It’s that time of the year again. Easter is just around the corner and you need some fun activities for you and your family. Aside, from the religious background of Easter, it’s a chance for family bonding. Hosting parties is one way to go about it. And a party isn’t complete without Easter eggs, not only for the kids but the adults as well.
Your Easter eggs shouldn’t be plain. You need to find a way to make them classy, unique and a treasure to have. There are several ways of decorating your eggs once they are boiled and cooled. You could use crayons, rice or pasta, paint and sticker.
Here is a guide on how to go about painting them and having fun while at it.
Hand painting your Easter eggs needs some artistic and creative talent as well as patience. You will have to be able to picture something and bring it to life on the eggshell. You also have to be patient enough to hold the egg and paintbrush still so as to get smooth designs.
The best way to go about hand painting an egg depends on how talented you are in painting. You need to maintain a clear perspective as you paint. The round surface of the egg will make this difficult but patience and determination will help you work around it. You can use light shades of chalk to outline your design for this. The good thing is that paint will cover up the chalk outlines therefore making it easy to go for complex designs on your eggs.
The best types of paints for this job are Acrylic paints. They typically go on smoothly and will cover up the egg without difficulty. They also allow you more creative freedom to mix up the paints and get funky shades on your eggs.
As much as using hand paints, is fun it takes time and energy. It would be easier to use dyes to paint your Easter eggs. It take little time and is relatively less messy and cheaper. Here’s what you’ll need for that
· eggs
· saucepan
· Food colouring
· vinegar
· tape or rubber bands
· tongs or a slotted spoon
· empty egg carton
· old clothes or an apron
· newspapers
The first step is to fill the saucepan with water and add your eggs. Bring the water to boil and reduce the heat. Let the eggs simmer for 10minutes. Remove from heat and add cold water to stop the eggs from cooking and let them cool.
Put on your apron or old clothes for the next step as the process might get messy. Also place old newspapers over the area you’ll painting on.
As the eggs cool, fill cups halfway with hot water, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar and one teaspoon of food colouring. Each cup should be the colours you intend on using on your eggs. It’s all about creating fun and interesting dye colours for your eggs.
Once your eggs and dye are ready, you can simply place the egg in the colour you want, leave it for 5 minutes and when you lift it out with your tongs you will have a perfectly dyed egg. You could also choose to go for a patterned egg to spice things up.
Using a white crayon, write a message or draw a design on the egg before you dip it in your dye mix. When it comes out of the dye the wax will remain white, highlighting the design against the coloured background.
Stripey designs can be achieved on the eggs by placing rubber bands or tape around your egg before dipping. Once you raise it out of the dye, stripes will appear where you had placed the rubber bands.
Stickers can also give you a shape on the egg. Simply place the sticker on the egg, dip it in dye and remove. Once the dye dries, peel off the stickers and their shapes will appear on the eggs giving it an interesting look.
All the eggs should be placed in the carton so that they can dry without dripping colour all over
Egg decorating can be a family tradition. Make a habit out of it to bond as you play around with patterns and colours. You could also use it as a fun activity to keep the kids busy as you set up the house for an Easter get- together.
photo credits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rbh
