Learn how to make tie-dye Easter eggs with food coloring and paper towels. This technique makes such beautiful Easter eggs and it’s so easy to do that your kids can do it by themselves.
I am on the hunt for techniques to dye Easter eggs without using the store-bought decorating kit. Last week we tried melting crayons on the eggs and that turned out super fun.Â
While using food coloring to dye eggs is a common way to color the eggs, you throw in some paper towels and you got tie-dye Easter eggs!
These tie-dye Easter eggs are easy to make so your kids can do it without making a huge mess. It’s probably easier if your kids work in teams so that one person can hold the egg, squeeze food coloring on it, and use the spray bottle. Teamwork!
The end result is bright and gorgeous tie-dye Easter eggs that look almost too good to eat. If you want to display the eggs after, you may want to blow out the eggs instead of using hard-boiled eggs.
Tie-Dye Easter Eggs
Supplies:
- Hard-boiled eggsÂ
- Food coloring
- Paper towel
- Water spray bottle
- Water
- Vinegar
- Small rubber bands or elastics
- Gloves
Note: Our favorite way to make hard-boiled eggs is using our Instant Pot. You can check out this post for a short tutorial. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can also place the eggs in muffin tins and bake them.Â
Instructions:
1. Make hard-boiled eggs and cool them off in an ice bath. Dry the eggs with a paper towel or just let them air dry.
2. While you wait for the eggs to dry, prepare the water and vinegar solution by pouring about 1 teaspoon of vinegar and ½ cup of water into the water spray bottle. Shake the bottle to mix the solution thoroughly.
3. Rip off a section of the paper towel and place your egg in the middle.
4. Wrap the paper towel around the egg so that it’s completely covered. You may need to bunch up the paper towel around the egg.
5. Pinch the paper towel right at the top of the egg with your finger and thumb and twist slightly. Tie the paper towel with a small rubber band.
6. Squeeze a few drops of food coloring on the paper towel, leaving some space in between the drops. The white space will allow the food coloring to blend together and form different colors.
7. Spray the paper towel with the water and vinegar solution. You don’t want the paper towel to be dripping wet, but you want to spray enough so that the food coloring starts to run and the paper towel is completely colored.
8. Gently squeeze the egg and move your fingers around to help the food coloring mix and transfer to the egg underneath.
9. Place the eggs in a bowl or container. If you want them to dry immediately, you can use a fan and blow at the eggs. It will probably still a couple of hours though, depending on how much you sprayed the eggs.
Otherwise, you can place the eggs in the fridge overnight to dry. When you feel like the paper towel is dry enough, take the eggs out and leave them out for 30 minutes to make sure all the condensation evaporates.
10. Unwrap the paper towel to reveal the egg underneath!
How pretty are these tie-dye Easter eggs? Because of the color blending, they all look different. The colors are a lot brighter than the food coloring and I love the patterns left by the surface of the paper towel.
Can I Eat the Tie Dye Easter Eggs?
Yes, your little ones can enjoy the tie-dye Easter eggs after you are done admiring them. The food coloring does leach through the eggshell a little bit, but it’s just food coloring, vinegar, and water. Completely safe to eat!
I was afraid that the eggs would taste sour because of the vinegar, but my kids said that they don’t detect any difference in the taste.
Can You Dye Eggs Without Vinegar?
You can omit the vinegar when dying eggs, but the vinegar does help bond the dye to the eggshell. The colors will just look better when you use vinegar, but if you don’t have any around the house, you can just use water.
You can also substitute vinegar with another acid. For example, you can take a lemon or lime and squeeze the juice into the spray bottle and mix it with water.
Related Posts: