Easter egg dyes with all-natural ingredients and flower stencils! Sounds lovely!
The children and I wanted to dye Easter eggs for Easter this year. I have fond memories of dying eggs as a little girl and want to make sure I pass on fun traditions like this to my own children. I’ve seen many different ways to dye eggs across the internet, but I keep coming back to the natural dyes from ingredients that are in our own kitchen.
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How to Dye Easter Eggs Using Vegetables
We gathered our ingredients:
- Red Onion Skins
- Beets
- Blueberries
- Chili Powder
- Red Cabbage
- Paprika
- White distilled vinegar
We covered all of these with water in their individual pots and let them boil for about 15 minutes. After boiling we added 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Our son hated this part because he hates the smell of vinegar. We set the hard-boiled eggs gently into the homemade dye and left them overnight in the fridge.
Easter Egg Dyes with All Natural Ingredients
The next day we took our eggs out of the natural dye solutions and *here’s where I made a mistake!* The eggs were slimy feeling so we rinsed the eggs off…MISTAKE!
Don’t do that!
It took the color off of our eggs. Our beet-colored eggs had previously been a nice rose pink but after I rinsed them they were a pale pink. Boo! The same happened with the Red Cabbage and one Paprika egg before I realized my error.
While these naturally dyed eggs were OK…the kids wanted to try again and this time without rinsing them. We also ran across the idea to place a flower or greenery on the egg and then wrapping the egg in pantyhose. This gives a stenciled look. So, we gave it a try.
Alternative Ways to Dye Easter Eggs
For the stencil we used:
- Cherry Tree blossoms
- Pansy Flowers
- Greenery from a Juniper bush
You can use any flower or greenery you have so long as they are no larger than your egg. You can use:
- Herbs (rosemary, thyme, chives, dill, etc)
- Flowers
- Vegetable Greenery (celery leaves, potato vine leaves, pepper leaves, etc)
- Shrub Greenery (holly, boxwood, camellia, etc)
This time we chose to make dye from:
- Beets
- Red Cabbage
- Turmeric
We repeated the process of boiling each of these in water and then adding 2 tablespoons of vinegar. The children placed the eggs gently in the dye solutions and then we let them sit overnight in the fridge.
Easter Egg Dyes with All Natural Ingredients and Flower Stencils
This batch of dyed eggs was by far prettier. We did not make the mistake of rinsing the slime off and instead let them air dry. After drying completely I cut the pantyhose away and pulled the flowers and greenery off.
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That is really neat. We decorate our eggs using traditional Ukrainian designs (as my great grandfather was Ukrainian). My grandfather’s family was from Hungary and he kept up the family tradition for us.
Oh, how awesome to have such a rich tradition in your family!