Egg Shell Mosaics

Here is a different idea for a craft material: egg shells.

I know, you are probably thinking, "What?" but they are a unique way to change things up a bit, and something that you don't have to run out to buy just for the project.

Step 1: Serve your family eggs for breakfast, or bake something yummy that has a lot of eggs in the recipe.

Step 2. Wash out the shells, and let them dry. (be sure you've gotten out that filmy membrane that lines the inside of the shells)

Step 3: Prepare the dye. I chose to do four colours: Red, Yellow, Blue and Green. To make my colours, I put 10-15 drops of food colouring, (I like my colours vibrant), a teaspoon of white vinegar, and 1/3-1/2 cup of boiling water into individual bowls.

Step 4: Dye the shells. Break up the shells into usable sizes and divide them between your bowls. The longer you leave them in, the brighter the colours will be. I left mine about half an hour.

Step 5: Let them dry. Take the shells out of the bowls and spread them on paper towels. Don't use them for your mosaic until they are completely dry.

Step 6: Design your mosaic and put it together. After coming up with several possibilities for a potential picture, my son decided on a rainbow. We drew an arch for each colour with white glue, and then added the pieces of shell one at a time.

After he had finished his rainbow, he decided he wanted to add a little more to the picture. We used some yellow shells to create a sun and sunbeams in the corner, but he also wanted his rainbow to be on a cloud. If I had thought of that, I could have just left some shells white, but I had dyed them all, so we used cotton balls instead.

Step 7: Proudly display your masterpiece!