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How to Prepare Easter Eggs

To Children Making Easter Eggs.
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You don't have to buy a bunch of overpriced supplies to color Easter eggs. There are two easy ways to prepare your eggs and lots of options for how to decorate them. If you are decorating eggs with kids, they should probably be at least 3 years old. Plan on the project taking about 30 minutes. This project can be modified to suit other ages and may take more or less time depending on your circumstances.

Materials Needed to Decorate Eggs:

  • Hard boiled or blown out eggs
  • Food coloring
  • Vinegar
  • Water (should be room temperature or warmer than the eggs you are coloring)
  • Optional: Crayons, stickers, rubber bands, and other objects to make designs

Watch Now: Dyeing Easter Eggs Without a Kit

How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs

Hard-boiled eggs must be kept in the refrigerator after coloring to ensure food safety. If you don't mind eating eggs with colorful shells, these can be eaten as is or used in recipes, like egg salad.

  1. Place the desired number of eggs carefully in a large pot.
  2. Add enough cold water to cover the eggs completely.
  3. Place the pan on the stove on high heat and bring the water to a boil.
  4. Cover the pan and turn off the heat.
  5. Let sit on the stove for 20 minutes.
  6. After 20 minutes run the pan of eggs under cold water until the shells are cool to the touch.
  7. Hard-boiled eggs should be stored in the refrigerator.

How to Blow Out Eggs

Blown eggs don't have to be refrigerated and can be kept and used for more than one year if you don't break them.

  1. Wash your raw eggs well.
  2. Carefully poke a small hole in each pointed end of the raw egg.
  3. Hold the egg over a bowl and blow into one of the holes.
  4. The egg liquid should slowly come out the other hole.
  5. Sometimes this is a big job and can take some time to complete. Kids should get an adults help and permission before trying this.
  6. Once the eggshell is empty, rinse it off and set it aside to dry.

Simple Instructions for Coloring Eggs

  1. In a coffee cup, mix together a 1/2 cup of water at room temperature, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, and several drops of food coloring. Use as many as 20 drops, depending on how dark you want the color to be. The water needs to be warmer than the eggs or they may absorb the water. Use hot tap water if your eggs are not completely cooled or room temperature water if your eggs are chilled.
  2. Prepare several different colors in this manner.
  3. Carefully place one egg in each cup of food coloring.
  4. Watch the eggs carefully and remove them when they reach the desired shade. Use a spoon to remove the egg and place it in an egg holder or on a paper towel to dry.
  5. You can make two-tone eggs if you have an egg-dipper wire. Hold the bottom of the egg in the coloring until it is the desired shade. Allow it to dry. Then turn it over and dip the other end in another color until it is the desired shade.

Adding Designs on Eggs Before Coloring

Prior to coloring your eggs, there are a few ways to add designs to your eggs.

  • You can use crayons to draw designs on the eggs before you dye them. The wax of the crayons won't come off, and the egg won't absorb the dye in the places where the crayon has been drawn on the egg.
  • You can place rubber bands or stickers on eggs to keep areas from being colored.
  • You can dye an egg to a light color, add a rubber band or stickers, then continue to dye the egg darker. This will leave lighter areas when the rubber band or stickers are removed.

Tie-Dye Eggs

Rather than dipping eggs in the coloring, you can use food coloring directly on the eggs to create a tie-dye effect.

  1. Place two to three hard-boiled eggs in a colander and add a few drops of food coloring.
  2. Gently shake the eggs, so the coloring forms streaks, being careful not to crack the eggs.
  3. Rinse the eggs with cold water.
  4. Now add a few drops of the second color of food coloring to the eggs in the colander. Gently jiggle the colander to spread the color.
  5. Rinse the eggs with cold water.
  6. Repeat with drops of the third color, jiggling the eggs around to spread the color.
  7. Rinse the eggs and allow them to dry.

Fun With Easter Eggs

Plan on playing some of these Easter egg related games at your next Easter gathering or party. You can use real eggs or plastic eggs to play these fun games.

  • Easter Egg Hunt: This is one of the more popular games played with Easter eggs. Very simply, one person hides the Easter eggs and the other people search for them. The only trick is for the person hiding the eggs to remember where they are, especially if you are using real eggs.
  • Easter Egg Rolling: Mark a starting line and a finishing line. Contestants must roll their eggs from one line to the next using a spoon or similar object to push the eggs. If a player touches their egg with their hand or breaks their egg, they are out of the race. The first person to get their egg across the finish line wins. For an added twist, roll the eggs down a hill.
  • Spoon Races: Designate a starting line and a finishing line. Every person gets an egg and a spoon (larger, soup spoons work best). All contestants line up on the starting line and put their eggs in their spoons. At the word go, everyone races to the finish line; the first person to cross wins the game. If your egg falls off your spoon, you must go back to the starting line and begin again. For a bit of variety, make this a relay race or make the contestants run an obstacle course. If you want to make things tricky, you should have the racers hold the end of the spoon in their mouths.
  • Yard Bowling with Easter Eggs: Place one egg in the center of a large circle. Have all players stand just outside the circle. Everyone should have one egg. Each person takes turns rolling their egg towards the egg in the center of the circle. The object of the game is to get as close to the center egg as possible without touching it. If you touch the center egg or break your egg, you are out.