Make Tie-Dye Easter Eggs with Baking Soda and Vinegar

Emily VanSchmus
·3 min read
Make Tie-Dye Easter Eggs with Baking Soda and Vinegar

We’ve all used the store-bought box kits to dye Easter eggs. You know the drill: Add color tablets to jars of vinegar, dip your hard-boiled eggs, and let them dry on a flimsy cardboard tray. This year, we’re ditching the purchased dye kit and using ingredients from the kitchen to create stunning patterned eggs instead. All you need for these DIY tie-dye eggs is baking soda, vinegar, and gel food coloring. If those materials made you picture your elementary school volcano science experiment, you’re not far off. The fizzing combination of baking soda and vinegar distributes the food coloring into a graphic tie-dye pattern.

The eggs are pretty on their own, but we also discovered a quick way to add an additional design element: Drizzle your eggs with rubber cement before dyeing them to reveal a pattern underneath the colors. This Easter egg coloring science experiment is so fun, we’ll be using it to decorate Easter eggs well past the holiday. Before you get started, keep in mind that hard-boiled eggs should only be out of the refrigerator for two hours if you're planning to eat them. And while the baking soda and vinegar-dyed eggs are perfectly safe to eat, you should skip the ones drizzled with rubber cement.

Related: Essential Easter Egg Safety Tips

Jacob Fox

How to Make Baking Soda-Dyed Eggs

Supplies Needed

  • Eggs

  • Rubber cement

  • Glass bowl

  • Baking soda

  • Water

  • Spoon

  • Muffin tin

  • Paintbrushes

  • Rubber gloves

  • Measuring spoon

  • Vinegar

Step-by-Step Directions

Follow these easy instructions to learn how to make colorful baking soda-dyed Easter eggs. You should be able to dye a dozen eggs in under an hour.

Jacob Fox

Step 1: Prepare Eggs

To prepare this Easter craft, hard boil eggs and set them aside to cool. When you're ready to dye them, open a can of rubber cement ($4, Walmart) and use the brush to drizzle glue onto the eggs. Once you're done dyeing the eggs, you'll be able to peel the rubber cement off to reveal a white pattern underneath the tie-dye.

Editor's Tip: Using rubber cement means these eggs will not be edible. If you plan to eat the eggs, skip this step and just use the baking soda and vinegar technique below.

Jacob Fox

Step 2: Create a Dye Mix

Use a spoon to mix ⅓ cup of baking soda with a tablespoon of water and add 3 drops of food coloring ($4, Walmart). Stir until the mixture turns into a paste-like consistency. Repeat this process to make as many colors of paste as you like. We used three colors on each egg (red, yellow, and blue) to get the tie-dye look we were going for.

Jacob Fox

Step 3: Brush Mix on Eggs

Once you've mixed your pastes, place one egg in each hole of a metal muffin tin. Use a foam crafts paintbrush to brush multiple colors of paste onto each egg. You'll want to wear protective rubber gloves ($5 for two pairs, Walmart) for this part. The baking soda paste will add color to each dyed egg, but you can make them even more vibrant by dropping more gel food dye onto different areas of the eggs for concentrated bursts of color.

Jacob Fox

Step 4: Add Vinegar

When each egg is coated in baking soda paste and food dye, it's time to make the magic happen. Use a dropper or measuring spoon to drop small amounts of vinegar onto each egg; the reaction between the vinegar and baking soda will bubble and creating a tie-dye look. When all the baking soda has dissolved, dip each egg in water to clean it and then peel off the rubber cement to expose the white areas. Display your finished Easter egg decorations as part of a festive spring centerpiece or use them during your Easter egg hunt!