Chipper Craft: Easter Egg Dyeing!

Easter is right around the corner—Happy Early Easter! For many of us, Easter is the Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion. For others, this time of Spring celebrates the Jewish holiday of Passover. However, for those who aren’t religious, Easter is followed with the tradition of coloring hard-boiled eggs and giving baskets of candy. This tradition of bunnies, eggs and candy go back to the holiday’s root purpose: procreation! Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility. Her symbols (like the egg and the bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols. After Roman Emperor Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire, Easter was changed to represent the rebirth Jesus as well as the spring season of birth and growth. Who knew!

This week, Chipper tried his paws at Easter egg dyeing. Here’s how he did it!

What you need:

Before starting the dyeing process, be sure to cover your surface with a sheet of newspaper or paper towel.

First, hard-boil some eggs. If you don’t how to hard-boil eggs, here’s how.

First, combine a teaspoon of vinegar with one cup of hot water (Chipper stuck his cup of water in the microwave) and 20 drops of your food coloring of choice. OR, go al natural by using food scraps and berries to make some natural dyes: http://ow.ly/joSNv & http://ow.ly/joSKZ

Here are a few book resources to check out if you and your little one’s decide to try natural dyeing and want to learn more about what plants make which colors:

• Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes ► http://amzn.to/100e5fa

• Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes ►http://amzn.to/X6gMPC

• More Easter fun for the kids – find a local farm tour in your area ►http://www.farmerspal.com/organic-lifestyle/events/tours/page/1/

Using tongs or a spoon, immerse your hard-boiled egg into the vinegar/water/dye mixture for around five minutes. Keep in longer for a darker hue. Carefully remove egg and set it aside to dry. Chipper put his in a cup to dry!

If you and your little one want to get creative, here are some ideas: try using electrical tape and creating a design (Chipper made a heart!), use crayon to draw a design on the egg before submerging it into the dye, or even submerging your egg into several different dyes to create a fun new color!

Let’s Go Chipper for Easter eggs!!!