Natural Ways to Dye Your Easter Eggs: Onion Skins to Beet Juice

Dyeing Easter eggs is a tradition in many households as a fun way to celebrate the Easter holiday. While there are many commercial Easter egg dye kits available on the market, dyeing your Easter eggs using natural products is an even more fun way to celebrate Easter, and maybe even save a few bucks. Many natural products create great dyes for Easter eggs. Here are some suggestions for dyeing your own Easter eggs using natural dyes.

Onion Skins. Both yellow and red onion skins make a great natural dye for Easter eggs. Just place the onion skins (yellow will give you a yellowish brown color while red will give you a magenta/red color) in a large pot of boiling water. Add your Easter eggs and boil for about 45 minutes. You can add about two Tablespoons of vinegar to your water if desired. Adding vinegar will speed up the dyeing process and also give you that fond vinegar smell memory of dyeing Easter eggs as a child!

Grape Juice. Another natural dye perfect for Easter eggs is grape juice. Boil Easter eggs in grape juice for around 45 minutes to obtain a lovely pastel lavender color, perfect for Easter decorating. Again, adding the vinegar will speed up the Easter egg dyeing process and also help your eggs to maintain a deeper color.

Beet Juice. Beet juice is a natural Easter egg dye that will yield a bright pink color. Instead of boiling your Easter eggs in the natural dye of beet juice, just let your eggs sit in the beet juice overnight. Just make sure your boil your eggs before adding them to the beet juice to soak. Be careful with this one. Beet juice will really stain fabric!

Coffee or tea. Do you have some leftover coffee in the pot that's no longer good to drink, or perhaps you are a tea drinker? Save the leftovers to use as natural dyed for Easter eggs. The stronger the brew, the deeper your final Easter egg color will be. Just let the Easter eggs sit in the coffee or tea overnight to achieve a medium brown color. Flavored teas may yield different colors.