Howdy! I hope that you all are having a wonderful week? Today I wanted to go ahead and share some ideas on how to color your easter eggs naturally. I have also included a free printable for you to keep with all your Easter goodies. Rather than purchasing an egg dyeing kit full of artificial food coloring, opt for a healthier and creative DIY approach to coloring your Easter eggs this year.

Using natural dyes is as easy as choosing fruits, vegetables, dried or ground herbs, and adding them to room temperature or boiling water in order to create your color palette. Then, you just soak hard-boiled eggs in the solution. The depth of color is determined by how long the eggs stay in the solution. For best results, keep the soaking eggs in the refrigerator overnight to develop color. Once out of the solution and having been dried, it’s also recommended to keep the eggs chilling in refrigerator until you’re ready to display them.

Tips For Coloring Eggs

Boil your eggs first; remove from hot water and let cool.
When cool, rub the shells with white vinegar which will help the dye adhere to the egg.
Create your dye solutions according to the instructions below for dye solutions.
Place eggs in deep cups or bowls with the natural dyes and let sit for several minutes; leave eggs in longer for deeper color saturation or refrigerate eggs in solution(s) overnight for richer color.
When color has been achieved, remove eggs from solutions and blot dry with a paper towel.
Experiment with both white and brown eggs. The brown eggs will take on a more muted color tone when dyed.
For glossy eggs: After your eggs have been dyed and completely dried, take a cloth and lightly rub vegetable oil on them to create an outer gloss.

Natural Dye Solutions

 For every dozen eggs, plan on using at least four cups of dye liquid. Add one tablespoon white vinegar to every cup of strained dye liquid, except where indicated

Per cup of water, add the following:

Blue:Use red cabbage to dye the eggs blue. Just cut 1/4 head of red cabbage into chunks and add to 4 cups of boiling water. Let cool to room temperature and remove cabbage with a slotted spoon. Add vinegar.
Muted Blue:Mix 1 cup frozen blueberries with 1 cup water, bring to room temperature, and remove blueberries. Do not add vinegar.
Lavender:Mix 1 cup grape juice and 1 tablespoon vinegar.
Green:Add a cup of spinach or a few teaspoons of spirulina to boiling water. Add vinegar.
Orange:Longer soaking of these onion-dyed eggs will help you achieve a darker color. Take the skin of 6 yellow onions and simmer in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes, then strain. Add vinegar.
Red-Orange:Stir 2 Tablespoons of ground paprika into 1 cup boiling water. Add vinegar.
Mustard Yellow:Stir 2 Tablespoons of ground turmeric into 1 cup boiling water. Add vinegar.
Light Yellow: Simmer the peels of 6 oranges in 1-1/2 cups water for 20 minutes then strain. Add vinegar.
Dark Pink: Beet-dyed eggs will darken the longer they sit in the liquid. Cut 1 medium beet into chunks and add to 4 cups boiling water. Stir in vinegar and let cool to room temperature before removing the beets.
Light Pink: Use the same solution as above for dark pink, but remove eggs as soon as they tint to the light pink color you desire.
Brown:Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of strong, black coffee. Do not add vinegar.

How easy is that? I also wanted to share a little printable that you can keep so that you can always have all the ingrediants to make each color. These are so fun to make and I do hope that you and your family enjoy these.