This is one of the Easter eggs I made last night.

The color is really off, unfortunately. The background behind the egg was white, not lime green, as were the scratched off areas on the egg.

The egg, itself, is a rich reddish brown, created by boiling the egg in onion skins.

I scratched off the design using a small X-acto knife.

To dye the eggs using onion skins is very simple. Take the brown outer skins of onions (try the skins from red onions for a purplish color) and place the eggs and the skins in a pot of cold water. Boil until the egg is the desired hardness. For a lighter color, boil just the skins and add the pre-boiled eggs and soak them in the colored water.

For really a pretty "stained glass" effect, wrap the eggs tightly in the skins wrapping them in thread or string and boil. You can also wrap the eggs in the skins and secure them one by one in an old panti-hose leg, knotting the leg between each egg.

When the eggs are boiled, run them under cold water, cut them out of th thread or panti-hose and remove the onion skin.

To enhance the color, rub them with a papertowel dampened with vegetable oil or margarine. Wipe off the excess oil.

One hint... start collecting the onion skins well before easter. The supermarket doesn't keep the skins, you will need a lot, and invariably there are none when you need them.

http://www.themathlab.com/Algebra/pythagorean%20theorem%20intro%20to%20trig/onioneggs.html
http://www.aeb.org/kidsandfamily/eastereggs/naturaldyed.asp
http://www.lehigh.edu/~jahb/jadwiga/A&S/dyedeggs.html

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