DECORATING EASTER EGGS

Everything you need to know, to make artistic, traditional and even silly Easter eggs.

Preparation:
1. Before decorating your eggs, you need to hard-boil them. Place the eggs in a large saucepan. Add cold water - enough to completely cover the eggs. Place on medium-high heat and bring water to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer eggs for 9 minutes. Remove from heat and fill with cold water. The eggs must be completely cool to decorate successfully.
2. Make your own food color dye:

A Kit:
You can purchase many different kits with stickers, holders etc.

Combine 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of food coloring with 2 tsp. vinegar in a cup that is deep enough for the eggs. Add water to about the half way point. Gently place the eggs into the cups - a soup spoon can be used to place the eggs in the cups, to avoid cracking. The longer they are left in the dye, the darker the color shade. Experiment with different combinations of colors. When you remove the egg from
the dye, pat dry with a paper towel and place in a holder.

3. Crayon Resist:
Color on the Easter eggs before placing in the dye. Simple dots, lines shapes swirls... The wax will resist the dye and your picture will show through. If you are dying Easter eggs with little ones and do not want to use dye, the children can simply color the eggs with crayons.

4. Collage Eggs:
Adorn your eggs with miscellaneous craft supplies, using white or craft glue to attach. Items to try: sequins, buttons, glitter, or beads, stickers or even color with markers. Get wild!

5. Natural Dye:
Use the color chart below to create all natural tones. try using natural dyes. Combine the dye with 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar with some cold water in a saucepan. Add raw eggs (make sure there's enough water to cover the eggs) and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. The longer you simmer, the darker the color will be, but simmer at least 8 minutes so that the eggs cook thoroughly.

Color chart:
Brown - the outer layers of onions, tea or coffee
Yellow - turmeric or saffron
Red - cranberries
Purple - beets, purple onion skin
Green - spinach
Blue - blueberries

Another Natural Method:
This will create a beautiful marbled effect. Wrap the uncooked eggs in Onion skins both white and purple, spinach, or fresh saffron. Use white string to secure the wrap and then place the eggs in the foot of an old nylon stocking...tie a knot and bowl the whole shebang, using the cooking times above. Don't forget the vinegar. Leave the eggs in the wrap for awhile. When you untie them they will all look different.

6. Rubber Band Designs:
Wrap elastic bands around hard cooked eggs, then drop them in food-coloring dye. Remove eggs, pat dry with paper towel and remove rubber bands. The parts of the egg covered with rubber bands will not be colored. Once the rubber bands are removed, you can drop the egg into a different color dye.

7. Painted Eggs:
Use undiluted food coloring and a paint brush to paint on hard boiled eggs. Let the eggs sit in egg cups until dry. You can also use acrylic paints in place of food coloring. Do NOT eat eggs that have been painted!

8. Sponge Painted Eggs:
Cut a sponge into small pieces. Pour some acrylic paint into a shallow dish or onto wax paper. Clip the sponge pieces onto clothes pins, one for each color of paint. Dip the sponge into the paint and dab the egg with it. Start with your darker colors first for the best effect. Put the egg in an egg cup to dry.

9. Waxing Eggs:
Drip wax from a lit taper candle onto the egg. After the wax is set, drop the egg into food coloring dye. Remove from dye and pat dry. You can scrape the wax off and dip into another dye, or leave the wax on if you wish.

10. Marbled Eggs:
In a mug or jar large enough to contain one egg, place 1 tablespoon of oil, 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of food coloring. Add enough water to cover egg, stir quickly with a spoon and drop in hard boiled egg. Pull egg out quickly and pat dry with paper towel.

11. Face Eggs:
Use craft supplies such as yarn, ribbon and fabric scraps to create the members of your family. Attach with craft glue. Add facial features using permanent markers for the mouth, nose and eyes. Then cut a paper towel tube into different heights for Mom, Dad, sister etc. Decorate the tube with construction paper for clothing. Place the painted egg onto the holder. You can also add the individual's name to the tube. These make an entertaining name card for the Easter table.

12. Easter Bunny Eggs:
Use food coloring dye or natural dyes to dye eggs in solid colors. Dry with paper towel. For each bunny egg, cut two oval shaped ears from colored paper. Glue the ears to the top of the egg. Add googly eyes. Use markers to add a small triangle for a nose and some whiskers. Glue on a cotton ball for a tail.