What Else Can You Do With Easter Egg Dye?

 Our tradition is, as in many families, to dye eggs for Easter and decorate them. This year was no different. My 3-year-old and 5-year-old were very excited. At the end, it ended up being a 2 day project.

What you would need:

• cups with prepared dye left over from dying Easter eggs
• popsickle stick or a straw
• plastic shopping bag
• glue stick
• card stock

Day 1 – Dying

We had a monster egg decorating kit. We put each of the 6 eggs in the containers with different water color. After they were done and dry, kids decorated them with orange hair, pipe cleaners and stickers, By the time I took this picture, two of them either fell on the floor or got smashed on the table so only 4 are shown:

I thought it was wasteful to just dump the dye only after dying 1 egg in each color. I started thinking what else we could dye. Hmm.. how about paper towels and cotton balls? So that's what we did.

Paper Towel - I ripped paper towel into narrow, long pieces. Kids dipped one end in whatever color they wanted while holding to the other end. Some strips, we dipped one end in one color and the other end in a different color so we could see how the colors mix in the middle. I think I forgot to mention, this can get a little messy...

After each strip was done (no need to squeeze access water), we lined them on a plastic shopping bag and left them overnight to dry.

For couple of strips, instead of dipping, we took a popsickle stick (you could use a straw, too) and dipped that instead in the dye. Then we dripped the dye on the towel which gave it a more colorful look:

Cotton Balls – These were a little bit more messy. We did similar thing as with paper towels where we dip them in the dyes. However, it was necessary to squeeze out some of the water unless you plan to wait forever (in kids terms) for them to dry. It also helps if you stretch them out some so they can dry better. Couple of our cotton balls that I did not stretch too well were still wet the next day.

DAY 2 – Collage

The next day, when paper towel and cotton balls were dry, we ripped the paper towel into small pieces.

Each child got a piece of paper (card stock works better since it's thicker) and a glue stick and they they started gluing. It's better if glue goes on paper (not the paper towel or cotton balls) or it can get very messy (paint dissolves and cotton sticks to the glue). I told them to create whatever picture they want. 

My son created a beach, ocean and sky with the sun – he's excited about our upcoming vacation in Bermuda! Originally, the sun was the Bermuda island, but since it ended up between clouds, he decided it's a sun instead ;).

My daughter just had fun using the glue and making nothing in particular (on both sides of paper :)).

And that's my creation using leftovers kids didn't use :)

One other thing that's so great about this project for mom or dad... It takes a while to glue small pieces of paper towel and cotton balls, so it could give you some extra time to get those dishes done :)

If you decide to do this project, I would LOVE to see the pictures of the finished projects.  You can share them on my Facebook page.  Let me know how it worked for you and your kids.