Dyeing Easter Eggs - Faux!

Decorated plastic Easter eggs

Is is just me or does this year seem to be zooming by? Well, on second thought, this winter wreaked havoc all over the country and I think I’m having selective amnesia about that! But winter weather aside, I really am amazed that Easter is just a few weeks away. Preparation for Easter is pretty minimal in my home. We attend a very laid back church so no brand spanking new attire is needed. The one thing that we do on an annual basis is color Easter eggs. As a child this is something I enjoyed doing and I love sharing this particular tradition with my child. The only downside about decorating Easter eggs is the eggs! After Easter we have at least a dozen eggs that inevitably don’t get eaten. And yes, I guess I could make egg salad but quite frankly it never occurred to me. That is why I was ecstatic when I visited Walmart in February and there were plastic decorating eggs! It was still very early so I left the eggs on the shelf but when I was given the option of doing an Easter craft as part of the Walmart moms program, I immediately said yes!

These plastic decorating eggs are the coolest thing ever. No fuss with boiling eggs, no breaking eggs that can spoil and most importantly no wasting of food! I purchased two dozen plastic decorating eggs and two coloring kits so that we could do the decorating over my son’s Spring break.  Today was the big day. My son and nephew were so excited. I too was excited to try out the kits because they were not classic egg dyeing kits. 

WIth these we were able to hand paint our eggs. Because we painted our eggs, I cannot speak to the efficacy of tradition dye on the imitation eggs. I can say that overall we were pleased with the results, the paint dried fairly quickly and my son and my nephew were able to paint designs that they were happy with.

I was most pleased with Dudley's Speckling kit because it behaved exactly as expected. Stippling appeared when we used the sponge, I just had to remind my son not to use too much of the paint or the stippling would not be apparent. I was disappointed with the candy apple kit on these eggs because even after drying the glossy enamel appearance did not happen. As purely a painting kit it was fine but I was expecting gloss.

From a practical and pricing point ($1.99/dz) of view, I really like these eggs. I can use them year after year for Easter egg hunts and even make new ones. I think this is a great idea, especially for families with small households, egg allergies or people who simply don’t want to make tons of boiled eggs that ultimately will be wasted. I highly recommend buying these eggs and using them for Easter!