A tradition of making Crayon Resist Eggs

An old time favourite and a tradition every year for us. Simple to do and always fun.

These are simple for any age. Younger children will just make different more simplistic designs and older children may choose to make more intricate ones. The only supplies you need is an egg dye kit, jars to prepare and hold the dye in, spoons to lower and lift out the eggs, vinegar for yellow, blue and green dyes (1 Tablespoon added to each), eggs, and paper towel or cloth to dry off excess dye.

We use raw eggs because we like to keep them year after year. Hard boiled eggs are easier to work with but I am not sure how they would save for years to come. We will find out this year though as we made THESE eggs the other day and I won't be able to throw them out!

Working with raw eggs gives us the choice to leave them as is (The eggs after years will dry out and become very light. Beware though in years to come if that egg breaks it can be very stinky from the gases that build up inside of it).

Our other choice when we are finished is to blow out the egg and hang them on our egg tree. If you blow your egg out before decorating it, you may have a hard time keeping it below the dye surface (when they are hollow they float).  You will need to secure them in place with a spoon or other object to keep your egg beneath the surface of the dye. I did see a neat idea on  THIS blog which might work well using a whisk but have never tried it myself.

If you blow the egg out after you decorate them you have to be extra careful not to break your little ones masterpiece they just created. HERE is a post I did containing a how to for blowing out your eggs as well as how to hang them on an egg tree if you are interested.

***Tip for egg dying...use room temperature eggs! The dye adheres better and you don't get un-dyed lines on your eggs. Also if you end up blowing the egg out it is SO much easier to do with a warm egg***

The first step is drawing your designs on your eggs with crayons.

The next step is to carefully lower your egg into your dye. We use wide mouth mason jars for our dye. Any jar will do but you want to follow the directions so as to not dilute your dye just to cover your egg.

 You can never make just one!

 

After our eggs are dyed I blow some to hang on our egg tree and leave some to display on a wooden bowl or baskets around the house. I have some eggs my eldest daughter (DOB 1988) created when she was a preschooler! HERE's the link again to learn how to blow out and hang your eggs.

What is your favourite Easter tradition?