How to Colour Eggs with Natural dyes

Stuck for an activity with the kids over the Easter holidays or just looking for some lovely ways to decorate your Easter table?

Colouring eggs with natural dyes is super easy and really interesting!

What you will need:

Eggs - I found using white eggs worked best but I would imagine you will get result using a standard brown egg.

White Vinegar (2 tbsp for each dye colour)

Bicarb soda (experiment adding a teaspoon at a time to see the change in the blue dye)

½ Red cabbage – Makes Blue dye

Beetroot (Raw one) – Makes Red dye

Turmeric – Makes yellow dye

Jars

Method:

Hard boil the eggs and leave to cool.

To Make Blue Dye:

Chop up the red cabbage and add to boiling water in a saucepan. Boil for 30- 45 minutes and leave to cool to room temperature. Pour the dye through a sieve into a glass jar. Add egg and leave for 30mins to overnight depending on shade (deeper colour for longer) You can experiment by adding either vinegar (pinker) or bicarb (bluer) This bit is fun, and my little girl loved seeing the reaction. 

To Make Pink Dye:

Chop up the beetroot into cubes and place in a pan of water and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, cover and leave to cool to room temperature. Pour the dye through a sieve into a glass jar. Add 2 tbsp of white vinegar, then add the egg and leave for 30mins to overnight depending on shade (deeper colour for longer)

To Make Yellow Dye:

In a pan of water add 2 tbsp of turmeric. Bring to the boil, remove from heat, cover and leave to cool to room temperature. Pour the liquid into the jar and add 2tbsp of vinegar. Add egg and leave for 30mins to overnight depending on shade (deeper colour for longer)  

To Make Green, Orange or Purple Dye:

               Yellow & Blue = Green

               Pink & yellow = Orange

               Pink & Blue = Purple

First soak egg in a core colour to desired shade & then dry on kitchen towel and add to second core colour as table above. Experiment by seeing if you soak in yellow first and add to blue how green the egg goes or if soaking in blue first then adding to yellow, you will get the same results??

When your egg is the desired shade, take out of the jar and dry on a paper towel. You can make them shine by rubbing with a drop of vegetable oil.

Or decorate anyway you wish. I used watered down gold acrylic paint on a large brush and splattered the paint onto the eggs. My daughter loved this bit too! Be warned it is very messy and you need full aprons and surface covers as acrylic paint doesn’t come off easily!!!

Easter Crackers available now. Click picture to shop!