Nature Imprinted Easter Eggs

OMG I am so in love with my Easter Eggs! I can't wait to show Holly in the morning! 

Inspired by a Facebook video I saw earlier this week I decided to do nature imprint eggs.. Lyra and I headed to Berkeley Bowl to grab some beets, (which I freeze and use for smoothies and decided to use instead of the cabbage or onion skin in the video) 

then we went to walgreens to get some hose... Finally we picked up Holly and Oliver from School.. 

We were early and Holly was in the garden so Lyra and I decided to find some leaves and flowers lying around in the garden to collect for our imprints.  When we came home Oliver and Holly got a few more plants from the back yard.

It was pretty fast and easy to set up.. Just put the stocking over your hand, choose the plant you want to use and then pull the stocking down to cover the egg and hold the plant in place.. Tie a tight knot.

Before you know it -it was like an assembly line with the kids taking turns.. This part went really fast..  We stopped for a strawberry break and decided to use the stem!

The kids had a lot of fun and holly decided to make arm bands with the left over toe cut stockings...

Then it was time to clean up the mess, chop up the beets and set everything in the pot to bowl...

As instructed by Joel (on how to both cook beets and boil an egg..) I let the water come to a bowl and after about a minute turned it off and let everything sit and soak and cool and soak...

It was at least 45 minutes when Oliver's dad arrived... The eggs were cooked and Oliver wanted to bring home the favorites he made but almost no color seeped in by then... 

So I let them sit and waited and waited and waited at 9:00 when they were just barely tinged with a pale pink I added a splash of vinegar a few drops of food coloring to the pot.. And waited some more... until 11:30 pm and voila!

Then it was the long messy process of cutting of the hose and washing off the plants... I think they are gorgeous!  It was cool how there was a tie dyed like spot where the know was..

And this one I think color transferred from the plant as it was some type of bright pink leaves..

There were from the strawberries...

We even used some cilantro that we got Joel for dinner..

This was one of my favorites.. I had thought the plant got crushed in my pocket but I blew on it in Holly's hand and all the little fine leaves spread out to make this miniature tree.

The larger greener leaves seemed to work best.

This one was cool.. It was another pink flower and I think some of the color must have transferred.. It's very subtle but pretty..

This was white flowers and the stem part worked but the dye went right through the fragile white leaves..

Another of my favorite a leaf pulled right from the bunny rabbit out front.. 

Another favorite looks like some type of sea creature.. This if from the bright orange flower.. One Lyra got in the garden..

Two of the eggs cracked.. But I thought this was still pretty like a crescent moon..

And there you have it!

My sister and I are taking the girls to the beach and then Disneyland starting this Saturday for spring break.. Since we will be traveling on Easter I was almost going to just skip all the holiday rituals.. But I just couldn't help myself and there you have it a dozen plus pink hard boiled eggs so snack on while on the road and to leave with Joel so he doesn't miss us too much!!

Happy Easter!