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What you'll need:

• Sunny Queen eggs
• vinegar
• olive oil
• 1 long needle
• 3-4 mixing bowls
• food colouring
• candle and matches

1. Blowing

Wash your Sunny Queen egg, after drying it, hold it in your hand and taking a long needle, gently pierce a small hole in the top of the egg, then follow suit by piercing a larger hole in the bottom - the top hole should be no larger than 2mm in diameter while the bottom whole can be slightly bigger.

Take your needle and poke it into the egg, swishing it around for about a minute - this is to break up the yolk.

Take the egg and place your mouth over one end of the egg and blow the contents into a bowl. You can also use an egg blower (available from craft stores).

Rinse the empty shell and allow to dry on a paper towel.

2. Decorating

To decorate your eggs, prepare a range of colours in mixing bowls by adding warm water, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar and between 10 and 20 drops of food colouring (depending what colour you want).

Place the eggs in the dye and leave for a few minutes, remove and place on a paper towel to dry. To add a dual colour effect use a candle to drip wax over the egg in a pattern, then drop the egg into another colour for a few minutes. Remove the egg, dry and peel off the wax.

Alternatively you can try for a pretty swirling effect by adding a tablespoon of olive oil to the second colour instead of vinegar. Gently holding the egg, place it in the mixture and roll around once to pick up the oil streaks, pat the excess liquid with paper towel and allow to dry.

Decorated eggs should be left overnight to dry.

*Coloured eggs can be used to create a beautiful centrepiece for your dining table or placed in your children's egg baskets on Easter Sunday for that special touch.

Check out these great ideas below using either the egg cartons or the eggs themselves, to make your own egg animals!

Bat

Materials: Egg carton, googly eyes or a felt tip pen, string

Instructions:

• Separate 3 cups from an egg carton
• Cut out part of the bottoms of the 2 outside cups to resemble bat wings
• Add eyes a mouth and decorate
• Have an adult make a small hole in the top of the middle cup (the bat's head) and then thread some string through the hole and hang

Caterpillar

Materials: Egg carton, pipe cleaners, googly eyes / paint or felt pens

Instructions:

• Separate 4,5 or 6 cups from an egg carton
• Have an adult make 2 small holes using some scissors at one end of the carton for the antennae.
• Insert pipe cleaners for the antennae
• Add eyes, a mouth and decorate with paints or colouring in pencils!

Ladybug

Materials: Egg carton, pipe cleaners, pipe cleaners, googly eyes / red, black and white paint or felt pens

Instructions:

• Separate one cup from an egg carton
• Have some red and black paint on hand or use some felt pens and colour in the egg carton cup red. Colour in the head black and then make spots on the red body when the carton is dry.
• Have an adult use some scissors to make small holes (3 on each side) at the base of the cup for the legs
• Make 2 small holes at the top of the carton for where the head and antennae will be
• Insert a black pipe cleaner into each side hole and pull out the other side for the legs
• Use half a pipe cleaner for the antennae
• Glue on 'googly' eyes or paint on white eyes to finish your ladybug!

Spider

Materials: Egg carton, pipe cleaners, paint or felt pens

Instructions:

• Separate one cup from an egg carton
• Have an adult use some scissors to make 8 small holes (4 on each side) at the base of the cup.
• Insert a pipe cleaner into each of the holes for the legs
• Draw a face and decorate the body however you like!

Owl

Materials: Egg, paint or felt pens, paper or thin cardboard, 2 small stones

Instructions:

• Get a large Sunny Queen egg and paint or colour it in with a black or brown felt pen
• Cut out a piece of thick orange paper in a triangle shape and glue on a beak
• Then use 2 small stones from your garden for feet

Pig

Materials: Egg, paint or felt pens, miniature marshmallows, pipe cleaners, felt pens

Instructions:

• Dye the egg pink (see the 'coloured eggs' section of the site) or else paint your egg pink.
• Glue on miniature marshmallows for 4 legs and a snout
• Curl up a pipe cleaner and stick it on the end for the pig's tail
• Draw eyes on with a felt pen

Bird

Materials: Egg, paint or felt pens, paper or thin cardboard

Instructions:

• Dye or paint egg blue
• Get some different coloured paper and cut out a triangle and wings and glue on
• Cut out some thin cardboard for the feet!

People

Materials: Egg, whatever you have lying around the house!

Suggestions:

• You can create your own family of egg men and women just by gathering whatever materials you can get your hands on!
• Try using paints or felt pens to draw faces or entire bodies on your egg
• Cotton wool can be used as hair and cotton tips for arms!
• Paper and Foil can be used as hats and even try using some food like sultanas or nuts to stick on feet or a nose!
• You can create your own family of characters simply by using your imagination!

Materials: Egg carton, thin cardboard, straws, glue

Instructions:

• Cut out a piece of cardboard into a circle shape (you can use whatever colour card you like!)
• Separate one of the cups from your egg carton and glue it on top of the circle
• Stick the circle and cup on top of your straw
• Then cut out leaf shapes to stick to the straw
• Paint and decorate in whatever colours you like!

Materials: Egg carton, string, birdseed

Instructions:

• Remove the lid of the egg carton so you just have the egg cups for your birdseed
• Poke holes in the 4 corners of the carton and attach a string to each. Then gather the strings together at the centre and make a knot
• Fill the carton sections with birdseed
• Hang the feeder outside!

 

Materials: Egg carton, scissors, string, small bells, glue, glitter, paint

Instructions:

1. Cut egg carton into separate cups

2. With the point of the scissors poke a hole in the bottom of each.

3. Decorate each cup however you like! Make as colourful as possible – add glitter, paint, you name it

4. Cut a piece of string and tie a small bell on one end. Then tie a knot in the string about 2-3cm above the bell.
5. Thread the string through the hole in the egg cup. Pull it all the way through until the knot hits the inside of the cup. Tie another knot in the top to keep the bell in place.
6. Your bell is now ready to hang on your Christmas tree! If you want to hang it on your front door try adding a few more bells to the bottom so that it jingles every time the door opens!