Dyeing Easter Contest

To Start

• Cover the table with layers of old newspaper to soak up any spills.

• Remember to have a lot of napkins handy.

• Use empty egg cartons as drying racks.

• For fast color, mix seven to eight drops of food coloring into 1 cup of hot water. Stir in 1/4 cup vinegar.

Homemade Dyes

To make your own natural dyes, boil common ingredients in water with a tablespoon of vinegar until the desired shade is reached.

Strain to remove the solids.

• To Make Yellow — Yellow onion skins and ground tumeric

• To Make Orange — Same as yellow, but with beet juice added

• To Make Pink — Cranberry juice concentrate

• To Make Red — Beets and paprika

• To Make Blue — Canned blueberries, red cabbage and grape juice concentrate

• To Make Green — Spinach and/or kale

• To Make Brown — Strong brewed coffee or tea

And don’t forget to let the eggs dry between coats!

Other Fun Ideas

Crayon Easter Eggs

Take a wax crayon and draw designs on the egg then dip it in the dye and allow to dry. The dye won’t soak into the wax, so the artwork will shine through.

Spotted Easter eggs

To give your eggs a multi-colored spotted look, use stickers. Any shape stickers will work. You can apply the stickers to the egg and then dye, or mix it up a bit and dye the egg one color, apply the stickers, and then dye the egg again a different color.

Tissue paper dyed eggs

All you need for this effect is some multi-colored tissue paper (the non-recyled paper works best) and some water. Spray the egg with water, place squares of paper on the egg one at a time and set aside to dry.  You may have to spray the egg again to make the tissue paper very wet. When dry, the paper will fall off, giving the egg a colored stained glass look.

Special Effects

–For spattered eggs, dip in a base color and let dry. Dip a clean toothbrush in a contrasting color and carefully flick bristles with your fingers to make the paint splatter onto the egg.

–For marbleized eggs, coat the eggs with a base color and let try. Mix canola oil or other light cooking cooking oil into another color dye ( 1 teaspoon oil per cup of dye) and quickly dunk the eggs. The oil will repel the color in some places and the dye will adhere to others, creating a marbled effect