We would love to show you a super easy trick to make dyed Easter eggs from crayons. This is a great, no-cost (except for the eggs) way to have some fun and unique decorated eggs fast and using supplies all from home.
We posted about this on our site 10-years ago. But this year, it came up again because we are in a worldwide quarantine. Which means we have to be creative to use supplies we have at home. This idea was originally born…err, hatched because of trying to be frugal. But this year, although we still live frugal lives, it’s more of a necessity because we are ordered to not leave home except for essentials. Eggs can be delivered in 2020, purchased from neighbors that raise chickens or as an emergency grocery run. But the other supplies are not essential at the time of writing this post during the COVID-19 pandemic.
So after several years of not dyeing eggs this way, we did it again for a totally different reason!
As we are rounding the corner heading into the Easter weekend. We try different things each year to decorate our eggs. The simplest being, letting the kids just color them with crayons. Well this year, we did an Easter egg coloring with crayons again! But this time we marbled our eggs with broken and left over crayons! We keep the broken crayons in a bucket for fun projects – like remelting and making different shaped mixed color crayons using silicone molds and such!
So for the great pandemic of 2020 that is encroaching on everyone’s Easter weekend, I improvised this year and grabbed a handful of the crayons for this egg dyeing project again! You probably have everything already for this Easter egg project with out having to leave the house!
What you will need to create Marbled Easter Eggs with Recycled Crayons:
- Eggs and their cartons (we started with 36, but after breaking and eating, ended up with about 32 :))
- Non-Toxic Crayons
- Wax Paper
- Heat proof containers or glass Jars
- Really Hot Water
- Spoon
- Grater
How to Marble Eggs with Crayons!
First things first, we need hard boiled eggs! The trick that we did for several years actually credited to Rachael Ray! She taught us how to make the perfect hard boiled egg!
Best Water Boil Method
- Place eggs on the bottom of the pot to cover the bottom, without stacking any eggs.
- Fill with cold water.
- Place on stove and turn it on!
- Bring it to a boil
- Once boiling, boil for 1 minute more
- Turn the stove off and put a lid on the pot for 10 minutes
- Then submerse the eggs in “ice” cold water. I actually add ice to the water 🙂
- Let them set for several minutes to cool down, also by submersing them in ice cold water immedietly after boiling makes them easier to peel!
- Then you must sacrifice and egg and test to see if it is done! Then eat it of course!!
All right, now you are ready to decorate and create marble eggs!
Best Overall Method By Baking Eggs in Oven
We learned a trick about 5 years ago that is nearly flawless. You wouldn’t think hard boiling eggs would be all that hard, but it’s not the easiest task to perfect. So to be a little closer to dummy perfection, try the oven method that we share in this post HERE.
Step-by-Step Crayon Egg-Dyeing Method
- Make sure all paper wrappers are off of the crayons you want to use and sort by similar colors.
- Start grating each color group and keep separated in their color groups.
- Add grated crayon to a bowl – recommended to just do one color but two can work as well. Don’t mix more than two colors because it will look like bird poo when the colors mix!
- Boil about 2 cups of hot water in the microwave in a microwave safe container
- Pour the water into the jar/bowl with the crayon shreds
- Using the tongs/spoon, immerse each egg into the melted crayon mixture
- Pull them out and look at those pretty marbled eggs – listen to the kids squeal with excitement!
- Place them in the cartons to dry!
That’s it!!
A few tips:
- Try a few different jars with a few separate colors. The first time we did this several years ago, ours ended up dark browns, nearly black and dark green as the we mixed all of the colors. Still really pretty though, but they looked like pooed on eggs instead. 🙂
- It can be quite messy when you are melting colored wax, so cover your table with newspapers or paper table cover to just throw away.
- If you are coloring many eggs, you may need to replace the water after about 4 minutes as it cools enough to not melt the crayon shavings as well.
That is a fun, thrifty, easy, quarantine-proof and unique way to decorate your eggs this year! Please share any ideas that you have!! We love to hear them!
Our Results When We Did This for the First Time 10-years ago!
Now wondering what to do with all of those hard boiled eggs? Visit our page that is all about eggs to help you find more ideas!
Happy Easter Egg Decorating!
Amy
Just wondering if you guys have ever seen fresh eggs, because those on the right sure look like they just came from the chicken, if you know what I mean. Otherwise, great idea!
Jen
Great trick! Thanks for sharing!
My kids love to color the eggs directly with crayons (after they’re cooked), and then soaking them in the egg dyes. You never know what you’re going to get, but it always turns out beautiful!