How to Make Toy Dinosaur Eggs

Make your own dinosaur eggs.

Transform ordinary plastic Easter eggs into Jurassic-inspired dinosaur toy eggs with just a little paint and a modest amount of creativity. Recycle leftover plastic eggs from a spring egg hunt for this fun project. The finished eggs can hold small dinosaur toys and be buried in a sandbox for a young paleontologist to dig up! Dino eggs can also hold candy and be included in a goody bag for a dinosaur-themed birthday party.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic Easter eggs
• Spray paint
• Acrylic craft paint (optional)
• Old toothbrush
• Newspaper
• Soap
• Water
• Dish towel

Instructions

1. 

   Recycle plastic Easter eggs.

   Clean plastic eggs in soap and water if they are dirty from previous use. Dry eggs. Select a well-ventilated area to paint the eggs and spread out the newspaper to protect your work surface. Spray paint can get messy, so you may want to work outdoors, in the garage or some other work space where over-spray won't be a problem.

2. Open the eggs and place right them side up on the newspaper. Space the eggs well apart so the surfaces can be easily spray painted. Apply a base color like dark green or brown. Experts aren't sure what color dinosaur eggs really were, so feel free to use whatever color you like. Allow eggs to dry. Check the eggs to see if a second coat of base color is needed and paint if required.

3. Close the eggs and place them back on the newspaper. Swirl a second paint color over the eggs (green, brown or yellow would work well). Do this by sweeping the spray can across several eggs in a random pattern. The dinosaur eggs should look like a camouflage pattern when done. If you lose too much of the base color, simply apply a swish of the base color on a third pass. Add layers of paint in alternating colors until your reach the desired effect, but remember to allow paint to dry between coats.

Tips & Warnings

• Another method for adding a second color to the dinosaur eggs is to speckle paint them. Lightly dip an old toothbrush in a small amount of acrylic paint, point the brush at the eggs and rub your thumb across the bristles. This will flick spots of paint off the end of the brush, resulting in a speckle pattern. Experiment by varying the distance of the brush to the eggs---the further away you hold the brush, the finer the specks.

• Add interesting bumps to the dinosaur eggs by using special "texture" or "stone" spray paint.

• Apply paint in thin coats to avoid drips.

• Check the label to make sure the paint you buy works on plastic.

References

• Real Simple: How to Spray Paint Plastic

Resources

• RustOleum: Texture Spray Paint
• Krylon: Eggs-hibit