Use Your Leftover Egg Dye (or Dyed Eggs) to Make these Neat Rainy Day Crafts!

Are you and the kids feeling cooped up with all this rainy weather we're having today?  Try these two crafts to help chase away those rainy day blues with a fun and creative mosaic!  Plus, these projects are the perfect way to use up any extra egg dye you might have around! (If you don't have egg dye already, this is a great time to stock up on it to save for rainy day projects like this. Most stores have dye on major discount right now!)

Spring Cards
(courtesy of http://quirkymomma.com/)

Materials

• Water
• Egg Dye
• Marker
• Construction Paper or Cardstock
  
• Newspaper
• White paper
• One or more of the following:
• A variety of paintbrushes
• Old toothbrushes
• Drinking Straws
• Cottonballs

1. Mix egg dye with water in paper cups.   
2. Cover a table or other flat work space with old newspapers.
3. Use the ends of the brushes to flick the watery dye on to the white paper.  Have fun and try a variety of techniques -- try lightly brushing the dye onto the paper with a paintbrush, dripping the dye onto the paper with the straws or even smearing the dye on the paper with a cotton ball.  If you want to make the dye into fingerpaint you could add a couple tablespoons of cornstarch to the dye.  Warning, this activity does stain fingers/clothes!
4. Fold the dyed paper in half to form a card.
5. Trace an outline of your hand onto the construction paper, cut out and attach to the front of the card.
6. Cut out a small circle, write Spring on it and attach to the front of the card.
7. Send to one of your loved ones as a cheery spring greeting!

Eggshell Mosaic

(courtesy of http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/)

Materials

• Eggs & egg dye or pre-dyed hard-boiled eggs
• Bowls or large cups
• Zip-top bags
•  Markers
• Construction paper
• Glue

1. (Ignore this step if you are using pre-dyed eggs) If you're making egg salad sandwiches, hard-boil the eggs, then peel off the shells. If you'd rather use the raw eggs for cooking, simply crack the eggs and wash and dry the shells. Either way, separate the shells into several piles.
    
2. (Ignore this step if you are using pre-dyed eggs. Instead, peel eggs, crush eggshells and separate into piles by color) Fill the bowls with mixed dye. Color each pile of shells, let them dry, then separate by color into zip-top bags. Crush the shells using a spoon or fist.
    
3. Draw a picture on a piece of paper and glue on the colored eggshells mosaic-style, or dispense with the drawing and simply glue on a collage.