The tradition of learning how to decorate easter eggs dates back to the Middle Ages of Europe. Early Easter egg decorating consisted of dye, gold leaf and paint. Modern Easter egg decorating includes fancy embellishments such as faux jewels, stencils, tissue paper, fabric, braided trims as well as more common methods using stickers, crayon and markers. All of these methods require hard-boiled eggs to get started.

Painted Eggs: Gather masking tape and various colors of acrylic paint. With ½-inch pieces of tape, completely cover the egg, overlapping and smoothing the pieces down. Load the paintbrush with the color of your choice, and paint the taped egg. Set it aside to dry thoroughly. When it’s finished, the egg will have a bumpy yet colorful texture and will look like it’s been made of papier mache.

Banded Eggs: Purchase an Easter crafts kit with egg dye in it, and use simple rubber bands to turn plain old colored eggs into amazing works of art. Wrap 12 rubber bands tightly around an egg, and then dip it in the dye. Remove a few rubber bands, and dip it in a different color. Remove a few more for decorating eggs in a third color. Take off all the rubber bands, and let the egg dry completely. The result is multi-colored banded Easter eggs that are unique in design and color.

Dripped Eggs: Use rubber cement to drizzle shapes and designs onto the egg shell. Let the rubber cement dry completely. Next, soak the egg in a cup of dye until the desired shade is achieved. Let the decorated eggs dry thoroughly, and then gently rub the rubber cement off with your fingers. The result is a squiggly design that stands out in sharp contrast to the dye.

Sponge Eggs: Cut small shapes (about ¼ to ½ inch wide) from regular kitchen sponges. Try diamonds, flowers, hearts, zigzags and circles for starters. Dip the edge of the sponge in the paint, and color Easter eggs with any pattern you choose. Don’t forget to wash out the sponge before mixing colors to keep the hues from getting muddy.