I have so many fond memories of dyeing Easter eggs with my family when I was growing up. I always had grand ambitions of cool multicolored eggs, but always ended up with an egg in various shades of muddy brown. My lackluster results never dampened my enthusiasm for the activity.

Last year, I tried to color eggs with my then 3 year old. I covered the table in newspapers, set up the cups of dye, and eagerly invited Nate to dunk his eggs. He dumped all of his eggs in the dye and then asked if he could be done now. He was entirely unimpressed, and our monochromatic eggs left much to be desired.

This year I wanted to find easy and fun ways to decorate eggs together that we would both enjoy, and would produce pretty eggs. Lofty goals, I’d say.

Get started

•To start your egg-speriments, you’re gonna need to bawl some aigs. I use my Instant Pot, and it produces perfectly done eggs every time! 5 minutes at high pressure, natural release for 5 minutes, 5 minutes in an ice bath. 5-5-5. Since for some reason I can never remember how to boil an egg on the stove top, this is a no brainer.

•I highly recommend using Gel Food colors. We used these bright Wilton Gel Colors and I saw some pastel ones by the same brand that I think would be great. Gel food color is much more pigmented than the liquid, and I prefer them for both coloring frosting and for this! If you use liquid food coloring, you will have to use much more to get vibrant colors. And for the whipped cream method, I’m not sure it would even show up.

•If your hands get covered in dye (only me?), wash with vinegar and baking soda. Takes it right out!

• Cut a paper towel tube into 1 inch sections for great egg holders for eggs to dry!

Now onto the fun stuff! Here are the 4 different techniques we used to make these gorgeous eggs!

Egg Spinner

Supplies: Everything included in the Egg Spinner kit

While perusing the aisles of Target for things I don’t need, I found this fun little egg spinner. I found a similar one on Amazon, but it was a lot cheaper at Target.

It’s super simple- you add a few drops of the color to the spinner, add your egg, and spin away! Nate absolutely loved this.

The instructions say to rinse and dry the spinner between each color, but I am way too lazy for that. I gave it a quick wipe down with a paper towel, and we went on our merry coloring way. Start with your lightest color and add darker colors, only adding a few drops so you don’t cover your lighter color completely.

Worked like a charm. I was shocked at how much we liked this little gizmo! And the eggs are some of my favorites. Easy, kid-friendly, fun, and pretty eggs!

Speckled Eggs

Supplies needed:

Plastic cups

Tape

Rice

Food coloring

Eggs

1. Pour about 2/3 c rice in a cup for each color you want. Add several drops of food coloring, and mix well with a spoon.2. Add your egg. Put another cup upside down on top of the cup with the rice and egg, and tape together. Gently shake the rice and egg around. Shake for about 15 seconds.3. If you want to speckle it multiple colors, start with the lightest color and then move on to a darker color, and shake for less time so you don’t completely cover up your lighter color.

I love these eggs! They are so pretty! We only did one color on each egg, because Nate was insistent on only orange and blue eggs.

Marbled Eggs

Supplies needed:

Water

Vinegar

Vegetable Oil

Food coloring

Eggs

1. Start by coloring your eggs a light color. Mix together 1 c warm water with 1 tsp vinegar, and about 10 drops of food coloring. You want this color pretty light. Submerge your eggs and let sit until they are a pale color. Let eggs dry completely.
2. Mix together 1 c warm water with 20-30 drops of a darker food color. You want this color very dark. Add 1 tbsp oil and mix together. Add your dry egg and let sit until a marble pattern appears. If you leave the egg too long, it will just become a solid color.3. Scoop egg out with a spoon and let dry in an egg container or cut paper towel roll.

These are pretty! I want to try again with a lighter base color and darker swirl color, but I still really like how they turned out. The light purple and blue ones are the marbled eggs

Swirled Eggs

Supplies needed:

Vinegar

Large container Cool Whip, thawed

Gel food coloring

1. Place your eggs in a bowl of vinegar for 10 minutes. This step is not optional! The eggs won’t absorb the color without this. I learned that the hard way.
2. Spread the thawed Cool Whip in a 9×13 container.
   

   

   3. Drop food coloring all over the surface, using darker colors more sparingly. Swirl with a toothpick or knife. Swirl gently, so distinct colors are visible.

   

   

   4. Roll the eggs in the mixture and let sit in the whipped cream for 15-20 minutes.

   

   

   5. Rinse very lightly in water and pat dry.

   

This was both Nate and my favorite! It was fun, easy, and produced such beautiful eggs! We are going to do this one again now that we know all of the tricks. I have seen this done with shaving cream, but I like to eat our colored eggs, so I decided to use Cool Whip. Worked like a charm, and Nate really enjoyed having many samples before I put in the food coloring. While not very messy overall, I kept forgetting to get pictures since my hands were continually covered in whipped cream. Oopsie.The swirly one in the front is from this method.

Nate and I had so much fun making these beautiful Easter eggs! Not only was the process so much more fun than the traditional dunk-in-cups method, but our eggs are so much prettier and more unique. Nate was quite horrified when I cracked one and ate one. I hope you guys have as much fun as we did!