LOOK: Unusual Easter Egg Ideas

We know you’re probably all prepared for your kids’ Easter egg hunt by now. Easter egg basket: check. Stuffed Easter bunny toys: check. Plastic Easter eggs: maybe not!

Store-bought plastic eggs from the toy section is the easiest option for busy moms, but traditional dip-dyed, boiled eggs are just lovelier (and healthier) than their chocolate-stuffed counterparts. But if you’re tired of the usual food-coloring-dyed eggs, here are more unusual Easter egg ideas from Instagram. The best part—you can use these as Easter brunch centerpieces afterwards!

Tea-dyed

Popular Asian foodie-cook-mom @lazy_tyko, who is known for her beautiful and ethereal food flat-lays, dip-dyes her Easter eggs in tea, giving them a natural-looking, soft, antique patina. The blue and green eggs were hand-painted.

Emoji eggs

Actress Roma Downey adds a tongue-in-cheek touch to plain yellow eggs by painting on emoji faces. To do this at home, dip-dye your boiled eggs in yellow food coloring. When dry, paint on the faces using non-toxic poster paint. Another cute idea: make your apps-addicted grown-up friends participate in an Easter egg hunt along with the kids!

Illustrated florals

This is one of the easiest egg decorating tricks we’ve seen from @jbosler, and fun to do if you have a steady hand. Once you’ve dip-dyed your boiled eggs, have a go at it with a fine-tipped permanent pen, drawing on florals, swirls, paisleys, and other patterns.

Robins’ eggs

Create realistic robins’ eggs—complete with mottling and spotting—just like how DIY twins @judymakes created these beauties. They dip-dyed the eggs in natural purple cabbage dye to make them blue (see tip below), and then spattered them with gold paint to mimic the flecks. Nestle these eggs in an actual bird’s nest for effect.

Dyeing Easter eggs with all-natural ingredients is a good option from the usual artificial food coloring dyes, and is safe for the kiddies to handle. You can even produce natural dyes from food in your kitchen, including purple cabbage (eggs turn out blue), red onions (eggs become a soft lavender), and turmeric (eggs turn a bright yellow). To learn how to prepare these all-natural dyes, read this tutorial.

A safety tip: always use hard-boiled eggs (and not raw eggs), to prevent salmonella contamination.