Easter Egg Decorating: How to Make Blown Easter Egg Ornaments

I love decorating Easter eggs. It is one of my favorite things about the Easter season – besides chocolate, of course — and I always look forward to it. There are many ways that you can decorate an Easter egg and most of them start with hard boiled eggs. But what a pain!

Learn this fun, easy technique for creating egg shells + how to turn them into adorable decorated ornaments!

Hard boiled eggs are easy to work with because they don’t float (which makes them easier to dye), however they have a very short shelf life that only allows you to enjoy them for a short period of time. I prefer to make blown Easter eggs, eggs that are hollowed out so that can last indefinitely and you can enjoy your decorations – especially the more elaborate ones – year after year.

My grandfather taught me the trick of blowing out eggshells when I was very young. He grew up during the depression and I imagine it was a way to ensure that the egg didn’t go to waste just because you decorated it. He put a lot of time into his egg decorations, and I think that he liked to keep his favorites around, as well.

The technique is fairly simple, but it takes a little bit of practice.

You will need:

• A pin or fine needle
• Uncooked eggs
• A long needle with a large eye (I use a plastic one from a craft store)
• Twine or ribbon
• Anything that you would normally use to decorate eggs

Step 1:

Clean the outside of your eggs with soap and dry them thoroughly. Insert the pin into one end of the egg to make a small hole. Chip away at the hole with the pin until it is a bit larger, at least 1 millimeter in diameter. Repeat on the other side of the egg, making the hole in the base slightly larger than the hole on top.

If you try to make the hole too quickly, you can easily crack the egg. Chipping away at the initial hole does not take long and the extra minute is worth it so that you don’t waste an egg.

Step 2:

Holding the egg over a bowl, place your mouth over one of the holes you just made (the smaller hole) and blow the egg out of the shell (through the larger hole). If it is very difficult to blow out the egg, you can use the pin to make your holes a bit larger.

Rinse off the egg shells and let them dry for a bit before you decorate them.

Step 3:

Decorate your eggs. You can use markers, stickers, glitter, dye or any other medium. I primarily used stickers and markers to decorate this batch of eggs.

Step 4:

Cut a 12 to 16-inch length of twine or ribbon and thread it through the eye of a needle that is long enough to go all the way through the egg.

Pull the needle all the way through the holes you made earlier, then thread it back through, making a loop at one end of the egg shell. Adjust the loop to the desired length, then tie a knot in the loose ends at the base of the egg.

You can tie a knot at the top to ensure that the twine never slips through the egg, but it really isn’t necessary.

Step 5:

Repeat the process with all of your eggs and find a nice place to hang them! I use a stand that I bought for displaying holiday ornaments that really showcases the eggs.