Originally posted March 24, 2010
Onion Skin Dye
Močiutė (my father's mother, Alvine) made dyed Easter Eggs by boiling onion skins in water, removing the skins, then adding the eggs to boil with a little vinegar. The water from the boiled onion skins would "dye" the eggs an orange-brown color.
Steeped Tea Antique-Look Eggs
Yellow dye: chamomile flowers or chamomile tea bags.
Purple dye:
Store-bought Dye Kits
A Smashing Hard-Boiled Easter Egg Game
My kids tried double-dying their eggs, (letting a dyed egg dry and then dying it again) to see if this would make a stronger egg-warrior. I don't think this makes a difference. Gluing stickers or "armour" on the tip of the egg is against the rules.
Dinosaur Eggs
Make a rubbery "dinosaur" egg:
Močiutė (my father's mother, Alvine) made dyed Easter Eggs by boiling onion skins in water, removing the skins, then adding the eggs to boil with a little vinegar. The water from the boiled onion skins would "dye" the eggs an orange-brown color.
Another way:
- Remove the skins from 8 onions.
- Add onion skins to a pot of 3 cups water.
- Add 1 Tbsp vinegar.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
- Strain out onion skins, put the liquid in a large Mason jar.
- Add hardboiled eggs (about 4) so that they are covered by the liquid.
- Refrigerate overnight so that the eggs absorb the colour, remove the eggs and let dry.
Coffee-Colored Eggs
- Immerse hardboiled eggs in strong filter coffee with a little vinegar added.
- Or dissolve 2 tbsp. instant coffee in 2/3 cup boiling water and 1/2 tsp vinegar, add eggs.
Steeped Tea Antique-Look Eggs
- 2 teabags in 2/3 cup boiling water with a splash of vinegar.
- Try different kinds of bagged herb teas for different shades of tea-dyed eggs.
To make an antique-looking treasure map for an Easter egg hunt, tint the paper you use with steeped tea.
Vinegar for Egg Dying
Using other leaves, fruit, vegetable or flower dyes
Vinegar for Egg Dying
- To dye eggs brown, use white vinegar, malt vinegar or balsamic vinegar with onions or coffee.
- For other colors, use 1/2 tsp. white vinegar per cup of water tinted with vegetable dye.
Using other leaves, fruit, vegetable or flower dyes
Boil non-poisonous leaves, fruit, vegetables or flowers in water, allow them to steep, then strain.
Pink dye
- 1 medium red beet, peeled and roughly chopped. Bring to a boil in 3 cups water and 1 Tbsp vinegar, simmer, strain, use liquid as dye.
- Try boiling cranberries.
Yellow dye: chamomile flowers or chamomile tea bags.
Purple dye:
- blueberries, serviceberries, concord grapes or grape juice
- 1 cup blueberries in 3 cups water + 1 Tbsp white vinegar, boil, simmer, strain.
Store-bought Dye Kits
- Use an individual cup for each dye shade.
- Kids often dip eggs from one cup to another--which will teach them what happens when you mix different colors.
- If you're out of dye tabs and need to make a fresh container of dye because one now-unpopular child has turned the pink dye a muddy brown, stir drops of food coloring in a cup of boiling hot water with 1/2 tsp. white vinegar.
A Smashing Hard-Boiled Easter Egg Game
At an early dinner after mass on Easter Sunday, there would always be a basket of decorated hard-boiled eggs on the table. After saying grace, dinner would begin with an "egg battle"--one person would hold their egg in their hand, the pointed end up, while the person seated next would tap (or smash) the tip of their egg down on it. The winners would challenge each other till one "champion" unsmashed egg was found.
My kids tried double-dying their eggs, (letting a dyed egg dry and then dying it again) to see if this would make a stronger egg-warrior. I don't think this makes a difference. Gluing stickers or "armour" on the tip of the egg is against the rules.
The most important rule is to never play the egg-smashing game with a raw or hollow egg. This is not funny.
Blown-Out Hollow Eggs for Decorating
A decorated egg will last as a keepsake, if you blow out the insides of a raw egg before decorating. My mother Marilyn once "blew" two dozen eggs so that my sister Diane's class would be able to paint keepsake eggs for Easter.
Method:
Blown-Out Hollow Eggs for Decorating
A decorated egg will last as a keepsake, if you blow out the insides of a raw egg before decorating. My mother Marilyn once "blew" two dozen eggs so that my sister Diane's class would be able to paint keepsake eggs for Easter.
Method:
- Get a sharp darning needle and pierce both ends of the egg. The smaller the hole the harder it is to blow, but if you try to make the hole too big you'll crack the egg.
- Put your lips against one hole and "blow" the contents out through the hole at the other end, into a bowl.
- Give the emptied egg a rinse in warm water.
- Let the hollow egg dry out for a couple days before decorating. One way to do this is to apply wax crayon in a pattern and dye the egg. Paints, markers and stickers can also be used, as this egg will never be eaten. Let dry and brush on modge podge (decoupage glue).
Dinosaur Eggs
Make a rubbery "dinosaur" egg:
Soak a hardboiled egg in vinegar and watch what happens.
Have fun getting ready for Easter!
Have fun getting ready for Easter!
