercolor paint, as the paint will absorb into the egg.Decorating Easter Eggs With Children's Easter Egg Dye KitsEaster egg dye kits are another, very convenient way to decorate your eggs. Many kits for children contain a simple wire egg holder, multiple dye colors, stencils, and other drawing aids. You can find them available at most stores around Easter time.However, although such kits were available in the 1950s when I was a child, I had more fun experimenting with the old fashioned methods of decorating Easter eggs using onion skins and natural food dyes. It seemed almost magical when the unique colors were produced. Sometimes, Grandma's ways are best. Enjoy! TOP of Decorating Easter Eggs RETURN to Easter Dessert Recipes HOME to Dessert Recipes
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