Watercolor Easter Eggs Tutorial

Super Easy Blown Eggs Tutorial for Making Watercolor Easter Eggs

 

Once upon a time, I was a mama who was totally new to this whole natural living gig.  I took each challenge as it came, barely keeping my head above water.  One of those challenges came in the shape of Easter eggs…

Easter egg dye is probably poison, right?

Should I hard-boil eggs, soak them in poison, and then let my kids eat them on Easter?

Should I hard-boil eggs, soak them in poison, and then throw them away on Easter?

Am I really up for making my own food-based dyes out of blueberries, beets, tumeric, and who knows what else?

I’ve got 4 kids under 5 years old! 

For real!  I am NOT processing my own whole-food dyes just to make Easter eggs!

And then just before deciding to skip Easter eggs all together, the thought dawned on me…

Why not just paint the shells!!?!

And we’ve had many a Happy Easter ever since.

 

Watercolor Easter Egg Tutorial

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Eggs
• Bowl
• Nasal Aspirator (preferably new/clean… if you’d like to keep and scramble your eggs)
• Precision Screw Driver Set, Nail, Push Pin (or anything else with a tiny pointed end)
• Quality Watercolor Paint Set

 

Step # 1 – Make a tiny hole at the top of the egg.

I find it easiest to gently scratch an X in the place I intend to me make the hole… just chisel away the outer coating in that spot a tiny bit.

Then, I take the edge of the screw driver and turn it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth over that spot firmly (and carefully) until I’ve made a tiny hole.

The hole at the top of the egg should be as small as possible to make it less noticeable once the shell is decorated.

Step #2 – Make a slightly larger hole at the bottom of the egg.

Now I simply repeat the same process at the bottom of the egg, except this time I need a slightly larger hole.

I start with the same tiny screw driver.  Once I’ve made the hole, I’ll use a larger screw driver to open up the hole a bit more.  This is where the egg will come out of the shell, so it needs a bit more room.

If you are using a nail or push pin, just (carefully!) poke at the hole to make it bit larger.

Make sure to use your screw driver (or a toothpick) to poke around inside the egg until you have broken the yolk!  This is very important and will help so much with the next step!

Step #3 – Use the nasal aspirator to blow the egg out of the shell.

You will not believe how easy this is!  Simply place the aspirator over the tiny hole at the top of the egg and (SLOWLY) push air into the egg shell.  The egg white and broken yolk will immediately begin pouring out the slightly larger hole at the bottom of the egg shell.

Use restraint!  If you get carried away and blow too quickly, well…

If the shell is not yet empty, but the egg has stopped coming out as easily, take your screw driver (or toothpick) and poke around a bit more to try to break up any biggish globs.

That should help to keep this from happening…

It’s okay, don’t worry.  Those were the only two we broke.  😏

Step #4 – Rinse the eggs shells in warm, soapy water.

Once the egg shells are as empty as possible, give them a good rinsing in warm, soapy water.  Rinse, shake, rinse, shake… till they seem pretty clean.

Step #5 – Dry the egg shells overnight.

Set them in an empty egg carton to dry overnight.  This will allow the excess water to drip out the bottom so you’ll have completely dry eggs to paint tomorrow.

Step #6 – Pull out your watercolor paints and get creative!

I find that the higher quality paints (as in, not Crayola) have much richer colors, which show up much better on the egg shells.  If Crayola is all that you’ve got, you may just need to paint extra coats to get the color you want.

A few tips:

• If you would like to paint the entire egg shell a single color, allow that first color to dry before attempting to paint any designs over the top of it.  (The egg carton is a great place to stash drying egg shells!)
• Use as little water as possible!!  Just enough to get the color on your brush and that’s it! … because I’m sure you can imagine that any excess water will drip, drip, drip around to the back side of your egg shell and smear all over your fingers.

Some of us think that the brown eggs are pretty enough without a coat of color and simply get started on a design right away.

And there you have it!  Beautiful, watercolor Easter eggs that will last for years to come!

Happy Easter Friends!

 

More Easter Ideas:

Good Friday Baskets ~ A Good Friday Activity that Teaches the True Meaning of Easter

Tissue Paper Stained Glass Crosses ~ A Super Simple Easter Craft

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