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Since ancient times, the egg has been considered a symbol of fertility and the birth of life. That is why it has become one of the attributes of the Christian Easter. Every year, believers paint eggs and decorate them, turning this activity into an exciting creativity. There are many ways to color eggs for every taste and color — choose the techniques that you like, and decorate the Easter table with the whole family!
How to prepare eggs for coloring
Take the eggs out of the refrigerator when they are at room temperature for a while, cook them in salt water so that the shell does not burst when cooking. Choose smooth white eggs for painting, wash them with soap or degrease the surface in another way — so the paint will lie flat and beautiful. Some housewives wipe the surface of the eggs with vodka or vinegar, let the moisture evaporate, and then apply the paint. After the colored eggs are dry, you can rub them with odorless sunflower oil for a spectacular shine.
The classic method is coloring with onion husks
Take the husk of 8-10 onions and cook it in 0.5 liters of water for half an hour, then let the broth infuse and strain it. Put the boiled eggs in the cooled broth and keep them exactly as long as necessary to get the desired shade. If you want to make fancy patterns, stick pieces of tape or duct tape on the shell in accordance with the pattern, and after coloring, peel off the sticky material. Very effective eggs are obtained, which are wrapped with threads in any order before painting, and after drying, the threads are removed. Such “krashenki” are unusual and resemble surreal paintings.
Colorful eggs — a riot of colors on the holiday of life
Colored eggs look elegant and festive, and you can paint them with coffee, beetroot, carrot or nettle juice. The disadvantage of natural dyes is that they do not act very actively, and eggs have to be kept in the coloring substance for at least a day. It is much easier and more convenient to use food coloring products for eggs from Dr. Oetker — they give a bright and rich color and are easy to use. Dr. Oetker produces classic and mother-of-pearl food coloring products for coloring 60 and 40 eggs in packages with four colors-red, yellow, blue and green. The assortment also includes small sachets with a volume of 5 ml for coloring 10 eggs in classic colors-red, yellow and green.
First, cook the eggs and prepare them for coloring. For coloring, dissolve a bag of dye in 700 ml of boiling water and pour in 5 tablespoons of 9% table vinegar. If you use vinegar of a lower concentration, add a little more. Dip the eggs completely into the solution and leave them there for 2-4 minutes, then carefully remove with a spoon and place on a paper towel until they dry. Eggs painted in this way look unusually bright, colorful and flawless!
Decoration of Easter eggs in the decoupage technique
Easter eggs decorated with decoupage techniques are almost a real work of art. Cut out the fragments of the drawings using decoupage napkins and glue them to the shell with egg white, gelatin diluted in water, flour paste or starch.
It is advisable to use only the topmost layer of napkins, so that the drawings hold better, and glue small fragments to the egg. The fact is that the larger the drawings, the more difficult it is to attach them, given the oval shape of the egg. You do not need to beat the protein to get the glue — just stir it with a fork. Lubricate the egg with protein using a brush, attach the drawings, gently smooth and lubricate again with protein “glue”.
Starch and flour glue are prepared from 2 tsp flour or starch mixed with 2 tbsp cold water. Pour the resulting mixture into half a cup of boiling water, bring to a boil again and cool.
If you decide to make gelatin glue, soften the gelatin in water – in the proportions indicated on the package, strain through a strainer, and then heat the remaining gelatin in the strainer so that the granules completely dissolve.
Marble eggs for Easter
Marble eggs with rainbow streaks on the shell look especially stylish and unexpected. Boil the eggs, cool them, and wipe them dry. Prepare some food coloring materials for Dr. Oetker eggs — red, yellow, green and blue. Wrap each egg in a paper napkin, moisten the napkins with vinegar, and drip the colorants directly onto the napkins. They will spread very quickly on the wetted paper, leaving spectacular streaks. Allow the eggs to cool for an hour and a half, then remove the napkins. Marble eggs can be prepared in many ways, but this is one of the simplest technologies.
Another marble monophonic stains can be obtained by adding 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to a glass of ready-made liquid dye Dr. Oetker, slightly breaking it with a spoon without whipping. You should get a lot of oil droplets floating in the solution. Dip the egg in the dye, twist it a little to achieve a beautiful pattern, pull it out and let it dry, placing it on two toothpicks. These eggs are colored like a noble marble with beautiful iridescences, turning into different shades of color. This is real magic!
Fun crafts made from Easter eggs
For the Easter table, you can make festive crafts together with the children, taking boiled eggs as a basis. Eggs make very cute chickens, for them you will need a liquid mother-of-pearl dye of yellow color Dr. Oetker, colored paper and gelatin glue, the recipe of which can be found in the description of the decoupage technique.
Cook the eggs, put a bag of dye in hot water, so that the paint becomes liquid. Wipe each egg with a paper towel, wear protective gloves that you will find in the package with Dr. Oetker paint, shake the bag and cut off a few drops of paint on the palm of your hand with scissors, rub your palms together so that the paint is evenly distributed, and roll the egg in your palms until it is completely colored. If necessary, apply a second coat of paint to get a brighter shade. Let the eggs dry, cut out the beak, scallop, wings, tail and paws from the paper. Glue the parts to the egg with gelatin glue and leave the craft to dry. By the way, using this technology, you can make different animals and birds from eggs, the main thing is to let your imagination run wild.
Well, if you don’t have time for creativity at all, just stick thermal stickers on boiled eggs, wrap them in golden foil or paint them with ordinary wax crayons — so they will also look festive and give you a bright Easter mood!