First things first. I volunteered for this post because I am not crafty and being in a rested vacation haze, I felt as if I were up to the challenge. The challenge being: “some type of Easter craft.” My timeline looked like this:
Saturday before Tuesday due date: Start thinking about eggs. Buy cheapest eggs I can find at Kroger. Plan for Sunday “craft day.”
Sunday: Research ideas, i.e. plea for help on Facebook. Lament being up for a challenge. Decide to watch Parenthood instead and postpone “craft day” to Monday.
Monday: Look up links from Facebook. Choose three egg variations. Get a dye kit at Kroger.
Confetti Eggs (Cascarones)
Having spent my childhood in the Midsouth — I had never heard of these. Luckily, my Texan husband is a pro at making these suckers (woohoo!). Here’s how you do it . . .
Using the backside of a fork, pop the top of an egg.
With a small knife, very carefully remove a small section from the top of the egg. Use your knife to carefully break the yolk.
Pour out the insides. I chose to bake some eggs for 30 minutes at 350 degrees and make this yummy egg salad, but you could use them for anything: cookies, pancakes, what-evs, etc. Wash out your eggshell and dye them with conventional dye . . . or color them, or magic marker them–whatever you fancy. Fill them with confetti and glue tissue paper over the hole. Then break them over the heads of your children or husbands when they least expect it. FUN!
The Organically Dyed Egg
Lucky for you, dear reader, I had veggies past the point of consumption in my kitchen. So the organic dye experiment was ON!
Start with eggs in a pot.
Add veggies or whatever you want. Here is an article with lots of ideas. I used spinach and red onion peels. Cover your eggs and veggies with water and add a 2-3 tablespoons of white vinegar and bring to a fast boil. After boiling a couple of minutes, simmer them for 15 minutes. I let one egg soak for two hours in spinach water, but saw no difference in color.
The Melted Crayon Egg
Ok. I don’t like messes, so I thought this would be a cool (hot) non-messy way to decorate eggs.
Start with eggs and crayons. I used my organically green eggs from the spinach and onion . . . . Why not?
BUT, because I’m SUPER detailed and organized and made sure to read instructions (sarcasm), I gave my kid some slightly warm eggs and let her go at it. As you can deduce, slightly warm eggs don’t melt crayons. Hmmm. DUH! Before I spiked an egg on the ground in frustration at a Pinterest fail in the making, I decided to read the instructions.
SO, I threw two more eggs in a pot, boiled them for 2 minutes, removed them from heat, covered them for 12 minutes, and THEN we crayon’ed them while they were hot. So they looked like this:
Beeeee-you-ti-ful. I love these eggs the most!
Wrap Up
1. I still don’t see the point of dying hard boiled eggs. The inside of my fridge doesn’t need decoration.
2. This will be my first and last crafty post. At the end of this day, I felt like I’d been at the zoo on a hot summer day. I was EGG-shausted.
3. IF I have to “dye” hard-boiled eggs again, we will crayon them, as they were by far the prettiest!
4. The organic dye was sub-par . . . sadly. 🙁
5. I didn’t actually stuff my cascarones this week, because I really just wanted to watch more Parenthood. So I displayed them with my store-bought eggs and confetti like so.
How do you dye and/or decorate Easter eggs? What’s your favorite Easter craft?
