45 of Our All-Time Best Ideas for Decorating Easter Eggs

There's more than one way to decorate an Easter egg. Over the past 30 years, our editors have made some of the most beautiful Easter eggs you’ve seen yet: painted in colors, découpaged with patterned fabric, and transformed to look like kid-friendly spring creatures.

Any decorated dozen starts with the perfectly chosen egg. There are lots of varieties: duck, quail, turkey, ostrich, and, of course, the household chicken—and they all come in various sizes. To make decorated eggs last beyond the season, blow them out first. Once cleaned, they are ready to be decorated.

Our best ideas find inspiration in the spring season itself: floppy-eared Easter bunnies, flowers in bloom, chicks, and pastel colors. If you're looking to dye Easter eggs, there are several methods to try beyond a standard one-color dip. Use wax, rubber bands, ribbon, and stencils to customize masked designs. And if vivid hues are what you're after, try reusing common kitchen scraps to create natural dyes. Some of the most sophisticated Easter eggs don't require any form of dyeing at all: From découpage to acrylic paint, you can use other craft supplies to create intricate designs that will surely impress. Our most innovative Easter egg designs call for three-dimensional features, including candy molds and polymer clay on our Jasperware-inspired eggs.

Whatever your skill level, we provide helpful resources like printable templates, videos, and color charts. To start, download and print out one of our favorites—there are bunnies, chicks, and lovely floral motifs. These are newfound inspirations that'll thrill everyone in your home. Many of them are easy enough for anyone to make—you, the kids, and everyone in your whole family. Each one is an opportunity to make your home bright and inviting on Sunday morning.

Wrapping paper is the building material for this artful centerpiece. Pick colors that echo your linens and form shreds into a nest.

The beauts below may gleam like fine marble, but they're the real things, tinted and buffed to a fine shine. Long-time Living reader Aine Hudson of Sacramento, California, shared her clever, kindergarten‐simple method with us: Hard-cook a carton of eggs; when they're cool, dry them well with a soft cloth. Scribble swirls all over the shells with crayons to emulate veining. Then dye your dozen per the package instructions, and after they dry, gently "polish" them with a cotton cloth. The pigment won't stick to the crayon wax, hence the trompe l'oeil finish. Color us inspired.

Shop Now: Ooly Beeswax Crayons, $13 for 24, crateandbarrel.com.

We love chicken eggs, of course, but these whoppers, which can hold as many goodies as a whole basket, are sure to crack some big smiles. To make them, brush eight-inch-long papier-mâché shells with two coats of pastel craft paint. Then dilute a bit of a contrasting color with water, and flick it on with a small paintbrush for speckles. Let dry, fill with paper shreds and treats, and incubate till Easter morning.

Shop Now: The Little Crafty Bugs Company Papier-Mâché Eggs, 20.5 cm, $7.50 each, littlecraftybugs.co.uk. Martha Stewart Family-Friendly Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Craft Paint, $2.50 each for 2 oz., michaels.com. Celebrate It Jumbo Paper Shred, in Pink, $5 for 4 oz., michaels.com. D. Blümchen & Company Pastel Hardwood Eggs (inside shells), $6 for 3, blumchen.com. Happy Farm Wind-up Chick, $7.50 for a 3-piece set (includes duck and bunny), fishpond.co.nz. Nuts.com Speckled Robin Malted-Milk Balls, $10 for 1 lb., nuts.com.

You can use temporary tattoos and nail decals to easily achieve the delicate look of this Royal Easter egg—apply them to the exterior of your egg shell just as you would to yourself.

Our editors found that organic egg varieties did a better job of taking on the dye in this case, as you'll mostly focus on creating custom candy molds to later affix to your creations. For eggs that you can use year after year, you'll need to blow these out before you get started.

To evoke Liberty of London’s sweet flowerscapes, all you need is tiny rubber stamps, chalk ink, and a steady hand. Gently roll a stamp along the egg's contours; dry the area thoroughly with a hair dryer before starting another section.

Shop Now: Hero Arts mounted rubber stamp mini tub set, in Flower Garden, $12, walmart.com.

These dotty patterns are as fun to make as they are to wear. Spread acrylic paints on paper plates, dip in a foam dauber, and gently press on the punchy pattern. For a grade-A color scheme, mix metallic, pastel, and neon on multi-tone duck, quail, and chicken eggs. Acrylic and chalk paints are ideal for eggshells, because they're opaque and dry quickly on the unique texture.

Shop Now: Martha Stewart Crafts Dauber Set, $10, michaels.com.

Craft delicate eyelet-inspired beauties from inexpensive paper doilies (available in bulk online). The large duck egg gets its ruffles from overlapping cut-up scalloped strips, secured along the bottom edges with Glue Dots. To create the melted-on look of the little eggs, adhere smaller doily pieces to the shell using découpage glue.

Shop Now: Glue Dots Adhesives, $12 for 600, staples.com. Mod Podge Découpage Glue, $5, target.com.

Add florals, stripes, and swirls to your Easter eggs with this simple silk-dyeing technique.

The key to creating these beautiful spceckled eggs is to drop a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil into your dye, then rub the oily surface of your egg with edible dust for extra shimmer and shine.

