Painted Egg Ornaments - a tutorial

The quick answer, for those of you who asked, is that I draw the designs with pencil, and then paint them on. In case you are wondering, here’s the low down on how I make them…
First, hollow out some eggs. If you’re unsure how to do this, check here.



I’m a little neurotic about making sure they’re clean. Usually I’ll stick one end into a dish of water, suck some water up into the egg, swish it around and then blow it out. THEN just to be sure there is no rawness going on I pop the eggs into the microwave for 5-10 seconds. Careful, they will be h-o-t when you pull them out. Now you’ve got nice, clean, hollowed out eggs, ready to paint.



Pick your base color. For this batch I’m going with a creamy butter yellow. It’s actually closer to goldenrod, but butter sounds more Easter-y. This is probably as close to a pastel as you’ll ever see me get. Paint one half of the egg and set it into the carton, wet side up, to dry. After you’ve painted half of each egg, pull out the hair dryer and speed things along. Believe me; you’ll be glad you did. Depending on the color, you’ll want 2-5 coats of paint. For the black ones, I used 2. The yellow needed 3 and the white ones took 5 coats to get a nice even finish.



Select the design you’d like on your egg. For the black ones, I referenced designs from American Crafts mini Marks Elegant book two and mini Marks Catwalk accents. For the green ones, I used American Crafts mini Marks Accents book two (No, I don’t work for them). For this example I did a Google image search for “filigree” and found this pattern:



I want to use the part circled in red. Sooooo……. Just grab a pencil and try to mimic the design on your egg. Really, don’t worry about getting it exact or even close, eyeball it, and don’t feel like you have to use the same orientation. Turn it over, use it sideways, whatever will make it interesting to you. Change it. Squish two parts together or completely make up your own! When you paint over it the paint lines won’t exactly match the pencil lines anyway. Besides, I think it’s the imperfections and asymmetry that make them so unique, handmade, and fabulous. If you’ve used a dark background color, use a white colored pencil or dressmakers pencil to create your design. I did think about stencils, but thanks to the durable curves of the eggshell I am not sure how to use one effectively for this. Even a sticker would pucker in places on the curved surface. It is much less time consuming and stressful in the long run to just do it freehand, and you’ll see that the brush strokes add great texture.



I’m going to use plum paint for this design. Funny how we keep the same color preferences with slight variations over time isn’t it? I’ve always loved greens. From the forest green and sunflower phase of 1993 to the soft taupe-y sage greens of 2002 to the limey greens of now. I always pick green. And purple; plum purple. And some sort of soft yellow. The lineup of the last several years has been eggplant, saffron, and sage. Now that I’m loving lime it’s changing to a slightly new variation. Anyhow, I’m using plum on saffron, if you’re wondering.

Use a fine tip paintbrush, the smallest you have. Fortunately my daughter loves to paint so I can raid her supply. It’s dwindling rapidly and I can’t help but think I’m the one losing the brushes. Carefully paint over the lines you drew. Go slowly and don’t fret if you goof a little. I’ve gone back and touched up with the base color afterward on almost every single egg. After the paint dries completely take a gentle eraser and carefully erase the leftover pencil lines (on the green lotus blossom I left the lines there because I liked how they looked with the green and white). For a dressmaker’s pencil, I wash the lines off very carefully in the sink. Touch up if needed and let dry completely.



Carefully hold the egg with a toothpick in the top opening. Spray a thin layer of clear coat over the egg. This will make it a little stronger, but trust me, dropping them on the kitchen floor is not advisable.



Poke the toothpick into the egg carton to make a “stand” for them to dry. I did try putting the carton into a warm oven to speed up drying but it got sticky instead (so don’t do that).The clear coat really makes a difference. I’ve not liked any of the batches I’ve done so far until they were coated with the clear spray. Now I pick them up and think they look like something I’d find at Pier 1, $9.99 for a set of 3. They just seem more finished this way.



I like to add a little som’n to the top where the ribbon goes. Since my only rule for this project was NO SHOPPING, I dug through my stuff and found beads and wire for the tops. I use bead pins with loop ends and some sort of rondelle and/or bead combination on the top. Glue the bead and wire to the egg using good old tacky glue. Let it dry completely.


To make it stronger, I add a coat of clear nail polish over the beads where they attach to the egg. Just use the point of a toothpick if you need to unclog the little wire hole. That’s it! We be getting’ a little color on this here tree! Next year I’m going to snag some branches from my Grandma’s apple tree and do this… won’t the eggs look charming with the fresh blossoms? I can’t wait! If you want a more perfect and uniform look, there’s always Martha’s silhouette eggs using craft punches.