Looking for a new way for the kids to dye eggs this year? Decorating Easter eggs with liquid watercolours is a whole lot of fun! The results are gorgeous, and the process is really easy, making this a great Easter activity for preschoolers right through to teens.
The kids and I have been experimenting with different ways to decorate easter eggs this year and it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve made marbleized Easter eggs using oil and vinegar, and we’ve used Sharpies and rubbing alcohol process to make some cool tie-dyed Easter eggs. Those two techniques produced really gorgeous results.
Today, we coloured a new batch of eggs with using liquid watercolours, and I couldn’t be happier with the results!
With this process, you’ll dye your eggs a solid colour first, and then the kids will drip watercolours all over them to get the beautiful results you see in our photos below. I hope you’ll try this method with your kids this year. It’s a lot of fun.
To decorate Easter eggs with liquid watercolours, you’ll need:
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Ok. First things first….
Blow out your eggs:
Use a thumbtack to make a hole in each end of the egg, and then poke a wooden skewer through to make the holes a bit bigger. Blow the eggs into a bowl, and give them a quick rinse under the tap.
Dye your eggs a solid colour:
Ok, next, you need dye your eggs a solid colour. Well, I guess you don’t need to. You could skip right to the watercolour step and just drip your watercolours on white eggs, but I wanted to start with coloured eggs, so…
Grab your food colouring. You can use any kind of food colouring. Whatever you have in your cupboard will do. I personally love Wilton gels because of their intensity, and the wide range of colours they come in.
Stir a generous amount of food colour into a glass of water, and add a tsp of vinegar. The vinegar is a must when you’re dyeing eggs. The acidity in the vinegar etches (or roughs up) the eggshell enabling it to absorb the colour well.
You’ll need to submerge your egg under the water. I used a skewer to push the egg under, and I held it there until enough water had entered the hole of the egg to weigh it down.
Let the eggs sit in the coloured water for about 10 minutes (or until you’re happy with the colour).
When the eggs are coloured to your liking, remove them from the glass, drain/blow out any water, and let them dry on your baking rack for about 10 minutes.
Ok! Now for the best part!
Decorate with liquid watercolours:
Give your kids some droppers and the liquid watercolour paint to decorate their eggs with.
Don’t dilute your watercolours. Leave them full-strength.
Have your kids drip the watercolours all over your eggs using the medicine droppers.
We set our eggs on the cooling rack while we decorated them. This allowed the watercolours to run right off the egg instead of pooling up and saturating the bottom side.
Because your watercolours will run right through the rack, it’s important to protect the work surface beneath it. A cookie sheet or even a dinner plate will do.
Drip, drip, drip!
Isn’t this cool?
You can drip freely, or you can trail your medicine dropper along the surface of your egg, making deliberate markings and designs.
Aren’t they gorgeous?
When you’re finished decorating your eggs with the food colouring, let them dry on the cooling rack.
They’ll be beautiful, but they’ll look a little dull once they’re dry, so…
Time to polish them up!
You can rub a small amount of cooking oil all over your eggshells to add a glossy sheen to them.
I used a makeup pad to polish our eggs, but a paper towel would do.
That little bit of oil makes those colours really pop!
It really adds depth and richness to to the colours.
I imagine you could add a coat of acrylic craft varnish instead of the oil if you wanted to. It might be a better option if you plan on keeping your eggs for a long time.
Ohhhh, they’re so pretty! I just can’t get enough of them!
I’ve displayed our watercolour eggs along with our marbleized eggs in a bowl in the living room.
Beautiful!
For more ways to dye Easter eggs, check out:
For a fun way to make Easter eggs without using real eggs, try our Painted Rock Easter Eggs!
And if you’re looking for a sweet, edible Easter egg treat, try our Fruity Pebbles Easter Eggs!
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
