Easter Bird Eggs DIY

Aren’t these Easter eggs sweet? Bird eggs are such a happy symbol of Spring as they return from their winter sojourn elsewhere. They are busily setting up their nests to lay eggs, and the colors of the eggs are so pretty! Speaking of birds, lately our yard has been taken over by robins eating worms and preparing their nests. Our lawn is an absolute mess from all their picking for worms and nest material. However, I wouldn’t have it differently because I love seeing the birds. Being an animal and nature lover, it makes sense that I also enjoy incorporating its influence around the home. So, the inspiration to create Easter bird eggs wasn’t a stretch. This project is adorable and will be a hit at your Easter event, so read on for the tutorial.

Today’s DIY borrows from my robin egg bath bombs product. No need to worry! I am not using the same ingredients to make these Easter eggs- lol! Rather, I am borrowing the technique I use, but if you’d like to see the Robin Egg Bath Bombs click here. Easter eggs have always been a family activity for us, but these days the kids are grown and in college. So as the solo egg decorator this year I decided replicate robin eggs. Before I start any project, I always spend at least a couple days running it through my mind, step by step. The reason for mental activity is that processing a project from beginning to end helps me to eliminate potential kinks ahead of time. It doesn’t prevent mishaps all together, but it does greatly diminish trial and error. When the project is shaped in my mind I begin.

A word on colors…

Thankfully, this project only required 2 rounds to perfect the technique, or we would have been eating a lot of eggs. The problem the first round was the shade of blue was not quite right. The dyes I use are gel dyes from the craft store that come in lots of great shades and far more variety than the simple grocery store 4-pack. However, the teal I had ended up a bit too bright and “fruity”, so I did another round. As a result of good color blending, I nailed it with a combination of teal, brown, and juniper green which turned out the desired shade of robin egg blue. Color blending requires a careful hand, so make sure to read the notes below for tips to ensure successful results.

On the brown eggs I didn’t use dye. This is because I felt coffee as a dye would create a more rustic look. Fortunately, the coffee worked wonderfully. However, I did use brown dye for the speckles, so they were dark enough. The egg speckles came out fine the first time, but I wanted to tweak that as well by “thickening” it up a bit. This was done to prevent too many streaks (more on streaks below). So, keep reading on to learn how to make these adorable eggs!

Some Tips for Easter Robin Egg Success

• This project is messy, so choose your location well.
• The brown dye is brutal on the hands, so I recommend short fingernails for this project to make the washing away easier.
• This project requires a lighter touch. Consequently, overdoing it on dyes or being heavy-handed with speckling the eggs will not give you good results.
• Make sure dyed eggs are completely dry before “speckling” to prevent streaks and run-offs.
• Streaks are unavoidable but are limited when you follow instructions below.
• Pictured below are the gel dyes I used for reference. Since I have not done this with liquid dyes, so use your best judgment if you are using liquid dyes.
• Take your time.

Easter Robin Eggs

Materials Needed

• Teal, brown, and juniper green gel dyes (you can use different dyes, but I’d advising pre-testing on eggs first to achieve the color you want).
• Pot of strong coffee
• Vinegar
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Boiling water

First, decide how many eggs you want brown and how many you want blue.

Second, time to color.

For robin egg blue color:

To 1/2 cup of boiling water add 1 tsp. of vinegar, a very small amount of turquoise dye (less than 1/16 tsp.), a TINY smidge of brown dye, and a TINY smidge of moss green dye. The point of the brown and green is to enhance the turquoise into a more of a sophisticated robin egg blue. It is very easy to add too much, so when I say a tiny, I mean tiny like a drop or two. Mix well and test one egg to see if right shade. If not, start over with dye or adjust it to suit. When you have the shade you want then color the eggs. I found it only took a few dips to achieve the desired depth of shade.

For brown egg color:

Pour pot of strong coffee into a bowl and add a couple tbsps. of vinegar.

Put eggs you want brown into coffee. Since dyeing with coffee takes a bit longer these eggs need to sit a bit. Consequently, the longer they sit, the browner they’ll be. You can see that I did a variety of lighter and darker. So, check the eggs every few minutes to see if they are the shade you want.

Important: after you’ve colored your eggs let them completely dry.

Now it’s time to speckle the eggs.

Speckling the Eggs:

In small bowl mix 1 tbsp. boiling water, 1/2 tsp. brown dye, and 1 tsp. vinegar until well-combined. Yes, the ratios are correct. This will give a nice dark brown color that adheres better to the egg.

First, dip your fingers in the bowl of brown dye as shown in picture above. Next, let excess liquid drain from your fingers. You do not want lots on your fingers or you will have more streaking on your eggs.

While standing over the eggs, flick your fingers hard to speckle. Flick hard a couple more times before re-dipping. This will result in smaller and more controlled speckling.

Let speckles dry before turning eggs over and speckling other side.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and created a batch of your own Easter bird eggs to share this Easter!

Enjoy your eggs!

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