Hand-painted Easter Egg Tutorial

Welcome back to part two of my hand-painted Easter egg tutorial. Today I’m sharing all the details on how to prepare, paint, and finish your wooden Easter eggs. A few weeks ago, I shared part one, where I stepped you through the initial stages of the project, from finding inspiration to sketching preliminary designs. I hope you have been busy gathering ideas for painting your own Easter eggs and are ready to tackle the final steps. If you would like to review part one, you can find that post here. Several people have commented that the steps I describe in part one can be applied to any design project, not just painting wooden Easter eggs, and I couldn’t agree more. I hope you bookmark these posts so you can refer back to them whenever you need inspiration or step-by-step instructions on how to undertake a design project.

Before we dive into the tutorial, I wanted to share that the content of this post is not entirely how I imagined it initially. From reading part one, you’ll notice I had two very specific goals for this project. First, I wanted the background color scheme to mimic eggs dyed with edible dyes, and second, I envisioned a theme of Springtime in New England, with a single beautifully-painted flower on each of the eggs. You will find that I only achieved one of those goals with the final product – to have simulated the hues of natural dyes. But what happened to the flowers? And why am I sharing this tutorial if I didn’t achieve all of the goals I set out for myself? Allow me to explain.

Sometimes You Have to Pivot

I know, “pivot” is a terribly over-used word these days, but I think it accurately describes the process I went through with this project. When I wrote part one, I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring and wanted my designs to capture all the wonderful feelings that are evoked in the early days of spring. As I continued my research into the flowers I would select and began to sketch my designs, I wondered more and more why I had ever wanted to paint detailed flowers. Although I have painted a fair number of items over the years, I do not consider myself a skilled artist, so the thought of sharing painted flowers on the internet felt like I would be stepping a little too far outside of my comfort zone. Additionally, while I love to have fresh (and faux) flowers in my home, I rarely decorate with floral fabrics or motifs, opting for more muted patterns instead. I felt certain there could be a better way to capture the sense of a fresh start that spring always inspires in me that didn’t involve painting tiny detailed flowers.

I mentioned in last week’s blog post that you need to have the courage to begin whatever is on your To Do list and not let perfectionism and procrastination keep you from achieving your goals. I do think, however, that it’s equally important to pay attention to any task you find yourself dreading routinely – perhaps a delayed start is a sign that you would not be staying true to yourself if you were to undertake it. For sure that’s not always the case – there are certain things we simply must do in life, no matter how much we dread them – but it was true for me in this particular instance. By opting for a much simpler design, I was still able to exercise my painting muscles and gain more experience with the overall process, but I did so in a way that allowed me to achieve something that more accurately reflects me and what I love. I hope your creations – no matter how simple or complex they may be – are based on whatever you think is beautiful and wonderful.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Prepare the eggs:

Depending on the type of eggs you’re painting, this step may be optional. Since I was working with wooden eggs, I wanted to ensure I had a smooth surface on which to paint. The wooden eggs I have were a very good quality and pretty smooth already, but I still sanded them gently to remove any imperfections. I recommend using a fine-grained sandpaper, such as 400 grit, as it allows you to gently sand the wood and achieve a very smooth surface. Always remember to sand with the grain, never against the grain, to ensure a smooth finish. After sanding, wipe the eggs with a clean tack cloth or an old rag to remove any sawdust. I save old t-shirts and yoga pants that are past their prime and cut them into small pieces for just this purpose.

If you plan to paint the entire surface of the egg, I suggest tapping a nail into the base of each egg so you have something to hold while you paint. You could use a hammer, but if the wood is soft enough, you can easily press and twist the nail into the base of the egg. After I finished painting each egg, I held it by the nail for a few minutes so it had time to dry partially, then I carefully pressed the head of the nail into a piece of styrofoam so that the paint could dry completely. If I were to do this again, I would use a longer nail so I had something a bit larger to hold while painting, and a longer nail would likely have been easier to press into the styrofoam without fear of touching the base of the egg. My thumb and pointer finger did get a little sore after a while, but I didn’t get any rogue fingerprints on the painted eggs, and that was the main goal.

2. Prepare your paints:

For the past few years, I have been using edible ingredients to dye my real Easter eggs, and I wanted to create a similar effect for the background of my wooden eggs. I haven’t used spinach or violets to dye eggs yet, but I routinely use beets, coffee, blueberries, and turmeric, and they all produce beautifully muted (and natural-looking) colors. When painting, I normally gravitate towards acrylics, as they provide great coverage, are so forgiving if you make a mistake, and clean up easily. To achieve a more natural look, I also experimented with using watercolors.

