Yvonne Glasgow
If you want to dye your Easter eggs in a more environmentally friendly way this year (with some serious retro vibes, to boot), you can’t go wrong with these natural approaches and design ideas.
Natural dyes are a fun craft for kids. Unlike the drop-the-tablet approach, though, making natural Easter egg dyes takes a little more time. Still, it’s totally worth it, given the results, and the fact that you won’t be getting any Yellow #5 artificial dye on your eggs.
Here’s how to dye and decorate your Easter eggs naturally!
Preparing Your Natural Easter Egg Dyes
Everything begins with creating your dyes. You’ll want to determine which colors you want and then seek out the proper ingredients to create those colors. With natural dyes, you might need to dip your eggs more than once—or even leave them to soak for a spell—to achieve the color you’d like.
The different colors you can create come from all sorts of food items in your kitchen—you can even use different tea flavors to get varying browns, reds, and greens.
Below are some tutorials on the different natural dyes you can make using food from your kitchen.
Onion skins: The video tutorial below shows you how to create a reddish or purple-colored natural dye for your eggs from onion skins. The host also covers some neat tips on how to create designs using natural elements, like leaves, as well as using a butter coating to make the final product nice and shiny.
Cabbage: Purple cabbage can create a stunning blue dye for your Easter eggs. The host also shares different ways to decorate them with stuff you probably already have in your home, like mesh and rubber bands. It also shows you how to use feathers for neat designs.
Spinach: A simple way to make green dye from natural ingredients. As you’ll learn in the video below, you can use your food dyes for more than Easter eggs. You can also use them to make colorful designs on T-shirts and other textiles.
Turmeric: If you want some yellow Easter eggs, turmeric is a great choice. There’s a chance you already have some in your spice rack. The length of time you leave them in the dye, or if you dip them multiple times, determines how yellow they get.
Teas: Use some of your brews to create different Easter egg colors. Green, black, and other flavored teas all create unique colors on eggs. If you have some old tea in the cabinet you never got around to drinking, this is the perfect way to get rid of it!
How to Design Unique Easter Eggs
The videos above show you neat ways to decorate your eggs, so you don’t have to stick with solid colors. If you want to get even more creative, here are some natural ways you can create cool designs on your Easter eggs:
Flowers and leaves: The tutorial below teaches you how to use flowers and leaves to make unique designs on your Easter eggs. The video lets you know all of the things you’ll need to create some fun designs.
Clover and ferns: The video below uses similar techniques to those in the previous one, including using nylons to hold your chosen pieces of nature in place. If you want, you can skip the first half of the video to get to the decorating instructions. What makes this one worth a watch is that she also shows you how to create cool designs with clovers and ferns, as well as a multitude of flower species.
Don’t waste your cash on egg decorating kits this Easter! Instead, check out these crafty tutorials, and then experiment and have fun spending quality time with your kids, as you create your own dyes and designs.
