1Prepare the eggs.

You can use either hard-boiled eggs or empty intact eggshells.

• Hard-boiled eggs - let the boiled eggs cool to room temperature.
• Empty intact eggshells - follow our instructions for blowing out eggs. Make sure the empty eggshells are clean and dry.

2Put stickers or tape.

To create shapes and patterns on the eggs, you can use small stickers, masking tape or electrical tape.

a.)  Stickers - decorate the egg with small stickers. Press each sticker flat onto the surface of the egg, smoothing it down especially at the edges.

b.)  Masking tape or electrical tape - masking tape is somewhat porous and some dye will soak through. Electrical tape works better if you want to dye the eggs.

Cut the tape into pieces or specific shapes. You can even cut them into strips to create striped patterns on the egg. Stick the pieces of tape on the surface of the egg, smoothing them down especially at the edges.

3Color the eggs.

The eggs can either be dyed or painted. If you want to do painted eggs, make sure to use blown-out eggs instead of hard boiled ones.

a.)  Dye the eggs - in a bowl or cup, mix ¾ cup water, 1 tablespoon white vinegar, and about 10 drops of food coloring. Place the egg into the dye and let it sit for at least 5 minutes. The longer it stays in the dye, the deeper the color will be.

b.)  Paint the eggs - make sure you use blown-out eggs instead of hard boiled eggs. If you use boiled eggs, the eggs will not be edible once you paint the shell.

Use acrylic paint to color the egg. You can use a single color to paint the entire egg or use as many colors of paint as you like. You can also paint small details like dots, lines and small shapes.

4Let the eggs dry.

Let your dyed or painted Easter eggs dry completely.

5Remove the stickers or tape.

Once dry, carefully remove the stickers or tape from the egg. The areas that were once covered by the stickers or tape remain white, contrasting nicely with the brightly painted or dyed eggs.

Masking tape is somewhat porous and if you used them instead of electrical tape on your dyed eggs, some of the dye will seep through the tape.

Luckily, we found a work around by dipping the egg right away in a second batch of dye. See the steps below for details.

6Dip in a second batch of dye.

If you want to color the white shapes, you can dip the egg into a second color of dye. As with the first batch, mix ¾ cup water, 1 tablespoon white vinegar, and about 10 drops of food coloring. Place the egg into the dye for about 5 minutes.

7Remove the egg.

Remove the egg from the dye and let it dry.

We noticed that allowing more time between dippings (or dyeing) lets the color set better. If you immediately did a second dipping like we did, the colors from the first dipping gets considerably washed off. The original deep magenta on this egg turned into a bright pink shade. The good thing though is that the little veins or lines that seeped through the masking tape were washed off as well.