Hello everyone! I’m very excited to share my Easter eggs dyed in all shades of blue. I can’t wait for you to follow my super quick, easy and (relatively) mess-free technique that will give you adorable little eggs in the coolest color of the season ~who doesn’t love blue right now?~ in just a few minutes. I have to warn you though – dying these eggs is highly addictive!

All I needed was:

Simply enclose an egg into a carbon paper sheet and rub it gently.

Depending on how long you rub the egg with the carbon paper and how much pressure you apply, the egg becomes a different shade of blue.

In just a couple of minutes, I had half a dozen eggs dyed in various shades of blue.

This was so easy that I started experimenting with patterns.

With scissors or a paper punch, cut shapes of any type of adhesive paper (tape, duct tape, contact paper, and/or stickers) to create patterns on your eggs.

Here are a few ideas but as you start making them, you’ll surely come up with your own.

1. Half dyed eggs: apply tape either vertically or horizontally on one half of the egg, rub with the carbon paper on the other half and remove the tape.

2. Eggs with patterns: Apply strips of adhesive paper (here contact paper) to create a pattern.

Rub the entire egg with carbon paper and remove the adhesive strips to reveal the pattern.

And more patterns with stripes:

3) Using hole reinforcement labels:

4) And with alphabet letters: A monogrammed egg can serve as a place card (on an egg cup) on the Easter table with your guests’ initials. It also makes a cute little Easter gift for a friend.

Making them is so fun and easy that you’ll have two dozens ready in no time. The only downside is a little ink on your hands – but this can easily be washed away with soap.

With a tassel: This is a little more complicated but I have step-by-step instructions for you and once you get the hang of it, it will take only a few minutes to get one ready. You’ll need to use hollowed eggs  (I now use this egg blower, but in the past, I used this technique).

Cut a length of embroidery floss about 24 inches long (about 60 cm), fold in two and tie a triple knot to create a loop as such:

Thread the floss into a long, heavy needle with large eye through the two open ends.

Pass the needle through the egg pulling alternatively both ends of the floss (loop and open ends) until the two floss ends come out through the other side of the egg, like shown in the picture below. Then remove the needle and set the egg aside.

Wind embroidery floss 30 times around a 1½ inches (4 cm) tall piece of cardboard. This will be your tassel.

Remove the winded floss from the cardboard,

Pass one open end strand (from the egg) through the winded loop, and then tie three knots (to secure the tassel) using the second strand.  Make the knot right underneath the egg so that it is hidden.

Cut the winded floss loop to give the floss a tassel shape. Trim tassel ends.

Cut a 10-inch length of floss (about 25 cm) and wrap it around the neck of the tassel as such.  Tie a triple knot to secure. Trim the ends of the tassel once more, if necessary.

You can hang the eggs on an Easter tree or branches through the loops.

a couple of notes:

* These cute blue eggs dyed with carbon paper are purely decorative and not for consumption!

* For this project, you can use hard boiled eggs, however if you want to add the tassels you will need hollowed eggs. I use this egg blower which makes the process quick and easy, but if you don’t have one find my “how to blow out an egg” tutorial, here. 

* Carbon paper is coated with dry ink, so you might need to wear protective gloves  –  if you are making them with patterns you will need to hold the eggs with clean hands/gloves every time to avoid “contaminating” the white parts of the patterns.

* I decided not to use a varnish as a protective finish as I wanted to keep this project simple and quick, but you can do so. 

* The carbon paper I used is:  Pelikan 205 handfilm in blue.

* I showed them to my mom who lives in Greece via skype and she made them too; she used a different brand of carbon paper and they also turned out great.

* Carbon paper comes also in red and black. Maybe they will also turn out nice (?!)

* Where to buy carbon paper: In most parts of the world, I’m sure that you can find carbon paper in any office supplies store. In the US you can order it online (Amazon & other stores) and I found a supplier on e-bay who sells them by the sheet. You shouldn’t have to pay a lot for carbon paper.  One sheet goes a long way ~ I used only 3 sheets to dye 24 eggs.  I got my carbon paper from Greece many years ago (I use it for embroidery) and I still have a few sheets ~ if you have trouble finding carbon paper, I would be happy to send a couple of sheets to the first five of you who email me!

Have a wonderful Easter!