What better way to celebrate Easter than to fill your home with flowers and your own homemade decorations? Decorating eggs for Easter is an age-old tradition, celebrating new life and the start of spring. We’ve put together our top tips to get you started.
How to colour hard-boiled eggs
Coloured hard-boiled eggs make beautiful decorations, and it’s easy to make your own using either food colouring or natural dyes. A few safety tips:
- Never use eggs with cracked shells.
- Wash eggs before working with them, and wash your hands with warm soapy water before and after.
- If you intend to eat your decorated eggs then use food dyes, refrigerate the eggs when not working with them and don’t leave them out of the fridge for longer than 2 hours.
To colour hard-boiled eggs, place 5-10 drops of food colouring in a glass or plastic container that won’t stain. Add 1 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of vinegar and mix well. Place the hard-boiled eggs in the liquid for 5 minutes, then take them out and place them on a wire rack to dry.
To create your own natural dyes, use red onion skins for lavender-purple dye, yellow onion skins for orange, and purple cabbage for blue. Place the chopped veg in a saucepan of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for between 10-30 minutes until the colour is bright enough. Strain the dye into a container, then add the hard-boiled eggs and leave until they have absorbed enough colour (this can take up to 24 hours). Once ready, take them out and place them on a rack to dry.
How to blow eggs for decorating
Hollow eggshells decorated with paint or markers make beautiful hanging decorations and are simple to make. Here’s how to blow eggs for decorating:
- Wash the raw eggs well before blowing them.
- Using a pin, make a small hole in the shell at each end of an egg.
- Use a cocktail stick to widen the hole at the base of the egg, and poke the stick into the egg to break the yolk.
- Hold the egg over a bowl with the bigger hole pointing downwards and use a bulb syringe to blow air into the top hole so that the egg yolk and white are forced out of the bottom.
- Hold the empty eggshell under hot running water to wash it out, then leave it to dry.
- Decorate your dry eggshells with marker pens or paint.
Easter flower arrangements
Your Easter table isn’t complete without some spring flowers. Try these for a beautiful display:
- Fill vases with spring flowers like ranunculus, late daffodils and tulips, and add some budding twigs for a seasonal touch.
- Sprays of cherry blossom or forsythia make an instant impact in a jug or vase.
- Make an Easter wreath – tie bundles of rosemary stems to a wreath base and add tulips, catkins and even a few decorated eggs!
Our centre is simply bursting with spring flowers and Easter goodies, so give yourself an Easter treat and visit us!