It is always fun to decorate eggs at Easter time! Over the years, people have come up with many different methods, but this was the first time I saw a method that involves dying rice with food coloring and using that to speckle dye eggs. I found a video on YouTube of SurpriseFunTV using an egg dying kit called "Shake It!" It looked like fun and very easy to reproduce so I decided to try it out myself and it worked really well.

Take a look and see what you think for yourself.

Step 1: Supplies

You are going to need to hard boil however many eggs you want to use for this project ahead of time and then let them cool.

Supplies:

Hard Boiled Eggs
White Rice (I think I only used about 1 cup total)
Food Coloring
Plastic Gloves
Vinegar - I didn't use this, but you can drop in some vinegar with the food coloring to help the color stay, I found the color stayed fine, but if the eggs get wet, it can cause the color to bleed.

For Dying

You can use either sandwich bags or plastic cups to decorate the eggs with. I tried both ways and each method has its pros and cons.

Step 2: Tips and Measurements

Okay, before we get started here is what you need to know.

I used only about 1/8 - 1/4 cup of rice in the bags and in the plastic cups. If you use more than that you may need more food coloring than I used.

For the initial dying, I dropped in 10 - 15 drops of food coloring. I think closer to 10 is better as you should get a better speckled look. Drip in a little vinegar at this time if you are going to use it but don't let the rice get too watery.

Once you use the rice, the color is going to come off. I found I could add about 5 more drops of food coloring in between eggs and it would work perfectly. (As you can see, I only did a few eggs so I think this is accurate but if you are worried, put your egg in the bag (or cup) see how well it covers and if it isn't very good, take the egg out and put a few more drops in the rice, mix it up, and try putting the egg in again.)

Always add dye to the rice when the egg is NOT in it. You don't want to get the dye right on the egg.

Remember to put the eggs in the fridge when you are done (unless you don't want to, then do what you want).

I thought I would be covered in dye after doing this but I wasn't. The only time I really got dye on me was when I brushed against the bag or the cup when they had dye on them. I didn't really get any dye on me when I touched the eggs, but plastic gloves are nice if you have them. (Also, if you touch the eggs with wet hands, the dye could come off, try to only touch them with dry hands.)

Be careful of using the gloves as you can transfer dye onto the eggs from them. I accidentally got some green on my yellow egg because of this. If you use cheap gloves (like the ones I linked too) I would suggest designating one glove for each dye color to avoid cross coloring.

Step 3: Sandwich Bag Method

For this method, you want to put rice in your bag, add in the food coloring & vinegar, and mix it all up before adding the egg in. Don't let your rice get watery, you just want it dyed.

Pro:

I like this method because it was easy to shake the egg in the bag (and pretty fun).

Con:

It is a lot easier to smudge the egg with this method. You have to make sure you don't touch the egg through the bag or you will smear dye on the egg so you will get big blocks of color on the egg as opposed to speckles.

Step 4: Cup + Cling Wrap Method

Put rice in your cup, add food coloring & vinegar, and shake up the rice with the food coloring (hold the cling wrap over the opening of the cup). Put egg in and shake!

Pro:

This method usually guarantees a very nice speckled look as opposed to the zip lock bag which can result in smudges.

Con:

I didn't like this method as much as it was harder to hold on to the cling wrap, but this can be easily fixed if you tape or use a rubber binder to hold the cling wrap onto the cup.

You can also slip a zip lock back over the cup and that will be pretty easy to hold in place.

Step 5: Rainbow Egg!

I couldn't dye eggs without trying to make a rainbow egg. For this, make sure you start with the lightest color and work up to the darkest or you might get dye all over the yellow rice.

This can also work well with just two colors.

I would say to shake the egg for less time in the rice and/or use less food coloring when you are going to use more than one color. You want to make sure you don't cover up the other colors.

Step 6: Enjoy Your Eggs!

I only did 6 eggs as I just live with my husband and really don't need more than that in my house, but this will work with any amount, you'll just have to add more dye and in the end it really isn't that much used.

Step 7: What to Do With the Leftover Rice...

...I'm not sure! Have any ideas? I only ended up using about 1 cup of rice, but it would be fun to do something with it instead of just throwing it away. So far my ideas are: cook it up and see what happens, or use in a cup for storing pencils in.

Thoughts?

(I turned my red rice into purple rice to make that purple egg, that is why you don't see any red rice in there.)