Easter is such a joyous time – it’s a tale of Redemption, a shared family experience, and a fun-filled weekend where you get to enjoy time together. And the preparations for it can be just as fun! Such as painting Easter eggs!

Last week, we showed you how to make the map for the hunt. This week, it’s about uncovering the treasure the map leads to.

Note though, we’ll be taking you through Easter eggs used for decoration purposes only, such as ornating your home over the Easter period. Because we’ll be using non-edible paints, there is the possibility of them seeping through the shell.

Boiling the eggs.

Firstly, it’s really important that you hard-boil the eggs. And you want to do this within the week of Easter. So, you should probably do this exercise on the Wednesday before Good Friday. That’s because hard-boiled eggs only ‘last’ for a week. Even though you won’t be eating them, you don’t want any other unpleasantness either.

The simplest way to boil eggs is to bring an inch and a half high amount of water in a pot to a boil, then turn off the heat, and place the eggs in there for fifteen minutes. Once done, remove them (careful, it’ll still be hot!) and place under cold running water for 10 minutes.

Then you can refrigerate them for an hour, and they should be ready to paint.

Get the paints.

Now, of course you know the best place to find arts & crafts paints! But we’ll spell it out for you – P. N. A! That’s because, of course, our great selection of different high-quality paints will make for splendid possibilities for your eggs.

There is a specific type of paint you should use. Acrylics make the best paints for painting eggs, so that’s what we’re going to use. Oils are simply impractical because of their long drying times and watercolours won’t look as good on the shell’s surface.

Painting Easter eggs.

You’ll want to do this in two stages. You focus on only one side of the egg at a time. Feel free to let your imagination go wild and paint any design you want. An easy option is to do the overall egg in one particular colour, then to paint little blotches in a different one to create a mottled look.

In any case, wait until the first side is dry before you move onto the next side. This is to avoid smearing the paint.

Using an egg carton, rest the egg with its still wet paint. It should take about fifteen minutes to dry. You can use this time to paint the side of a different egg. You should be able to do another two eggs by the time the first egg is ready.

Now that the first is dry on its one half, you can paint the other side, either in the same colour as the original side, or in a new colour altogether. You should mix these styles with your eggs to create more variety.

Some nice ideas for egg designs are religious symbols or animal shapes.

And there you have it! Nothing could be easier and now you have some pretty decorations for the holidays.

Happy Easter!