Decorating eggshells with Easter egg dye is one of my favorite easy Easter crafts. I vividly remember decorating eggs with my brother and cousins while at my grandparents’ house around Easter time. We would all pile around the kitchen table in the back dining room and decorate our eggs while my grandmother watched. We always used those store-bought Easter egg dye kits to decorate our Easter eggs.
However, now that I am a parent, I am a little bit concerned about the chemicals in those store bought Easter egg dyes. Yes, I know those dyes are technically safe, but some of the chemicals still worry me. In a few years when I do some easy Easter crafts with my daughter, I want to color our hardboiled Easter eggs with an absolutely safe Easter egg dye. Here are some great recipes for Easter egg dye that I have discovered in my search for making safe and easy Easter crafts.
First, you can color your eggshells while you are boiling your eggs. All you have to do is throw another food in the pot of water as you boil the eggs. Here are some suggested foods to use as Easter egg dye while you cook your eggs:
- Red onion skins – red eggshells
- Yellow onion skins – orange eggshells
- Carrots – yellow eggshells
- Spinach leaves – green eggshells
- Red cabbage leaves – blue eggshells
- Artichokes – purple eggshells
- Black walnut shells – brown
To make the colors even darker, you can also add a few tablespoons of vinegar to the pot of water.
You can also make Easter egg dye using food coloring. Begin by hardboiling your eggs. After the eggs are cooked and cooled, mix one tablespoon of vinegar for every cup of water you use. Pour the water and vinegar mixture into bowls or cups. Then add drops of liquid food coloring to the vinegar water until you get the colors that you want. Carefully place the hardboiled eggs into the colored vinegar water. Allow the eggs to sit for a few minutes so that the eggshells absorb the color. Then remove your eggs from the liquid and pat dry with a towel.
Dying Easter eggs is one of my favorite easy Easter egg crafts. I personally like to color hardboiled eggs because the colorful eggs can then be eaten on Easter day. However, because I am a bit wary of the store-bought varieties of Easter egg dye, once my daughter gets old enough to help me decorate for this spring holiday, I will be using a homemade dye solution with her. Happy Easter!
Originally published on Librarian Mom – My Reference Book on Parenting on April 1, 2012
Image Credits
Naturally Dyed Eggs for Easter: https://www.flickr.com/photos/somewhereintheworldtoday/6904238650/