I started painting with the watercolors, as I thought they would mimic natural dyes most closely. To work with them, I partially filled a well in my artist’s palette with water, then I dipped my saturated paint brush into a circular cake of color in my watercolor pan. Once I had a good amount of paint on the brush, I then swirled it in the water in my palette, repeating this process until I achieved the color I desired. While I loved how the watercolors ‘stained’ the wooden eggs, similar to natural dyes, I didn’t love how they accentuated the wood grain. Instead of looking like a beautifully-colored wooden egg, sadly it resembled a striped polo shirt instead. Since this was clearly not the effect I was trying to achieve, I let the paint dry for a few hours, then I used my 400-grit sandpaper to gently sand away most of the paint. I thought I might have better luck with a very watery acrylic paint – remember that acrylics are so concentrated you can dilute them up to three times – but the results were similar to the watercolors. I really had high hopes for this technique, so I gave it the ‘ole college try’ and repeated this process several more times, hoping at one point I might finally get the results I desired. I continued to sand the egg in between coats of paint, both to remove any excess paint and to smooth the surface (painting can raise the wood grains differentially, so it’s always good to sand lightly between coats of paint), and the result was a somewhat ‘mottled’ effect that you might have thought, if you squinted hard enough, that it resembled a naturally-dyed Easter egg. In reality, it looked pretty messy, so I pivoted once again.

3. Paint your eggs:

I ended up using acrylic paints, at full concentration, but instead of stirring the paints completely, I left some swirls of color so that the final coats of paint on the egg were ever so slightly ‘mottled.’ Because I wanted very muted colors, I filled several wells of my artist’s palette with white paint, then I added a small dab of different colors to achieve the look of the edible dyes. One thing to remember is that paints dry darker than they look when they’re wet, so be sure to add less colored paint than you think is necessary. It’s easier to add more of a color to white paint than it is to lighten a darker color (plus you end up wasting a lot of paint by trying to lighten a dark color), so be sure to add only tiny amounts of color to the white paint, then stir before adding more.

To achieve the look of ‘natural’ dye, I used the following paint combinations of Martha Stewart brand paints:

• Beets: Snowball + a dab of Wine
• Coffee: Snowball + a dab of Root Beer Float
• Blueberries: Snowball + a dab of Wild Blueberry
• Turmeric: Snowball + a dab of Pollen
• Spinach: Snowball + a dab of Scallion
• Violets: Snowball + a dab of Purple Yam

As a side note, whenever I post a picture of my “oops” eraser on Instagram, I receive messages asking me if I ever use it. I don’t. I’ve had it for years, and it is still pristine. I like to keep it nearby to serve as a reminder that it’s ok to pivot, and it’s ok to make a mistake or two (or ten). I can sometimes take myself too seriously and worry about all.the.things, and the oops eraser helps to keep my craft projects in perspective. I certainly needed it throughout this entire project.

4. Add the details:

When it comes to your Easter eggs, feel free to add whatever details you like. When I was contemplating painting New England spring flowers, I envisioned adding a few touches of the gold calligraphy paint – either as small details to the flowers or maybe even via some hand-lettering – and I still wanted to add touches of gold to the design. Remember that I planned to use only materials I had on hand, so I went shopping in my craft closet and found these sparkly gold glitter calligraphy letter stickers. I thought they added a perfect glittery touch, and I decided to spell out Easter since I had six painted eggs. I thought the eggs looked a little too plain, so I used some watered-down brown paint to add a few speckles to each egg. And with that, the eggs were complete.

5. Arrange them in a festive container:

I love that many small business owners are now using crinkle cut paper shred filler, instead of bubble wrap, in their packaging, and I’ve been carefully collecting it for the past few months knowing that I could use it to fill an “Easter basket” this spring. I’ve had this white metal basket, which I normally use to store bars of soap, for years, and it’s the perfect size to display my wooden eggs. Don’t be afraid to get creative using items you already have in your home. You just might be surprised by what you find that can be repurposed into a beautiful and festive container.

6. Be prepared to wow your family and friends:

If you would like to create a more personalized Easter tablescape, consider placing an egg at each setting. The result is an understated, yet elegant, look. You can use stickers or paint to write letters, names, or meaningful words or phrases on each egg. Your Easter guests can take the eggs home with them as a reminder of your special time together.

End of Tutorial

I hope you enjoyed parts one and two of this design tutorial, and I would love to see what you created. Be sure to share your photos on Instagram and tag me so I can marvel at all of your amazing creations.

Whether you are traveling or staying home this Easter, I wish you a safe, happy, and wonderful holiday!

xo, Tiffany