Instead of dying eggs for Easter, make these mess-free melted crayon Easter eggs instead! Your kids will love drawing on the eggs with crayons and watch the colors run together.
There are so many ways to dye Easter eggs. However, there are not many that are fun for the kids yet mess-free. No matter what precautions you take, the dyes always get everywhere and color things that are hard to wash off.
I mean, who doesn’t enjoy having multicolored fingers for a couple of days?
Since my kids enjoyed melting crayons on hot rocks, we figured we would give hard-boiled eggs a try. After all, when you first finish boiling, steaming, or baking an egg, it comes out super hot to the touch. Definitely hot enough to melt the wax in the crayons.
And the kids loved it!
So this Easter, decorate your Easter eggs with crayons instead of food coloring or store-bought dyes. These melted crayon Easter eggs are fun to make, and allow the kids to actually draw on the eggs instead of just dying them. Try it, I bet you won’t regret it!
How to Make Melted Crayon Easter Eggs
Supplies:
- Whatever you need to hard-boil the eggs (we used an Instant Pot)
- Crayons
- Paper plates, egg holders (free printables available at the end of this post), or bottle caps
- Tongs
Instructions:
Make Hard-Boiled Eggs
There are so many ways to make hard-boiled eggs. My favorite way is using the Instant Pot because the eggs come out the same way every time.
If you never made hard-boiled eggs in an Instant Pot before, you will be amazed at how easy it is.
- Place a steamer rack or trivet at the bottom of the pot.
- Gently place raw eggs on top of the rack. How many you can cook at a time depends on the size and configuration of your steamer rack.
- Pour approximately 1 cup of water into the pot. Make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the eggs.
- Close and seal the lid.
- Select manual and cook at low pressure for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes are done, let the eggs sit in the Instant Pot while the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can make hard-boiled eggs in the oven.
I recommend either using the Instant Pot or baking the eggs instead of boiling them in water because then you don’t have to worry about drying off the eggs before drawing on them with crayons. Even though the eggs in the Instant Pot are steamed, by the time the pressure has released, the eggs are pretty dry.
Prepare Coloring Materials
While the eggs are cooking, you can prepare the coloring materials for your eggs.
Peel off the paper wrappers on your crayons. You don’t want them to be in the way while you are coloring the Easter eggs with the crayons.
We used Easter egg holders (scroll down to the bottom for the free download) to hold the hot eggs while we are drawing on them. You can also use a paper plate or a water bottle cap. If you are using the Easter egg holders, you need to cut out the strips and roll them so that they are the desired size for your eggs. Tape or glue the paper cylinders in place.
Decorate the Easter Eggs with Crayons
After your hard-boiled eggs are done, use a mitten or a tong to take them out. We took them out one at a time, keeping the rest in the Instant Pot to keep warm. If you take all of them out at the same time, some might cool by the time you get to them and they might not be hot enough to melt the crayons.
Carefully place the hot eggs on the Easter egg holders (or paper plate or bottle caps). The eggs are extremely hot so make sure your kids don’t touch them directly with their hands.
Give your kids some crayons, and let them color the Easter Eggs! They can use whatever color they like and create different kinds of designs.
I want to note that not all crayons are created equal. At first, we tried using dollar store crayons, and the wax just was not melting correctly. From the melted crayon rocks, we saw that the crayon colors tend to run downward and blend with the other colors. With the dollar tree crayons, the wax wasn’t going anywhere and tended to clump together. So we ended up using broken Crayola crayons we found around the house.
Depending on your plans with the eggs, you might want to flip them so that the bottom of the egg gets colored as well. Make sure you do this step since the egg is still very hot and difficult to handle.
Cooling Down and Displaying the Easter Eggs
After your kids are done decorating the eggs with crayons, you can put the eggs in the fridge to cool down. If you are using the Easter egg holders, you can simply leave the eggs on them to cool.
Voila! You are done! These melted crayon Easter eggs make a beautiful decoration for the house. If you are having people over for Easter, they will be sure to admire these colorful Easter eggs.
We ended up with a couple of eggs that resemble the Earth. My son started coloring the Easter eggs like planet Earth and my daughter imitated him. I will have to remember to do this Easter egg coloring activity again for Earth Day!
My kids loved this melted crayon Easter eggs activity that they begged to do it over and over. We used up all the eggs that I made in the Instant Pot. Sounds like mommy will have to make more!
Can You Eat the Melted Crayon Eggs?
Yes, you can. The wax in the crayons melted because of the hot exterior of the egg. However, the wax does not penetrate the eggshell so the hard-boiled egg inside is completely edible. Though your kids might not want to crack open their beautiful work to eat the hard-boiled eggs on the inside!
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