I was wondering that too! My DS is 14 and we have decorated eggs every year since he was 2. I am thinking of using magic markers and stencils this year. I refuse to buy store bought for Easter!
Maybe someone will share a great decorating idea for us.
I hope so. I get the Family fun magazine and they had a section in there on alternatives to dyeing and one of them is to use old ties. CUt the tie up and wrap the egg into the widest part of the tie then secure ends with rubberbands then boil it like u would do to make hard boiled eggs and the image from the tie will transfer to the egg.
The colors do not come out as bright. Basically you are mixing a tan (the egg) with whatever color you are using. Green will turn olive, orange is more of a copper color etc. If you keep that in mind, you can get nice effects.
I decorate eggs using all different ways.
I use magic marker, ukrainian dye method (batik), cut small pictures out and glue them on, use yarn, ribbon, watercolors, pen and ink, model paint, natural dyes, wrap leaf around egg with nylon and dye it in dye bath, food coloring, store bought egg colors, and more that I cannot think of at the moment.
One year we wrapped rubber bands around the eggs and died them. My stepson had lots of fun with that one.
BTW, we blow out the eggs and decorate them. The methods I mentioned are not always ok for hardboiled eggs, if you plan on eating them. I am about to blow out a few more eggs and will spend hours decorating just one and have a blast. I'm thinking of inviting my daughter and her new boyfriend over for an egg decorating party.
My Mom is THE ultimate Easter egg dying freak. Each year she ransacks my fridge to collect the tiny pullet eggs, guinea eggs, bantam eggs, and she's trying to get my turkey eggs now. I told her she could dye anything she wanted BUT the turkey and peacocks. THe darker the egg the darker the dye turns out, but it makes for some REALLY cool eggs. Blue will be navy, green will be forest, yellow will be mustard and so on. We've been coloring our eggs for 8 years now and we always come out with some too pretty to eat. I too am going to try and blow out some so my 3 year old can glitter them and all. Martha Stewart's whole show one day this week was on dying HER fresh eggs. Of course she had her colored egg layers on there.