When my daughters were little, ready-made Easter egg baskets paled in comparison to the elaborately designed eggs that adorn baskets and home décor today. From the simple process of using red, blue, or yellow dyes to color eggs, now the trends have spiked to techniques I never would have thought of.
A smorgasbord of egg decorating techniques
Check out these great decorating ideas on Pinterest or Google for more. If you’ve had your head in the sand like I have, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the elaborate decorating techniques. Over at mom.me, painting the eggs and then using chalk to draw on them is perfect for kids to showcase their artistic talents. While at Martha Stewart’s, metallic leaves take your eggs beyond Easter to a home decoration. And that’s not all! With aluminum foil, stickers, rubber bands, ribbons, tattooing eggs and much more, the possibilities are endless. I decided to practice with four ideas to make memories with my grandchildren. But first, choose your preferred egg preparation technique.
Boil egg or blow out the yolk
Surprise to me; no boiling eggs required! I blew out the yolk for the eggs I created here. If you have never tried it, this is how you do it.
My nail polish-painted eggs
Buying dye was not in my budget this month, so I improvised and it worked beautifully!
- What you need: A blown-out or boiled egg; Your favorite colors of nail polish; a drying apparatus; manicurist’s finishing spray (I used Demert nail enamel dryer)
- Prepare eggs: Hard-boiled eggs: Place eggs in pot gently; cover with water; after boiling starts, boil for at least 15 minutes. Let cool completely before painting. Blown-out method: (click link above) Make sure you rinse out inside of shell and allow to dry thoroughly.
- To paint: I held one end of the eggshell, and painted the rest of the shell. I sprayed the painted area with the finishing spray (just like with my nails) and set the end I was holding down to dry. Paint other end when dry. Two coats give a rich color.
Tip: I used a small empty spice jar to hold my drying eggshells. The egg carton cells also work well for drying eggs.
Glitter-decorated eggs
- What you need: Hard-boiled or blown-out eggs; glitter in various colors; craft glue (Elmer’s works fine); a bowl for the glitter.
- Prepare eggs: (see instructions above)
- Cover eggshell with glue: Cut a piece of wax paper, pour a few drops of glue on it, then holding egg ends between thumb and forefinger, rub glue onto egg shell.
- Drop eggshell in glitter: Pick up the bowl of glitter and allow egg to roll around until covered.
Tip: A food storage bag filled with glitter helps to coat a few eggs at a time. Just be gentle so as not to crack the shells.
Button-decorated eggs
- What you need: Hard-boiled or blown-out eggs; nail polish; colorful buttons in various shapes, hot glue gun with glue tubes.
- Prepare eggs (see instructions above)
- Paint eggshell: (see Nail-polish painted eggs above)
- With glue gun: Squeeze out hot glue onto spot where you want button and attach.
Tip: You only need a small drop. The hot glue works much better and dries faster that Elmer’s.
Sharpie-decorated eggs
- What you need: Hard-boiled or blown-out eggs; sharpie markers (I used red and black)
- Prepare eggs: (see instructions above)
- Draw with your sharpie: Children can choose to make random designs or design elaborate ones like these on Alisa Burke’s site.
