Monday 14 April 2014

Easter Eggs to dye for!




This week's post comes a couple of days early so that you have time to try this! It's Easter and what better opportunity to create something beautiful, and keep those little hands busy, than with Easter Eggs!

I love the fact that dying easter eggs is such an old tradition. I feel like I'm taking part in history whenever I do this. My mom showed me when I was little girl and it's always fascinated me. You don't need to be crazy enough to hold a workshop with 10 squealing girls, like I did, but do try it with your kids! They love seeing the magic happen and so will you!

The one option in this part of Germany, seems to be to boil the eggs, and then dye them and crack them open to eat them. Here, I'm sticking to my version of decorating hollow eggs to keep.

PREPARATION OF THE EGGS:

Try and find white eggs, the colours turn out to be so much more vibrant. Brown eggs do work in a similar way, the tones just tend to be more earthy.



  1. Gently wash the eggs in soapy water.
  2. Prick a hole in the top and the bottom of the egg. Carefully prick around the bottom hole to enlarge it slightly.
  3. Insert a thin skewer or long needle into the bigger hole at the bottom of the egg to break the yolk inside the egg.
  4. Blow into the smaller hole. The egg will start to ooze out of the other end of the shell. Keep blowing. Once you can blow easily and you're sufficiently red in the face, all the egg is out.
  5. Dunk the egg in a bowl of soapy water. When bubbles come out of the egg it means that soapy water is going in. Cover the holes with your fingers and shake well, to loosen all the remaining yolk and albumen. Blow out the remaining dirty water.
  6. Dry your eggs in a bowl of kitchen towel.
(Guess what's for supper?)


THE DYE


(Have a roll of kitchen towel handy, you'll be needing it!)
  1. Prepare each colour in a large mug:     
              •  10 ml (2 teaspoons) of food colouring 
              • 1 cup water 
              • 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar.
  2. Create sticker masks to apply to your eggs. You can buy paper sticker dots and stars or cut lines and other shapes out of simple lables. Rub these onto your eggs until they stick firmly. This is a nice exercise that even little fingers can manage.
    1. Dunk your eggs into one colour, with a spoon. Turn them for an even colour. The longer they remain in, the deeper the colour. Then remove the sticker masks (here the little fingers might need some help) and place the the egg into a different colour. Or only dunk one half in another colour. Experiment and have fun.





    Try it!

    Your kids learn the magic of mixing colours and you get to be a kid for a little while too and...aren't they just beautiful?



    See my Pinterest Page for more Easter Egg ideas...





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