Fun with Egg Dye

We did our Easter egg dyeing last weekend.  

Egg dyeing is a family affair.

Even the furry member of the family joins in. Well, sort of. The lack of opposable thumbs means no dye for him.

Egg dyeing is fun on its own, but we like to try something new each year too. In 2011, we tried contact paper masks on our eggs.

In 2012, we experimented with using Glimmer Mist and Maya Mist on our eggs.

Last year, we stamped and hand-painted our eggs.

This year, we set our completed eggs aside and used the remaining egg dye to create some tie-dye art. We keep paper towels nearby when coloring eggs (for obvious reasons), so I used a folded towel to teach Trevor about capillary action (because everything is a teachable moment when you're a former teacher...). He loved watching the colors race up the towel and was amazed when I opened up the paper towel to reveal the beautiful pattern.

Trevor could not wait to try. The first step is to fold the paper towel. We experimented with a variety of folds which each gave different results, none better or worse than the other. The next step is to dip each corner or area of the folded paper towel into different dyes.  

Here's how that one looked when he finished dipping.

You can let the paper towels dry before opening them (which keeps your fingers clean, prevents the colors from running, and makes the towels less likely to tear) or you can open then right away (which is what we did). You can see the paper towel from above opened up on Trevor's right in the picture below.

Art + science = tons of fun!

You can link the dry paper towels together to form a colorful banner, add contact paper to make placemats, or use them as a unique alternative to gift wrap. Lots of creative possibilities!