Plate & Pattern

We're DYEING to Show You Our Easter Eggs!

posted by Josh on 04/05/2012 at 12:00 am | 12 Comments - Post a comment

Easter's almost here, so Leslie and I thought we'd celebrate the holiday with a little crafty mischief!

Everybody at the office is a big fan of Pinterest. I scan it for recipe ideas; Leslie looks for fun craft projects. Well, we both found some Easter inspiration that we were eager to try, so we set out to get our craft on!

Mr. Mischief's Happy Hippie Easter Eggs

So I stumbled across a Pin about using natural dyes to color your eggs. "I'm SO doing that," I said to myself, and began daydreaming about all of the fun natural ingredients I could use.

For color, I grabbed a couple jars of pickled, jarred beets (pink), a head of cabbage (blue), and some tumeric (yellow) and paprika (orange). I suppose I could've followed a recipe, but that's not really my thing. So I basically just poured tons of vinegar into the Stiletto Pedestals, mixed in my spices and juices, and stashed them in the fridge for the night.

Meanwhile, Leslie had a whole different idea. She'd fallen in love with some glittery polka dotted eggs from Pinterest. When she told me about her plan, I was like, "Eh." And so, the competition was ON! So Leslie grabbed her craft supplies and went to town. Here's how she did it:

Miss Bling Gets Her Glitter On!
From Leslie: I went for the non-dye approach. Those dyes can get so messy when you are dealing with small children (or Josh). Here's what you need:

• Adhesive glue dots ½” found at your local craft supply store
• Hard boiled eggs done on the stovetop, not the micowave!
• I used sugar candy sprinkles but glitter would work well too.

The best part about this non-messy project is that it's super simple. Check it out:

1. Boil your eggs.
2. Put the glue dots sporadically all over your egg.
3. Roll in sprinkles or glitter.
4. Emerge victorious over Josh in the Easter Egg contest.

OK, so I'm kinda joking about #4; but not really. I was super-pleased with the way my project turned out. But Josh ... not-so-much. I'll let him tell you all about it...

OMG, y'all — TOTAL Pinterest Fail! You know what Leslie called them? Dino Eggs! And she's totally right! Has this ever happened to you? You see this super-cute idea on Pinterest, so you try it, and WHAM — Pinterest Fail! To be honest, I had a sense that this project was not going to go well. However, I was TOTALLY unprepared for the epic nature of my craft failure.

The beet juice ones (pink) turned out OK, but the tumeric and paprika eggs...Holy Easter Bunny! First off, they are UGLY — and that's being nice! Second — I don't know if it was the massive dose of vinegar or the concentration of spices, but the outer shells TOTALLY DISINTEGRATED! They were squishy, like hardboiled eggs without the shells. It was SO gross. Honest to goodness, Leslie actually dryheaved into the trashcan!

So, let that be a lesson to you, my dears — sometimes it's okay to craft outside the egg carton. Just be prepared for mischief — and have a cute, glittery back-up plan in your back pocket, just in case! Happy Easter, everyone!

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That's hilarious! I actually saw that natural egg dye pin on Pinterest and was curious about it. Too bad it was a bust. I've also seen one on using old silk ties to dye eggs, decoupage eggs, and today there was one about using Kool Aid. I think I'll stick to the old PAAS package and avoid disaster :)

Your vinegar disintegrated the egg shell. Should have just added a little vinegar to the water and not let them sit overnight; or skip it? I've always wanted to try soaking a raw egg in vinegar to dissolve the shell, that's essentially what you did except with hardboiled eggs. BTW, you probably don't want to eat them... the eggs that is, since the egg membrane probably let the vinegar through. Actually, you can probably rough chop them on a salad with a vinaigrette and it'd be edible.

oh, this is just too, too funny. My husband, the chemical engineer could tell you that it was just too, too acidic with pure vinegar, but then you wouldn't have this hilarious tale, now would you. Yours have the potential to be pretty cool......but I have to agree that Leslie's are the winner. Sorry, honey. Good try. But props for trying such a rogue kitchen mischief trial!! :D fun, fun post!

Congratulations, Josh. You just completed a middle school science experiment (but much more colorfully, I might add). You can also do this with a pencil or a chicken bone (but I can't think of a related holiday for those items). I think you'd make a fine homeschooling dad!