Dyed Eggs-our Easter basket is now complete

As I promised in the post dedicated to making an Easter basket out of paper twist, here is the missing piece – dyed Easter eggs. No Easter would be complete without an afternoon dedicated to creating these colorful eggs! The best part is that this project uses an ingredient that is present in just about every house, fresh eggs. If you can find white eggs the result is even better but as you can see brown eggs work out just fine. It is important to start this post with an important FunLab Mom Hint: if you are thinking about blowing your eggs, do it while your kids are asleep or out of the house. Everyone will be happier because this step is a little bit stressful and VERY messy and the last thing you want to do is to add a little one to the equation.

To tell the truth, the eggs that we dyed when I was little were always hard boiled. I, however, am not a fan of hard boiled eggs and would rather use the eggs to make cookies and other yummy things that I do like. The first step is to wash your raw eggs with soap and water and then rinse well. Use a needle to make a small hole at the big end of the egg. Enlarge the hole with a larger needle. I used my cake tester. Insert the needle all the way into the egg and move it around so that you break up the yolk.

Insert a small straw into the hole. In the picture below, the hole is exactly the size of the straw which is a mistake. It needs to be a little bit bigger so that the egg has room to exit the shell.

Hold the egg hole side down over a bowl and gently blow into the egg using your mouth. This is the messy part (and potentially stressful). The egg will slide out of the shell-if you blow too hard, you will break out a large hole which will weaken the shell and render it unusable. Rinse the egg well. I microwaved the egg shells for 20 seconds on high so that they dry out completely. Microwaving also helps to harden the shell and kills any bugs such as salmonella that might be present on the shell. Now the fun can begin. Call the little ones into the kitchen for they dyeing stage!

You will need:

Step 1: Prepare a work area. I covered our table with old newspapers because the food color stains. Cut your cardboard tube (I used one from a toilet paper roll) into 2,5 cm segments.

Step 2: Prepare your dye. For each color, pour 250 ml boiling water into a glass. Add 30 ml vinegar (I used white wine vinegar) and around 20 drops of concentrated food color. Stir well and set aside until cooled. The kids love this stage because the effect of the food color in water is quite striking.

Step 3: Create a lasso out of a large paper clip. Unbend your paper clip and create a bent “b”. You can use this to move your egg around. You can also use a spoon but it is a little bit messy. Using the paper clip lasso you can hold your egg while any dye that has enter the egg drains out.

Step 4: Put your eggs into the dye. If you have blown the egg, you will need to hold it down (I used the lasso) until the air has come out. The egg should be completely immersed in the dye. Leave the egg for around 5 to 10 minutes in the color. Use the lasso to remove the egg from the dye, draining out the excess dye over the glass. Place on one of the cardboard tube segments and let it dry.

You can create all sorts of different effects covering the eggs with rubber bands or stickers and then passing in another color. I put a little vegetable oil on a paper towel and rubbed it over the eggs (gently) to give them a finished look.

Our center piece is now ready for Easter brunch!