Easter Eggs To Decorate: Techniques For Engraving Them

When it comes to an Easter egg, we essentially think of a large chocolate egg that we will hide in the garden for the children. However, we must admit that the prefabricated egg is nothing original compared to Easter eggs to decorate yourself! So, we succumb to improvised calligraphy and we personalize its shells with all kinds of writing: letters, numbers, names and festive wishes. Find all our engraving techniques and fill your baskets with several personalized Easter eggs. There is something for all tastes and skills.

Easter eggs to decorate: try calligraphy or writing on shells

Before tackling calligraphy, a quick reminder of the origin of the colored eggs offered at Easter. Having several explanations, this tradition refers to Lent, or the 40-day Christian fast preceding the Easter feast, during which the consumption of eggs is prohibited. After Easter, believers eat fresh eggs and decorate those unfit for consumption.

Besides its religious side, the feast of Easter also heralds the return of spring. The festive menu, the bunny-shaped cake, the egg hunt and the decorated eggs are there. And although paschal crafts is a most exciting activity this time of year, with the youngest it very rarely promises expected results.

In our article of the day, however, there are techniques for every skill and preference. In addition to the brush, generally reserved for the most skilled, we also put on the letters in transfer or cut out from magazines, stickers and alphabet pastes to stick, black marker and nail polish, white chalk and grease pencil.

Before diving into our tutorials on the paschal theme, you can first sketch on a piece of paper the future patterns that will dress your shells. Numbers, words, sentences, wishes, names… you are spoiled for choice. Then roll up the sleeves and poke a hole at each end of the egg to empty it. To do this, use a mini-drill with a round tip. In addition, the selected techniques are quite feasible on hard-boiled eggs!

For a unique result, do not hesitate to color your masterpieces by dipping them in dye or by delicately covering them with paint before engraving them. Also remember to play on sizes and volumes by mixing chicken eggs with goose or quail eggs. Thus, you will create a harmonious whole as a festive centerpiece.

The best techniques for engraved shells

Unsurprisingly, we start with the easiest technique. For beginners, the easiest way to make your own personalized Easter eggs is to simply use stickers. You just have to choose alphabet stickers or some other type of adhesive lettering and stick them on the already cooked and well cooled eggs to make proper names, wishes, sweet words and any other brief inscriptions that come to your mind and that adapts to the party.

Express Easter egg decoration with stickers

A number from 1 to 24 will make your Easter eggs a superb Advent calendar that will make you wait until April 12, 2020. You can also opt for shells decorated with adhesive letters and paint. Once the latter dries, remove the sticker and admire the results!

Thanks to these lettering to stick, you can also achieve a "double exposure" effect like the example proposed above. To do this, paste the sticker on the shell and immerse the egg in the lightest colored paint. After setting, remove the sticker, move it a few millimeters and bathe the egg in the color a little darker. Keep in mind, however, that this effect only works with simple colors which, when mixed together, result in a compound undertone.

Easter eggs personalized with marker

Besides stickers, using a fine-tipped permanent marker and writing directly on the shells is another original and relatively easy engraving technique. You can use your own writing style, as long as it looks good enough, or search for an original font online. Regarding the preparation of the eggs, you can either cook them without tinting them, for a rather classy minimalist rendering, or dress them in different bright colors.

Decorating tip: to give relief to your Easter eggs to decorate, swap the black marker for a nail varnish or a golden or silver acrylic paint. The eggs obtained, you can transform into pretty festive place cards or plate gifts for the guests. And although the turquoise-gold duo makes a great decor idea, don't hesitate to imagine your own colorful combination.

Easter eggs to decorate with wax writing

In Eastern Europe there is the tradition of Pisanki eggs where hot wax patterns are drawn directly on the eggshell using a brush or other sharp tool. Once the wax is cold, the egg should be immersed in a paint bath. After the color, it is necessary to remove the wax in order to reveal the bare shell at the level of the patterns.

Creative and customizable at will, this ancient technique of decorating Easter eggs is based on the principle of negative space and requires a lot of time and patience. The most experienced do-it-yourselfers multiply the layers of wax and different stains to obtain complex and colorful patterns.

Eggs painted and engraved with golden varnish

Remove the paint and instead opt for a liquid chalk marker

Improvised calligraphy made with stickers and acrylic spray paint

Transfer of words and sentences, another decorative technique to try

Egg engraved with a proper name as a place card and plate gift

Shell engraved as a placeholder

Glamorous and personalized Easter egg with a simple letter

Shells engraved with liquid chalk as a paschal centerpiece