Almost everyone with kids knows about coloring Easter eggs. Here are five ways to create interesting designs.

Making The Egg Ready

Cook the eggs before you start coloring the Easter eggs. Do not to let the eggs sit in boiling water. How it’s done:
place the eggs, single layer, in a saucepan
fill to a minimum of one inch of cold water covering the shells
cover the pot with a lid, bringing the water to a boil using medium heat
when the water comes to a boil, remove the saucepan from the heat and let stand

The following time limits will get the eggs to the hardened state you want.
For large soft-cooked eggs, let the egg stand in hot water 1 – 4 minutes
For large hard-cooked eggs, let the egg stand in hot water 15 – 17 minutes

When time is up, drain the water and immediately cover the eggs with cold water and a few ice cubes to cool them down. Older eggs will peel easier.

The Kit

For years the basic PAAS Easter egg coloring kit was the only kit available. They were fun to use, but limited. Today’s kids have a wide variety of kits to choose from containing stickers, holders, and many other options.

Home Made Dyes

Here is a method of Easter egg coloring using home made dyes. You need:
Food colors of choice
Vinegar
A cup deep enough to hold the egg and water

How to make the dye and colored Easter eggs:
combine ½ – 1 tablespoon of food coloring with 2 teaspoon of vinegar in the cup
add water until the cup is about half full
gently place the egg into the cup and let stand

The longer the eggs sit in the dye, the darker the coloring of the Easter egg will be. After removing the egg, pat it down with a paper towel and put into a holder.

Rubber Band Designs

This is a fun method of creating designs when coloring Easter eggs. Here’s how it’s done.
wrap the rubber bands around your hard cooked eggs
prepare the food dye as above
drop the eggs into the food coloring
remove the eggs, pat dry and then remove the rubber bands
drop the eggs into a different color dye for more colors

If you want more colors, use more rubber bands, removing each one as you change colors.

Marbling

This will produce interesting designs when coloring Easter eggs. You need:
a mug or large jar big enough for one egg
1 tablespoon of oil (preferably vegetable oil)
1 tablespoon of vinegar
1 tablespoon of food coloring
water

How to do it:
combine the oil, vinegar and food coloring in the mug
add enough water to cover the egg
stir the mix quickly with a spoon
drop the egg in and then pull the egg out fast
pat dry

Sponge Painting

This is another method for coloring Easter eggs. You need:
a sponge cut into small pieces
acrylic paint
shallow dish or wax paper
clothes pins

Making the designs:
clip the sponge pieces with a paper clip (one per each color used)
put the paint into dishes on wax paper
dip the sponge into the paint and then dab the egg with it

For parents with limited time, there are stickers and craft ideas for use with large plastic Easter eggs.

While there are many ways of decorating Easter eggs, these are eight of the simpler ways.

The Marbled Egg

How to do it:
Wrap a fresh egg in onion skin
Insert the egg and skin into pantyhose and tie the ends
Place eggs into a deep saucepan
Add cold water to 1” above the eggs
Heat until boiling, then remove the saucepan from the heat
Cover and let stand for 24 minutes
Immediately cool eggs with cold water and ice
Remove the pantyhose

This creates a very interesting marbled design.

The Dyed Egg

How to do it:
Place the eggs into a deep saucepan
Add water to 1” above the egg
Heat until boiling, then remove the saucepan from the heat
Let stand in the hot water from 4-14 minutes
Immediately cool the eggs with cold water and ice
Combine a mixture of food coloring, vinegar and water in a mug
Dip the egg, remove and pat dry

This is the simplest form of Easter egg coloring as well.

The Disco Egg

This type of Easter egg decorating requires a blown egg.

How to do it:
Dye a blown egg using the method for dying eggs above
Dilute craft glue with equal parts of water and glue
Cover the egg with this mix
Roll the egg in superfine glitter and let dry

This will give you a “disco ball” effect for your egg.

Ribbons

How to do it:
Use double-sided tape to decorate the Easter eggs with ribbon
Pick out multiple styles and sizes of ribbon for better effect.
Use a dyed egg

This is a good way of Easter egg decorating for artistic children or adults who are into crafts.

Crayons

How to do it:
Place the eggs into a deep saucepan
Add water to 1” above the egg
Heat until boiling, then remove the saucepan from the heat
Let stand in the hot water from 4-14 minutes
While the egg is still warm, hold it with a paper towel
Use crayons to color the egg. The heat of the egg melts the wax which makes the design.

This method of Easter egg decorating is probably better for school aged children.

Rubber Bands

How to do it:
Boil the egg to hard-boiled.
Cool the egg with cold water and ice
Wrap the egg with a few rubber bands before dyeing it.
To get different shades, remove the egg from the dye, then remove one of the rubber bands.
Put the egg into a different color dye and repeat the dyeing process

This method of Easter egg decorating will give interesting results when used with many colors and bands.

Sponged Eggs

How to do it:
Using a hardboiled egg, paint it with an acrylic craft paint and bruch.
After the egg dries, use small pieces of sponge to dry sponge white paint onto the egg to create patterns.

This form of Easter egg decorating takes some time but can be worth the effort.

Stamped Eggs

How to do it:
Use a hardboiled egg which is already cooled
Gather a collection of canceled postage stamps
Glue the stamps onto the Easter eggs for decorating.

If the stamps are stuck on the envelopes, simply soak them in water for fifteen minutes and then peel them off. Make sure they are completely dry before gluing them to the egg.

Easter Egg Decorating
When the tradition of Easter eggs first arose thousands of years ago, they were usually from goose, duck, or hen eggs and were painted red. Many parts of the world still continue this tradition. During the course of history, mainly by the end of the 1600’s, manufactured commercial eggs were being made of various materials and were available for use as Easter gifts and presents. This included pre-painted eggs. Chocolate Easter eggs would evolve from this type of egg centuries later.
The Jeweled Egg
Over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, hollow cardboard eggs came into use. These eggs were filled with presents and were increasingly ornate. Decorated eggs continued to improve and expand, eventually leading to highly customized and jeweled eggs made famous by Peter Faberge. The famous Faberge eggs were the favorite gift of the Russian Czar to his wife each Easter. Over the next 57 years this would be the standard to match. Today, the value of these jeweled eggs reaches into the millions.
While the development of the jeweled egg continued, there was another development which came from the hollow cardboard egg, the chocolate Easter egg.
Original Chocolate Easter Eggs
The first chocolate Easter egg appeared around the early 1800’s, but the creation of the hollow egg that we know today wouldn’t arrive for some time. Chocolate makers had use of only a paste made from ground roasted Cacao beans which was much harder to work with than today’s modern chocolates.
The original chocolate Easter eggs appeared in Germany and France and soon spread to the rest of Europe and then beyond. While the popularity of the solid chocolate Easter egg gained strength, mass production soon made hollow eggs possible within a hundred years. With the advent of mass production, the low cost of making chocolate Easter eggs made them the dominant gift for Easter.
Modern Chocolate Easter Eggs

By the end of the 19th century modern chocolate making, along with improvements in mass production methods, created a way to manufacture hollow molded eggs. This variety of egg soon become popular in the UK, Europe and then spread worldwide. Another development with modern methods was a chocolate Easter egg filled with varieties of both chocolate and other filling such as cream.

In modern day culture, the chocolate Easter egg competes with plastic eggs and other varieties as a way to present gifts during the Easter season. With the development of chocolate, has also come other Easter creations such as Easter Bunnies and Chicks.