Your guests will be shocked when they learn that these eggs are indeed spray-painted, which help to create a ombré sunrise effect when they're all placed together. While you can make as many as you'd like, arranging a few dozen in an Easter centerpiece could certainly serve as a show-stopping decoration.

These adorable eggs are actually very simple to make, and they're created with the help of a crafting material that the kids will love to play with—bubble wrap! Try selecting a few pastel shades to mix in a new set of your favorites.

Here's a sweet tradition to start with your family: Copy your favorite photographs of every member, découpage them onto eggs, then arranged on a tabletop "family tree."

Your kitchen is full of natural dyes. Common food items such as red cabbage, onion skins, and coffee can be used to transform plain white eggs into a rainbow of colors. Kids will especially love discovering all the different colors they can create—let them experiment using hard-boiled eggs and bowls of cold dyes.

To get the look of vintage café au lait bowls, set an egg back in its carton, spray-paint the top, and add matching dots. You can easily create polka dots by dipping a foam pouncer into a bit of white or blue craft paint and transferring it to your egg.

Reach into your bathroom's vanity cabinet for this effortless substitute to dyeing your eggs in pure vinegar (as an added bonus, this method smells great!). Little ones will love mixing all sorts of colors in the shaving cream to marbleize their eggs effortlessly.

Who said your Easter eggs have to be actual egg shells? These wooden Easter eggs are easy to customize with color—as an added bonus, you can reuse them year after year, which makes even just one set so valuable.

These eggs will last for many Easters to come seeing as they're made of wood. To make them even more unique, dye them in any color of the rainbow.

The easiest way to get this lacy look is to use sticker stencils, which are best used on natural brown eggs or larger white eggs dipped in a gray shade to create a visual pop.

Gingham, checks, stripes—like grass, they pop up everywhere in spring. To dress Easter eggs in men's shirting, découpage fabric strips onto shells and trim, angle, smooth, and adjust as you go. Don't drive yourself crazy over every bump or wrinkle—rumpled imperfection is what gives these guys their charm.

In clothing, Swiss dots usually appear on sheer tulle or cotton (picture party dresses with floating overlays). We got the same ethereal effect by dyeing eggs in soft colors and adding tactile 3-D dots with fabric puffy paint. For even dyeing, first submerge eggs in a mixture of two to three tablespoons of white vinegar and one cup of water for a minute or two, then pat dry.

Shop Now: Batik Egg Dyes, in Rose, Sunflower, and Orange, $1.50 each, bestpysanky.com. McCormick Food Color & Egg Dye, in assorted colors, $3.75 for a set of 4, target.com. Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint Mini Writers, in assorted colors, $17 for 30, michaels.com.

Looking for a last-minute Easter egg to impress your guests? All you have to do is shop your own pantry! To get the speckled look, simply mix food dye and dry foods (think beans, nuts, and popcorn kernels) in a paper cup, then add a hard-cooked egg. Gently shake and swirl the cups to create stunning speckles.

Fully stocked with washi tape? With a single roll, kids will love coming up with their own creative and fun designs. Start by lining up strips of tape on waxed paper, overlapping them slightly. (If you use extra-wide tape, one strip should do.) Next, use punches to cut out designs. If waxed paper is tearing while you are doing this, try punching out the shapes with an extra, plain sheet of paper underneath. Peel shapes off (using a pin, if necessary) and arrange on dyed eggs. Combine different patterns, and give a few eggs stripes by simply layering on the tape.

Shop Now: Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page "Cherish" Punch Set, $26, michaels.com.

Inspired by the annual flowering blossoms as seen at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during springtime, these Easter eggs with delicate cherry blossoms celebrate spring in the most beautiful way.

A simple dye bath is everyone's favorite way to decorate Easter eggs, but have you tried our tips and tricks to the perfectly dyed Easter egg? Here's one tip: Try dyeing different sizes and types of eggs for a variety of looks.

Give your eggs a speckled, cosmic look that makes them appear as if they were freshly plucked from amongst the stars. Paint eggs with two coats of black craft paint; let dry. Using a foam pouncer, dab purple and blue craft paint onto an eggshell's surface to create the look of interstellar clouds. To create the look of a swirling nebula, use the foam pouncer to dab two semi-circles of gold paint, highlighting the center with white craft paint. To get that far-off starry effect, flick the stiff bristles of your paintbrush or lightly tap to splatter paint the surface with white paint.

Shop Now: Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Craft Paint, in "Black Beetle", "Periwinkle", "Indigo" "Gold Metallic" and "Wedding Cake", $2.49 for 2 oz., michaels.com. 

Personalize your Easter eggs with this bright and colorful typography approach. Use them as place cards or as centerpieces for your Sunday dining table, as they'll look perfect alongside any Easter menu.

Temporary tattoos stick to eggs just like they would to your skin. All you need is a pretty design and a wet sponge for this simple Easter egg how-to.

This brood is all smiles, er, beaks as they pose for a family portrait to welcome their latest addition. (The photo hanging behind them was taken before the new chick hatched.)

If the earth hatched from a giant egg, as the ancient Persians believed, it might have resembled one of these in our dreamy dozen. We used a simple dyeing technique to create the intricate swirls of color. Every Easter egg made this way is one of a kind.