Tie Dye Easter Eggs Using Paper Towels

It was so simple to make these Easter eggs with tie dye! I have to admit that the idea of tie dyeing something made me a little nervous. It seems like it should scare people. or difficult. or, at a minimum, messy. But what do you know? None of those things were the case! If you don’t wear rubber gloves and end up with food coloring all over your hands, don’t say I didn’t warn you. As long as you do.

There aren’t many Easter posts on my blog. How absurd is that? I had to return to work around this time last year after taking maternity leave. The year prior to that I had an infant in addition to two children under 5. Then, three years later, I found out that I was expecting our third child, a boy. Ah, March 2013, when we only had two children and I still had time every night after the kids went to bed to work on the blog. Those were good times…) Now that I think about the few posts I wrote a month after I found out I was pregnant, I feel sick. like the real ones, where I swear I’ll vomit.

Have you ever encountered that issue? During that brief period, I used a different logo for the blog, and just looking at that logo makes me sick to my stomach. alongside one of Tangled’s songs, which my daughter listened to over and over again for months. Either of you will be thinking, “Yes! You have no idea what you’re talking about! Or you’ll join the opposing team and be told, “Um, Debbie, you’re crazy.” Can you simply move on? Okay, good.

Although I’ve been a blogger for four and a half years, this is my first Easter egg post. As a craft blogger, I’m shaking my head in disbelief that I could have allowed that to happen. You can just ignore that. Instead, take a look at these amazing tie dye Easter eggs! When I made them, I had no idea what to expect, but they are bright, beautiful, and so much fun!

 

Tie Dye Easter Eggs

The full printable instructions are at the end of this post, but here’s what you’ll need:

• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Food Colouring
• Paper Towel
• Water Spray Bottle
• Tiny Elastics or Twist Ties
• Table Fan

Go ahead and hard boil your eggs. Did you know that you can make hard boil eggs by baking them in the oven!? I’ve been doing it for about 3 years now and I’ve never had a single egg crack!

Once the eggs have cooled off, rip apart the paper towels into small sections and place your egg in the middle.

Bunch up the paper towel around the egg so it’s completely covered. Twist the end as tightly as you can and secure it with a tiny elastic or a twist tie. I get my tiny elastics in the hair and accessories section at the dollar store.

Squeeze drops of food colouring directy onto the paper towel.

You’re probably going to want to hold the egg in your hand. I would have needed a third hand to take a photo of me doing that so this was the best I could do. You get the idea though.

Try to separate the food colouring drops so that there is some white space between them. You definitely don’t have to leave the space, but it helps to keep the colours from completely mixing into one another if you leave some room.

Take your spray bottle of water and squirt a small amount of water into the middle of each of the food colouring drops. If you can still see white paper towel, the egg underneath will be white in that area, so keep spraying until the paper towel is completely coloured. But keep in mind, the more water you spray, the less bright the colour on the egg will be. It’s a balance.

Gently squeeze the egg over the sink if there’s any extra water. Even if there isn’t, squeeze it gently anyway to make sure the colours on the paper towel transfer to the egg underneath.

This is why you want to wear rubber gloves. It’s just food colouring, so if you don’t have gloves, it will definitely come off your hands in a day or two, but this is what my gloves looked like after one egg:

Set the eggs in a glass dish or on a baking sheet to dry. I was impatient so I pointed a table fan directly at my eggs and they were completely dry in about 3 hours. I definitely recommend you do the same, otherwise you’ll need to leave them overnight to dry.

This is going to sound cheesy, but it was like unwrapping a present.

 

Ta-da! I love how the texture from the paper towel made an impression on the eggs!

There has to be something you can do with the beautiful tie dyed paper towels you’re left with at the end so you don’t just throw them away?? What if you cut out a square of each paper towel, pinch it together in the middle with a pipe cleaner or clothes pin and turn it into a super simple tie dyed butterfly when you’re done? I wish I had thought of that yesterday!

The colours were bright and beautiful, and even though I used the same technique on all of them, each egg looked completely different.

In case you’re wondering, yes, the food colouring does leach through the egg shell a little bit. But only a few dots here and there. It’s food colouring, so the eggs are still completely safe to eat.

Materials:

• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Food colouring
• Paper Towel
• Water Spray Bottle
• Tiny Elastics or Twist Ties
• Table Fan

Instructions:

1. Tear apart the paper towels into small rectangles. Place a cool, dry egg in the middle of the paper towel.
2. Wrap the paper towel up and around the egg so it’s completely covered. Twist the top of the paper towel so it’s tight against the egg and secure it with a tiny hair elastic or a twist tie.
3. Wearing rubber gloves, gently squeeze drops of food colouring directly onto the paper towel wrapped egg (3 or 4 drops at a time), leaving some white space between each colour. Repeat until there are large food colouring dots around the whole egg.
4. Using a spray bottle, gently spray a small amount of water into the center of each food colouring dot. Keep spraying until the colours bleed and there is no more white space. The less water you spray, the brighter the colours on the egg will be.
5. Gently squeeze the wet paper towel wrapped egg over the sink to drain any excess water. Even if there’s no extra water, gently squeeze the egg to make sure the colour on the paper towel transfers to the egg.
6. Place the wet, paper towel wrapped eggs in a baking dish. Point a table fan at the eggs and allow them to dry for 3 to 4 hours. (Without a table fan, you’ll have to wait overnight for them to dry).
7. When the paper towels are completely dry, remove the elastics and unwrap each egg.

Notes

It’s best if you can make these the day you plan to serve them. If they MUST be refrigerated, place the eggs in an egg carton. Make sure you remove them from the fridge (and open the egg carton lid) at least 3 hours before you plan to serve them to give time for the condensation to dry.