DIY WOOD BEAD GARLAND

 Natural Dyed Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

I hope you've been enjoying all these Instant Pot Easter egg experiments this week!  This is one of my FAVORITES that Cheree has tried for us this week – naturally dyed Easter eggs!

Cheree here!

If you have been following our posts this week, you know I have been having an “eggcellent” time trying different methods of dying Easter eggs in the Instant Pot ! 🙂

Our next method was really cool. If you have never dyed eggs using natural ingredients, I definitely suggest trying a few of these. The red cabbage, avocado and turmeric eggs were my favorites! Who knew that avocado skins turn red???

Don’t have an Instant Pot, no worries – this method works great on the stove top as well! Scroll down for stove top instructions!

In the perfect world, you could boil your eggs in your ingredients right in the Instant Pot and all the stars would align and the eggs would turn the perfect color. I tried this with the red cabbage…

But, unfortunately that is not the case. So for this one you will need a bit of patience (trust me it's worth it).  I had a rainy Saturday so it was a great day to test these out!

Instructions for Natural Dyed Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

Ingredients you'll need (these are what I used)

• Blueberries
• Turmeric
• Coffee
• Avocado
• Red Cabbage
• Green Tea
• Red Cherries
• Yellow Onions
• White vinegar

These are the ingredients that I tried, but use your imagination and try some foods you have on hand. You might just be surprised! I know I was. 🙂

Instructions

The instructions are a bit different for each ingredient, so here is a list of what worked for me.

Blueberries: Cook 1 package of frozen blueberries (or fresh) with 8 cups of water in your instant pot. I did mine on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural released for 10 minutes and then quick release. To cook the eggs, add 1/2 cup vinegar to the blueberry mixture. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will turn from light purple to a deep plum the longer they soak.

Turmeric: Add 8 tablespoons turmeric, 8 cups water and 1/2 cup vinegar to instant pot. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These turn from a light yellow to a deep maze yellow the longer they soak.

Coffee: Brew 8 cups strong coffee. Add coffee to instant pot along with 1/2 cup vinegar. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will give you some awesome dark brown eggs!

Avocado:  Cook skins of 2 avocados with 4 cups of water in your instant pot. I did mine on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural released for 10 minutes and then quick release. To cook the eggs, add 1/2 cup vinegar to the avocado mixture. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. This color is AMAZING! These will turn almost a salmon red, just gorgeous!

Red Cabbage: Cut cabbage into strips. Add cabbage, 8 cups of water and 1/2 cup vinegar to your instant pot. I did mine on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural released for 10 minutes and then quick release. I tried to cook the eggs in this mixture and it just didn't work. This one works better to use hard boiled eggs (made in your IP) and let soak until they reach the desired color. The longer these soak the more vividly blue they become. The ones that I did boil with the cabbage did pick up a texture that was cool to see come out as they soaked.

Green Tea: Brew 8 cups strong green tea. Add green tea to instant pot along with 1/2 cup vinegar. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will go from a light yellowish green to a deeper greenish/brown color.

Red Cherries: Cook 1 jar red cherries with 8 cups of water in your instant pot. I did mine on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural released for 10 minutes and then quick release. To cook the eggs, add 1/2 cup vinegar to the cherry mixture. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will range from pink to dark pink the longer they soak.

Yellow Onions: Cook the skins from 4 large yellow onions with 8 cups of water in your instant pot. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes, natural release 10 minutes and then quick release. To cook the eggs, add 1/2 cup vinegar to the onion mixture. Add trivet and eggs. Cook 5 minutes on high pressure, natural release 5 minutes, then quick release. Strain to a bowl and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color. These will turn a burnt orange/tan color.

Stove top Instructions

For vegetables and fruits: Boil veggies or fruit in 8 cups water for 20 minutes or until cooked down. Let cool and strain. Add 1/4 cup vinegar to the mixture along with hard boiled eggs. Refrigerate and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color.

Coffee and tea: Go ahead and brew; cool and add 1/4 cup vinegar and hard boiled eggs. Refrigerate and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color.

Spices: Heat 8 cups of water and add 8 tablespoons spice and 1/4 cup vinegar. Cool and add hard boiled eggs. Refrigerate and let the eggs soak until they reach the desired color.

I love, love, love this idea if you have kiddos at home who enjoy being in the kitchen or love to do science experiments! Plus, because you are using all natural ingredients, these are completely safe to eat. 🙂

These eggs are just GORGEOUS!!!

A fun idea is to let the eggs soak at different intervals and see how the colors change. Do them for 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, etc. You will get some awesome shades! 🙂

These natural dyed eggs turned out just beautiful! I'm seriously obsessed with them. 🙂

Looking for some more Easter decorating ideas??? Here ya go! ❤

Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

How to Dye Easter Eggs with Silk Ties (In the Instant Pot!)

Dollar Tree Mason Jar Craft

Easter DIY: No Sew Burlap Bunny Pillow

Dollar Tree Decorating: Easter Fun

Dollar Tree Easter Wreath

Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

If you have an Instant Pot, you may have already found out how handy it is for hard boiling eggs.  But maybe you haven't thought about dyeing eggs in it as well!  PPP Team Member Cheree spent the last week busily trying out all sorts of Instant Pot Easter Egg recipes – here's a traditional Easter egg dyeing method adapted for the Instant Pot. 🙂

Cheree here!

