The CTM guide to Decorating Easter Eggs Brightly colored eggs are a traditional part of Easter. Dyed in multicolor or solid tones, they can be decorated with stripes, polka dots, stickers, stenciled flowers or free-form designs. You can create a rainbow of colors using red, blue, yellow and green food-safe dyes. To make peach, for example, add 1 drop of red dye and 3 drops of yellow to 1 cup of hot water. For a delicate lime green, add 3 drops of yellow and 1 drop of green to 1 cup of hot water. Color is only the beginning. Using a few simple tools and techniques, there are many ways to express your creativity. Attaching strips or cutouts of tape or stencils to an egg before dying it offers myriad design options. After the dyed egg is dry, remove the tape to reveal the pattern. Using wax-resistant dyes is one of the oldest techniques for creating designs on Easter eggs. This method is used to make the renowned intricate Ukrainian Easter eggs. For a simplified effect, draw patterns with clear wax crayons before dying the egg. Since the dye can’t penetrate the wax, the design will be left clear. Wrapping rubber bands of different sizes and widths around the dry egg before dying it produces rubber-band patterns of every imaginable kind. Applying stamps and stickers after coloring eggs offers endless possibilities for fanciful decorations. How to Dye Easter Eggs Before coloring Easter eggs, you must first hard boil them. I find that using a little older eggs works better for colored eggs. They are much easier to peel when they are a few weeks old. Purchase your eggs about two weeks before Easter. Lay down some newspaper so that you don't stain your work surface, and line up a row of cups (one cup for each color). Fill the cups with the Easter egg dye...which you can create in one of two ways:   One - Buy the pre-made colored tablets and follow the directions on the box to dissolve your tablets in water Two - Make your own Easter egg dye to fill the cups with Once you have your cups filled with the colored water, dip each egg in. The longer you leave it in, the darker (or more vivid) the color is. Use a spoon or bent piece of wire to dunk and remove your egg if you do not want to get the dye on your hands. Let the eggs dry by cutting egg-size holes in a piece of cardboard and suspending it between to objects (so that the eggs aren't touching anything above or beneath). Easter Egg Dye Recipe It's really simple to make your own Easter egg dye. All you need is:    water vinegar (plain white) food coloring Fill each cup about 2/3 of the way with water (if you put too much water in it, it will overflow when you place the egg inside). Add about one teaspoon of vinegar--it doesn't have to be an exact measurement. Add food coloring one drop at a time until you get the exact color you want. Mix colors to achieve even more colors to work with. Tip: When they've dried, you can rub your eggs with vegetable oil for a shiny finish. Easter Egg Pattern Easter egg designs are endless... you certainly don't need an Easter egg template to create something beautiful! Try putting a sticker or making a design with a clear wax crayon on the egg before dipping it in the colored water. After the egg dries, wherever the wax crayon or sticker was, it will be white. For yet another look, wait until the Easter eggs are dry, and decorate them with stickers (this is by far the easiest way for little kids to decorate them). Easter Egg Decorating Tips Here are a few of my other favorite ideas to decorate an Easter egg with:      Tissue Paper Eggs - Cut up newer (not the old faded stuff) tissue paper into little squares. Spritz the eggs with water. Lay the tissue paper all around the egg, creating whatever design you wish. Spritz again with a little water until all of the tissue paper is a little wet. Set it aside and let it dry. After the paper is dry, remove it to reveal the color it has left behind. This looks like stained glass, but involves no messy egg coloring! Marbleized Eggs - add one teaspoon of vegetable oil to your colored water when dyeing eggs to give them a marbleized look when they dry. Fingerprint Eggs - make a design using tempera paint and your little ones fingerprints. Splatter Eggs - color your egg. With a contrasting color of tempera paint, use a paintbrush or old toothbrush to "flick" paint onto the egg. Note: this is VERY messy! Rubber Band Eggs - put rubber bands around your eggs before dunking them in your colored water. When the eggs dry and you take the rubber bands off, you'll see a cool line design around the egg. Information obtained from the following Internet sources: http://www.do-it-yourself-gifts.com/color-easter-eggs.html http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/tip/decorating-easter-eggs.html If you are adventurous GOOGLE - colored Easter Eggs - for many more great photos and recipes