Tried and True Easter Egg Dyeing Tips and Techniques
Will you be dyeing eggs as a festive Easter activity with the family? If so, here’s a tried and true super simple recipe for homemade Easter egg dye (no need to buy an egg dyeing kit at the store when you most likely have all the supplies you need at home!) and some creative tips to make the whole process fun and easy! Also, be sure to check out my Tips for Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs!
Basic Easter Egg Dyeing Recipe
These eggs turn out perfect every time!
Combine in a small cup or bowl:
- 1 cup hot water
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- about 20 drops food coloring
Leaving the hard-boiled egg in the dye for under 5 minutes will create lighter hues while leaving the egg in for 5-10 minutes will create darker colors.
Here are some clever Easter egg tips & tricks!
Now that you have the basic recipe down, it’s nice to have a little added insight. After years of learning along the way, I’ve picked up some tried and true ideas I’d like to pass along to you to make the process of dying eggs that much more fun!
1. Mask eggs with stickers, tape, and rubber bands before dyeing.
Look around the house for any small stickers and rubber bands you may already have on hand. Cutting painter’s tape with scrapbooking scissors and wrapping the egg is another fun masking technique. Below, I’ve used binder reinforcement stickers to create different patterns.
2. Make these ombre-dyed Easter eggs.
Create these pretty eggs by filling a small cup of dye so it covers only the bottom third of the egg. After 5 minutes add water, until it hits the top third of the egg. After 3 minutes, pour more water until it covers the egg completely. After a few minutes, you’ll have three shades of the same color.
3. Make an easy drying rack for eggs.
To avoid the puddles or rings at the bottom of dyed eggs, try this: draw a one-inch grid on a piece of foam board and stick pins or toothpicks in each corner. It supports the eggs for drying and can be re-used next year!
4. Try this Easter egg dyeing tip with kids.
For less mess, instead of having kids use their fingers, consider using a whisk, spaghetti server, or kitchen tongs for dipping eggs instead. You could also try using a large muffin pan instead of cups or bowls.
I think putting the egg inside the wire wisk works great for small kids. I usually dry them on the egg carton upside down but the pins would make alot prettier eggs, Thanks Lina!
Awesome! Thank you for the tips.
Don’t forget white crayons. Write on egg prior to use of dye.
I saw somewhere where they put a temp tattoo on the egg and did same steps as if you were putting it on someone’s skin then peeled it off and you had a design on the egg!
Temp tattoos would be great great too and my daughter has those and stickers laying around all over the house.
So with all these great tips I am buying NOTHING to die eggs, yay!
Perfect!
Neat!
I’m new in this. Can you eat it after dyeing?
And , also I see peolple to dye it and place it like a decoration, for how long time you can do it, before they start to smell?
Thank you
You can eat it as long as you the dye you use is food coloring or something edible. They are hard boiled eggs……so don’t know about display time. Personally, we refrigerate ours and have a colorful egg to eat for lunch instead of just the boring old white 🙂
We don’t eat eggs once dyed…too hard to follow all the safe handling instructions! It is possible though, here is a link for safe handling:
https://www.incredibleegg.org/egg-facts/egg-safety/special-occasions#1?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=safe easter eggs&utm_campaign=Easter
This is the website that we use for how to cook hard boiled eggs, which just so happens to follow Lina’s directions! Enjoy your eggs however on decide to use them!
thank you so much for this info. it is so helpful for us “first time moms” and I don’t have to waste too much time looking stuff of on the internet, I just head over here to hip2save
You are welcome! Have fun
Every time I read one of Lina’s posts, I start to crave black beans! Maybe I am on Hip2Save too much? Ha ha…
Oh my gosh that made me laugh 🙂
Hahaha, I have a bag of black beans in my pantry I bought to make the brownies! I know what you mean!
I think I’m a little bit obsessed over black beans now! Especially since tasting my own homemade ones. Thanks for all the tips!
Yeah, you’re welcome!
Just remembered another tip…..add a bit of cooking oil to food coloring to make swirl-y colored dyed eggs. We did it last year and it turned out great 🙂
Sounds fun, thanks!
I bake the eggs instead of boil. 325 for 30 minutes then put in ice water for 10 minutes. Easier and you don’t have to watch them. Perfect hard boiled eggs.
Thanks for that great idea!
I like hearing everyone’s tips and secrets! I have found that Easter egg dye kits always make it to 90% off clearance at Target. I pick them up on the cheap and store it with the Easter decorations so I have it handy when I need it.
I’ve done that for years…never pay more than a quarter per kit!
I do the same thing after clearance sales are the best to get the really expensive kits for next to nothing. They’re also fun to pull out randomly throughout the year to do on a rainy/snowy day when people are bored.
We line our table with newspapers and use plastic cups for the dye. While the paper sometimes makes the cup tip over more easily, it makes clean-up so easy, especially if you have the kits with glitter or beads. Those stupid little egg holders they give you with the kits are too clumsy to use so we use regular metal spoons, one for each color of dye, and then put them in the dishwasher.
If you don’t want to use dyes, you can also use those Kool Aid packets and water.
I’ve seen that, very cool and it smells good too!
Love this…makes me wish I had kids to die Easter eggs with!!
Ashley, My husband and I are 60. Only adult kids, no grandkids. We dye and decorate eggs together every year and have a blast together doing so. We enjoy seeing how creative we both can get. He asked earlier in the week when we are dying eggs this year. He is in upper management and I am in a professional position so it is hoot to see us enjoy such a simple activity that definitely brings out the kid in us. So go for it and have fun!
I saved my chobani yogurt cups for egg dyeing 🙂
Hey good one!
Sorry for the silly question but do we dye the eggs with or without the shell..I’m guessing its without because of the previous how to boil post but the pictures in magazines make it look like they are dyed with the shell
In the shell/the shell gets the coloring
That’s ok. You would dye eggs with the shell. In the last post I wanted to show an easy method to hard-boil eggs. Thanks!
Thanks guys 🙂
I use a wire hanger that is bent to a circle with a hook so I can dunk half in one color and half in another – even mix the colors. Now I’ve started using the painter’s tape technique as well – it takes hours to color a few eggs