I was curious to see if you could really dye eggs the traditional way (with food coloring) in the Instant Pot. Turns out, you can!!

I'm so excited to share this with you because being new to the Instant Pot, I had no idea. Don't have an Instant Pot, no problem – you can use the dying steps with plain ole hard boiled eggs as well! 🙂

Instructions for How to Dye Easter Eggs in the Instant Pot

Supplies:

• Eggs
• Food Coloring
• Vinegar
• Ramekins
• Instant Pot Trivet (this should come with your Instant Pot)

Instructions:

1. Place the trivet in the bottom of the instant pot and add 1 cup water.
2. Place an egg in each ramekin and add 10-12 drops food coloring and 3 tablespoons vinegar to each ramekin.
3. Fill ramekin with water to cover egg; repeat steps for up to 6 ramekins per batch.
4. Place ramekins in the instant pot (3 on the bottom and another 3 stacked on top).
5. Lock lid into place and use the manual high pressure for 5 minutes.
6. Allow the instant pot to natural release for 5 minutes.
7. Fill a large bowl with ice water.
8. Do a quick release for the remaining pressure and immediately place eggs into the ice bath for an additional 5 minutes.
9. Remove the eggs from the ice bath and allow to dry.

These were super easy! This technique has instant results just like traditionally dying eggs. If you prefer darker colors, you can let the eggs sit in the dye for a longer time. Be creative with mixing the food coloring to create some fun and unique colors! 🌷

Looking for some more Easter decorating ideas??? Here ya go! ❤

Natural Dyed Easter Eggs In The Instant Pot

How to Dye Easter Eggs with Silk Ties (In the Instant Pot!)

Dollar Tree Mason Jar Craft

Easter DIY: No Sew Burlap Bunny Pillow

Dollar Tree Decorating: Easter Fun

Dollar Tree Easter Wreath

Note from Laurie: My friend Cheree made this GORGEOUS pinecone wreath, and I just love that she shared it with us! Here's what she did . . . 

DIY Winter Pinecone Wreath

I saw a darling flocked pinecone wreath in a store recently, but it was $50!! I was sooooo tempted by it, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much.

So, I started collecting pinecones……

and collecting…….

and collecting. 🙂

Here are the supplies you'll need to make a DIY Winter Pinecone Wreath:

• 12 or 16 inch styrofoam wreath form
• A ton (I mean really a whole bunch) of small pinecones
• 1 roll of wide burlap, linen or cotton ribbon (just some sort that the hot glue will stick to)
• Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks (it takes a bunch)
• Snowy spray
• You might need garden gloves if your pinecones are particularly prickly and some small clippers in case you need to trim some of the pinecones.

Directions for making your DIY Winter Pinecone Wreath:

The first thing you will need to do is to collect your pinecones. Ask your friends and neighbors if they have any pinecone trees. I found that people will gladly let you come and clean up the pinecones out of their yard, haha!

You will need the smaller pinecones for this project, so keep that in mind when you are scoping out where to get your free pinecones.

Gather a ton of pinecones and once you think you have enough, gather more!!! You will need them I promise!

I did end up buying 2 little bags of the smaller pinecones from Michael's that were $3 each. I happened on 2 more bags after Christmas at Target that were 90% off making them just $.50 each! Score!!  Those had some larger ones in them too that I can use later. I may or may not be hoarding pinecones over here!

Now, you will need a bit of patience for this part. If you find bugs in your pinecones, bake those critters right out on a foil lined cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven for about an hour. Let them cool and hang out for a day or so.

Finally, start the wreath! Take your ribbon and completely wrap it around your wreath form. I intended to use some burlap, but got the wreath halfway wrapped and ran out, yikes! But, fortunately I had some “linen type” ribbon leftover from Christmas that worked perfectly! Just hot glue or use some long straight pins to secure the ribbon.

At this point, I actually added another piece of long ribbon that the wreath will hang from.

Now, the fun begins ~ fiire up the glue gun and start adding your pinecones! Once you add a few, you will see that it is really like a puzzle where as you keep adding, they fall into place. I did the front and middle section first, saving the outside for last so it was easier to manage. You will definitely have to be a bit creative near the end to complete the bottom section. I was so glad I added the tie since I ended up hanging it and sitting on the floor to finish off the bottom!

I absolutely loved how it turned out in it's natural state! Honestly, I almost kept it this way and really went back and forth on whether to flock it or not!  You can definitely stop here and leave it natural and it will be gorgeous!

But…..

I WENT FOR IT!

In the end, the pretty winter-white is what I wanted for my January decor so I went with the DIY WINTER pinecone wreath after all 🙂

I actually hung this baby from a tree outside and lightly sprayed several coats of the flocking spray until it was covered in snowy goodness!

I spent about $15 for my wreath, and I think it is just as pretty or even prettier than the one I originally saw that was $50! 

OH MY GOODNESS, I just love, love, LOVE it all snowy and sparkly!! 🙂

I think this DIY Winter Pinecone Wreath is a perfect addition to my winter decor, and you really can make it on a penny pinched budget.

Looking for a bit more DIY inspiration? Here you go:

• Monogrammed Burlap Table Runner
• DIY Chalkboard
• Painted Pinecones
• Penny Pinched Way To Fill A Large Jar
• Burlap Wreath