Coloring Easter Eggs! Post your tips!

[KimRaye]

I posted the hard-boiled egg thread so, now I'm looking for any tips or hints you all have for coloring!

I'm old school. Boiling water, vinegar and food coloring. Sometimes I buy some awful coloring kit, for the kids, after all, I'm 'helping' Them do it! And, there's always the highly sought-after WHITE crayon, for writing on the egg before coloring. Only new 'tip' I heard this year was, a birthday candle in place of the crayon.

Now, something I never thought of before, do you color/decorate the eggs while warm (just boiled), cold (but boiled, stored in the frig) or, room-temp (boiled but, allowed to sit before decorating)? I don't know if it matters so, I'm asking.

Ok, all you Egg Designers, let's hear it!

 

[Sugarbaby]

I use the same system you do with food coloring and vinegar. Whenever I have bought one of those kits like tie-dyeing or such,it always seems to make a terrific mess and rubs off on your hands,etc and doesn't dry very well. I went to college with a woman from the Ukraine who demonstrated their traditional egg decorating. Very painstaking,but they look like stained glass works of art.

 

[Cindy B]

I do it old school as well... think of how less expensive the vinegar/food coloring is.


The white crayon is good. I think we let our eggs cool, but I'm not sure though.

 

[piratesmate]

We usually use one of those kits, but they've gotten really bad in recent years. The color is all over the kitchen & our hands by the time we're done - not to mention they seem to come off when you peel them, too!

I've done the Ukranian eggs, but only on blown-out eggs so that I could save them when I was done. THey're too much work to watch the kids break them!

My absolute favorite, though, is what my grandmother used to do. She'd take small green leaves (like clover, parsley or anything out on a tree or up in the garden), place them on the raw egg, wrap onion skin (the dry brown part) around it & tie it on with thread. I think she also threw extra onion skins in the water. THEN she'd boil them. (You can also just throw the onion skins in the water w/o doing the leaves.) They come out "mottled" because of the varying amount of onion skin touching the eggs.

Not brightly colored, but truly beautiful!

Deb

 

[Bunchkin]

We buy a kit every year because we're lazy.
The one we have for this Easter comes with cups for all the coloring solution.
They are attached and look similar to a muffin pan.

Not sure if it matters though if the eggs color best while warm or cold or even room temp. Good question!!

 

[Ilove8Trax]

Was flipping through the Martha Stewart Living mag that had her Easter eggs on it. To get a sort of tie dyed look, you use:

-Use vinegar and food coloring for the egg color
-Dip the egg in once, let it cool and absorb the color
-Add oil (i assume any kind) to the coloring of your choice and dip the same egg in the new mixture. This should add a tye-die kind of effect.

Hey, it was something new and her eggs looked pretty creative.

 

[KimRaye]

Originally posted by Ilove8Trax
Hey, it was something new and her eggs looked pretty creative.

Thanks! That sounds pretty neat!

COME ON FRIENDS, Sunday's almost here! Don't wait until Friday/Saturday! Share your tips!!


My tip for tonight: If you haven't thrown away Sunday's paper yet, DON'T!! Save it for coloring eggs!

 

[kejoda]

I bought plastic ones today. They are pretty colorful!

 

[KimRaye]

Originally posted by kejoda
I bought plastic ones today. They are pretty colorful!

HOW are the boys gonna color them, silly???

 

[kejoda]

Silly?!?!? I'm not the one who is going to have a mess! Leaves me more time to plan!

 

[cgcw]

No tips on coloring real eggs but for those plastic ones........

We use the larger plastic eggs and cover it with a coating of modge-podge. Then cover the egg with spring colored pieces of tissue paper and top off with another coat of modge-podge. Sprinkle with some clear/white glitter and they turn out really nice. Semi-easy project for the kids.

Of course, then you'll have glitter appearing in your home for the next 6 months because you can never get rid of it. I hate using glitter.

 

[Serena]

It's this weekend? Oh man, I really need to go shopping. I use the old methods too.

 

[cindy_k]

No mess this year, I'm letting Old Key West color them.
Its our First Easter ever at Disney.

 

[powellrj]

I use those little plastic sleeves with pictures on them. You boil the eggs and let them cool then you slide the little plastic sleeve on the egg and put them back in the boiling water. This year we had Precious Memories pictures. They are dirt cheap and so easy, its been years since I dyed eggs. I have to vent a little here. Did any of your teachers assign egg decorating homework this year. I hate it when they assign thing like this as homework. I do lots with my kids, but I like to do it on my timetable, not when a teacher assigns a time to do it. We had a really busy weekend last weekend and both DH and I are off on Good Friday and had planned to do it then, but my DDs teacher assigned it as homework for last weekend.

 

[Evil Princess]

We dye them the old school way, but I like to do something a bit different. I dip half the egg in blue, then i turn it over and dip the other half in red, letting the colors overlap a bit. I take the blue end and dip a little bit of it in yellow, and then i do the same with the red.

It creates a rainbow egg: Green, Blue, Purple, Red, and Orange.

 

[FOJMO]

Has anyone ever heard of Onion Skin Eggs? My Mom used to make them every year around Easter (and sometimes other times).

You boil the eggs as usual, but you boil them with the outer onion skins (the golden brown part) along with the eggs in the pan. My mother used to save up the onion skins for a few weeks beforehand.

The eggs get golden brown and my father said they had a little of the onion flavor to them (but I don't know about that).

 

[tater bug]

Okay, for the onion skin eggs - how do you keep the skin from breaking up and falling off the egg?

This sounds totally cool!

 

[piratesmate]

When I use the onion skins, I usually have some that are softer/fresher than others. Those I wrap around the egg & tie with thread. (This is for the ones with the green leaves.) If none are "fresh" enough, I just run a bit of water over them to soften them. You need to use several layers & wrap a fair number of times with the thread - criss-crossing to hold it on.

If you aren't planning to tie them on, you can just toss the skins in the pot - loose. I like them this way, because you end up with a mottled effect - similar to tie-dyed.

BTW - I never remember the eggs getting an onion flavor.

Deb

 

[tater bug]

I was thinking of doing both. Thanks for the tip.

 

[MerryPoppins]

My only tip is that I always put out my wire cooling racks (usually used for baking). We put paper towels underneath the racks and the colored eggs go there to dry. It cuts down on the ugly ring at the bottom of the egg. They dry more evenly, I guess.