Watercolor Easter Eggs {Using Markers!}

In today’s post: This crazy easy egg decorating idea for kids gives you beautiful watercolor Easter eggs using markers and plastic wrap! 

I don’t like dyeing eggs. Well, let me amend that statement: I don’t like dyeing eggs with kids. It’s messy (cups full of DYE? whose idea was that?!?) and it’s actually kind of boring (dunk egg. wait. remove egg. dunk another. wait some more.). Instead of dye, this year we made gorgeous watercolor eggs using markers and plastic wrap! You can mimic the look of painted eggs without the mess.

Watercolor Easter Eggs

Sounds a little weird, right? Yes, you can color eggs with markers and plastic wrap! It’s fun because you get to play with color mixing and it’s easy enough for very young children. You end up with a beautiful pastel watercolor effect without using paint!

Supplies

This is what you’ll need to make watercolor Easter eggs using markers:

• Crayola Markers: the classic markers work better than washable ones, generic markers also work
• Plastic Wrap
• Small bowl of Water
• Napkins or paper towels for cleanup
• Dyeable Craft Eggs

How to Make Watercolor Eggs

Scribble on Plastic Wrap

Pull off a piece of plastic wrap that’s 4-5 inches tall. Scribble a few different colors in splotches or stripes on the plastic wrap. Be sure to use colors that will blend well, like pink/purple/blue, or red/orange/yellow, etc. Avoid colors that will mix to make brown, like green and red.

Transfer Color to the Egg

Next, dunk your craft egg in water to get it wet, then place it on the plastic wrap. Grab the edges of the plastic wrap and pull it up and around the egg. The wet surface of the egg turns the marker ink into wet paint. Smoosh the plastic a bit to get the color over the entire egg. Then leave the plastic wrap around the egg and set it aside for a few minutes while you repeat the process with more eggs and more colors.

Dry the Egg

Place a paper towel down to catch drips. After the eggs have been inside the plastic wrap for a few minutes, carefully open up the wrap to see the pretty design. I like to let the eggs dry for a few minutes on the plastic wrap, then transfer them to a paper towel to finish drying.

Tips + Tricks

You can experiment with different color combinations to get different effects on your eggs. Just remember the colors are going to mix, so stick to colors that will look good together, like pink-purple-blue, or red-orange-yellow. Just two colors together works nicely, as well. I found that the only color that did not transfer well to the eggs was yellow on it’s own – it ended up very faint – but yellow works well when combined with other colors (you can see a little yellow on the pink egg below).

Clean Up

This technique is much tidier than using cups of dye, but you will still want to have paper towels or wipes handy because you’ll end up with some drops of “paint” on the plastic wrap that can stain fingers if you touch them or drip onto the table. Make sure to have a paper towel under the eggs as you unwrap them.