Painting With Eggs

I've thrown darts at balloons filled with paint and called it art, so why not shift gears and create an Easter themed masterpiece? It's time to take painting to the next level with paint-filled eggs.

This is a very simple, easy-to-do project with the kids. All you really need is paint, a carton of eggs, a blank canvas and adult supervision (optional depending on the mess you want to clean up later).

• 1 carton of eggs (or more depending on the number of artists)
• a variety of acrylic paints (the more colors the better!)
• a blank painting canvas
• a push pin (to drain the eggs)
• qty 12 Dixie cups (not shown - should be same number as eggs being drained)
• qty 2 foil pans (not shown)
• safety glasses (for when you are hurling those eggs and making art)

Okay. This is the gross, boogery part.

Using the foil pans to catch the gross egg innards, take the push pin and in a slow twisting motion, apply pressure to the top of the egg until it breaks through. Continue making small holes (will be easier after the first puncture) until you can break away more of the shell to create a large enough opening to add the paint through. And it's okay if you crack an egg by accident - I lost one in my attempts.

Once the hole has been made, turn the eggs upside-down so they can.... empty. The kids will love how utterly disgusting this part is. This step requires patience, but if you want to get a paintin' quicker (warning: this will get messy) use a safety pin to encourage the yolk and egg whites to empty quicker.

After the eggs have been completely drained, I recommend rinsing them off (inside and out) with warm water so adding the paint isn't such a sticky step (lesson learned). And if the kids are helping, it's a lot cleaner.

Now you get to fill your empty eggs with the acrylic paint! I recommend not skimping at this step - definitely pour/squirt in at least a tablespoon of paint into each egg, if not more. You can always do a "test" throw outside (in a place that you don't mind getting paint on) to see if the amount you put in was enough or if more needs to be added. In my case, I needed more paint!

Once done, you'll have a carton of color-filled eggs, just dreaming of becoming art.

Now for the fun part.

I didn't have an easel so I had to make a substitute one with the scraps of wood I found in my backyard. You can put your canvas anywhere - just make sure it's leaning/propped against something that can take the force of paint-filled eggs getting thrown at it.

Once your canvas is set, grab that carton of eggs, pick your color of choice and throw that sucker at the canvas!!! Have fun creating an Easter masterpiece that you can hang and enjoy forever.

Pro-tip: The eggs that you've already thrown will still have some paint in them, so go ahead and throw them again.