How to Dye Eggs for Easter

Prepare the necessary materials. Here are a few things you need to do before you get started:

• Buy half a dozen or a dozen eggs at the grocery store or pick up freshly laid chicken eggs.
• Boil eggs thoroughly. Do this by placing the eggs in a saucepan with a pinch of salt and filling the entire egg with water. Bring water to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for at least 10 minutes, then carefully use a spoon or tongs to remove the eggs. Place the eggs under cold running water until the eggs are cool enough to touch, this takes about 1 minute; Then put the eggs in the refrigerator to cool completely before using. ^[1]
• Buy an egg decoration kit. This kit includes several dyes, cups with different colors to distinguish, an egg scoop and of course instructions for dyeing the eggs. Or you can buy a set of small bottles of food coloring that can be used for many other things, including coloring a cake.

Carefully follow the instructions on the product packaging for tinting. Usually, you will add the dye to water or vinegar (about 1 tablespoon of vinegar). (Liquid food coloring usually requires vinegar.) Make sure to have both water and vinegar ready. You can pour water into a glass, plastic cup or bowl, just make sure it’s big enough to hold the eggs. Disposable plastic cups (one that can hold hot water if you have one) are a great option because you don’t have to worry about staining and it acts like a cushion when you put your eggs in.

• Line up the colored cups in a row. Place hard-boiled eggs in an easy-to-access location. Also, it’s a good idea to cover the surface used to dye the eggs with newspaper (you can then place the eggs on top of the newspaper while adding more dye effects and this will also help absorb the drips of color) . Next, arrange more egg cartons or blisters to dry the eggs after dyeing.

Decorate each egg before dyeing if you’re going to add texture. If you want, you can use crayons to draw on the eggs or tie an elastic band or stick a dot on the egg. Covering several parts of the egg with duct tape, stickers, crayons, or elastic bands will keep the covered areas from becoming stained that you’re about to dip the egg in, but will create special effects.

• You can also dye the eggs a light color, covering up some parts and dyeing the rest a darker color.
• Often you can add a decorative effect after dyeing the eggs. It’s up to you, and if you want to know which way you like it, you can try both ways, decorating before and after dyeing the eggs.

Place the egg in the egg spoon and dip the egg in the color of your choice. You can color only a part of the egg to dye a certain area, or add the whole egg. Soak the eggs in the dye for at least 3 minutes before removing. ^[2]

• Eggs will have a darker color the longer you soak them in the color; therefore, if the color is not as desired, you should soak the eggs longer.

Remove the egg from the color and place on a surface covered with newspaper. At this step, you can add another drop of color to the egg to increase the color effect, then blow with a straw to disperse the drop of color on the egg. This step will create interesting and fresh textures. You can also use a brush to paint around the egg if you like.

• To create a very beautiful egg, you will repeat these steps as you like. Continue dipping the eggs in the color to create the effect of multi-color combinations, layers of textures (some textures will be colored), and different stripes. You can remove or keep the elastic band or sticker in between colors; Try multiple methods as described in the following sections.

Dry the eggs in the container, or better yet, place them on the blister to reduce scratching contacts. Place the egg to dry after dyeing and continue with another egg until all the eggs are dyed.