Easter Egg Dying the AWESOME Way

There were many different steps and things we did and tried to make these cute Easter eggs. I will start by telling you how we emptied the eggs and why they are larger than other eggs etc. I will see how far I get and then do more posts as I can't get them all in on one post.

The first step is to decide what type of eggs you want to die. We used wooden eggs large and small and real eggs, duck and chicken. The wooden eggs don't take the die as well as the real eggs. You can see the pink on the right and the pink on the left front. The right is a real egg, the left with dots is a wooden egg. However, they both look cute so the option for wood is there if you have the funds to purchase them. They last longer and there is no worry they will crack in storage like the real eggs. The larger egg is a duck egg and the smaller a chicken. You can see the duck egg is darker in shade and much larger. I have done goose and turkey eggs in the past and they are even larger.

If you choose real eggs, you can dye them with the egg inside but they will go bad and also using the Rit die to get the brighter colors, you can't eat the eggs after you dye it. So, for us, the better option was to drain the egg out of the shell and use the egg for scrambled eggs or omelets. We made a huge veggie omelet out of the duck eggs by adding lots of dried vegetables and letting it soak for a few minutes. The girls enjoyed that while I got the dye ready. You can see the veggies in the egg. My youngest took this picture for some reason so I thought I would show how much egg we got out of the 18 duck eggs we did.

There are several ways you can get the egg out of the shell. In the past, I have poked a hole in the bottom of the egg about the size of a fork prong and used a sewing needle to poke a hole in the top and then you blow the top and the egg squirts out the bottom. This makes you mouth and cheeks hurt and takes lots of pressure and you need to shake the egg lots to get the little membranes out of the way and break up the yolk to fit through the hole.

I have a friend who poked a hole in both ends that was a bit larger and worked out a vacuum method hooking a hose to a smaller hose and sucked them into his wet dry vac. Kinda gross to clean out but it worked for them.

I learned that if I poke one larger hole in the bottom side of the egg, shake the egg and swirl it in a bowl, the insides come out on their own when I shake and swirl the egg. This way, we can use the egg for food and still have the shell but it is easier on the mouth and there is just a bigger hole. Once the egg is empty, wash the shell and you can use some of the membrane from the inside of an egg to seal off the little hole and it dries hard over the hole closing it off somewhat.

To poke a hole, take a fork and use one prong. Clean away the broken egg before piercing the egg membrane so you don't get shell in your eggs if you are going to be eating the eggs. We also used a shish-ka-bob stick to break the yolk inside the egg through the hole making it easier to get the egg out of the shell. If you are having a hard time, just make the hole a little bigger, it will be at the bottom and not as noticeable.

If you just want to decorate the eggs and not keep them, all the easier. Just die more each year. I do think it is fun to pull out one's they made in previous years but my younger kids have never done that so this is new to them. Wooden eggs are easier for little one's and can be bought in the wood craft section or online.

If the eggs are fresh from the farm and not store bought, you need to make sure they are sanitized. I got these duck eggs from a friend so I had to wash them in hydrogen peroxide and vinegar to make sure they were clean enough for us to touch and clean out.

Next, you need to decide how many you want to do. We did 18 real eggs and I had 18 or so wooden eggs but the girls got tired of doing that many eggs as they spent lots of time decorating some and the process got long. We ended up not doing all of the wooden eggs. I have more than half left for next year.

If you are just doing solid colors, it will take no time and you will probably do more. If you are making some to give away with names or decoration on them, they will take longer. If you are wrapping them or waxing them, it takes even longer so take that into consideration when you choose how many eggs to die.

There were some techniques we learned that gave great results and were quicker than others so if you want to make some to give away, I would do several with the same technique and color and that would make the process much quicker also making it easier for you to make more in less time. Since we were trying out all new ideas and techniques, it took longer. Once you get a system down, you can get through them more quickly. Be creative and come up with your own ideas.

To be continued.