How to Make Homemade Easter Egg Dye

Coloring eggs for Easter has been a tradition since medieval times when English kings hid gold leaf eggs throughout the royal household. Coloring eggs continues to be a fun activity for families celebrating Easter. Most people today use dye to color the eggshell.

Things You'll Need

• Eggs
• Water
• Vinegar
• Produce
• Pantry items
• Saucepan
• Drinks
• Cups
• Food coloring

Instructions

1. Add vinegar as a mordant. A mordant prepares the fiber to accept and hold the dye. Vinegar is safe to use on eggs because it can be ingested. You need 1 to 2 Tablespoons per batch of dye that you make.

2. Make homemade dye with produce or pantry items. The outer layers of an onion make brown dye, spinach or dandelion leaves make green dye and celery seed, ground turmeric or orange peels make yellow dye. Use crushed blueberries to make blue dye, crush cranberries or raspberries to make red dye and beet juice or chopped rhubarb to make pink dye. Put enough water to cover eggs, produce or pantry item and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Use drinks to dye your Easter eggs. Add vinegar and hard boiled eggs to coffee or tea to dye them brown. You can make unsweetened Kool Aid into dye. Or you could use vibrant juices like grape juice or cranberry juice.

4. Mix food coloring for dye. Add 20 to 40 drops of food coloring to a cup of water and vinegar. The amount of food coloring determines the shade of the color. You can mix different amounts two or more colors to create a variety of shades.

Tips & Warnings

• Use gloves to prevent your hands and fingers absorbing your homemade dye.

• Put newspaper under the area where you are dying Easter eggs to protect surfaces from dye.

• Always allow your eggs to boil and then simmer for at least eight minutes.