This Easter, skip the pricey eggs and make Dyed Easter Egg Potatoes instead! With just two ingredients and a few minutes of prep, this crafty activity is perfect for entertaining your whole family. All you need is baby delicious white or Yukon Gold potatoes, water-based food coloring, small paint brushes, and a few other simple supplies. The full instructions are listed below.
Start by using the paint brush to spread one drop of food coloring at a time all over the potato. You can cover the entire spud with just one color or unearth your creative side and try a tie-dye look. Once your potatoes are dyed, place them on paper towels and let them air dry for 10 minutes. If you don’t want any of the dye to rub off later, finish with a light coating of hairspray and let them dry for a few more minutes.
Do note, when it comes to dyeing potatoes, gel dye never dries, so avoid using it. The Kool-Aid and traditional egg dyeing methods with dye, water, and vinegar also don’t work. However, all you need to do to achieve a tie-dye look is tightly wrap a coffee filter around the potato, secure it with a rubber band, and directly add drops of food coloring until it is fully coated.
And don’t worry about peeling the potatoes – they will just be wet and gooey. Plus, the baby potatoes are the perfect size for little hands.
So, let’s get crafting! With Dyed Easter Egg Potatoes, you can get creative, have loads of fun with your kids, and make sure the Easter celebrations don’t break the bank!
Dyed Easter Egg Potatoes
Materials
- Baby Delicious White or Yukon Gold Potatoes
- Water Based Food Coloring
- Small Paint Brushes
- Small Bowls (optional)
- Water (optional)
- Paper Towels (optional)
- Rubber Gloves (optional)
- Hairspray (optional)
Instructions
- Get a couple of small dishes for water, paper towels, and rubber gloves. Water and paper towels for cleaning the brushes, and gloves for protecting hands from the dye. This isn’t necessary, but I highly suggest it.
- Grab a potato and put one drop of dye directly on it. Use a paintbrush to spread it around. You can either cover the entire potato in one color or do multiple colors; however you prefer.Â
- Depending on the size, you may have to add one more drop of dye to the potato to color it, but one drop of dye goes a long way.Â
- Place the dyed potatoes on paper towels and let them dry for 10 minutes. If you don’t want any of the dye to rub off later on when handling them, give them a light coating of hairspray and let them dry for a few more minutes. Enjoy!
Notes
- Gel dye never dries, so I don’t suggest using it. If you do, do an extremely thin layer of dye and leave them untouched overnight to dry.Â
- We tried dyeing the potatoes with the Kool-Aid and traditional egg dyeing methods with dye, water, and vinegar in a cup. Neither worked. The potato gained some color, but it was very light, and it didn’t look good.
- We also tried wrapping a coffee filter tightly around the potato and secured the top with a rubber band. We then directly put drops of water-based food coloring on the coffee filter until it was covered in multiple colors. We let it dry for 10 minutes before unwrapping it, and it turned into a cute tie-dye potato, but it still wasn’t near as vibrant and pretty as the paintbrush method.Â
- If you use hairspray, I wouldn’t eat the potatoes. However, it keeps things from being dyed.Â
- Do not peel the potatoes; they will be wet and gooey. Quite the mess, although they turn gorgeous colors.
- The white and gold potatoes were the best for dyeing, and the baby potatoes were the perfect size for little hands.
