Natural Easter Egg Dyes

We made our own dyes for Easter Eggs this year. We boiled red cabbage for blue eggs, beets for pink eggs, and spinach and turmeric for yellow/light green eggs. We stirred in a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar, and let the eggs soak. Some eggs took the dye better than others. I thought they were really pretty. Messy to make, but pretty, nonetheless.

The egg on the upper right has a leaf pattern on it. J brought me a leaf, which I got damp and stuck to the egg. I wrapped a stocking around it and twisted it until it was really tight, and then secured it with a rubber band. I let it sit in the dye overnight without disturbing it. I like the way it turned out, and would like to try more next year with a darker colored dye.

Gluten-Free Play Dough

Play-Doh has gluten and dyes in it that affect JJ and GracieGirl, even if they're just touching it and not eating it. (I could be wrong, but to my knowledge, the only person in this house who currently tries to eat Play-Doh is E!) Anyway, we make our own gluten-free play dough. I really dislike the smell of Play-Doh, so I love the homemade stuff almost as much as the kids do! Sometimes we add a couple drops of lemon or orange essential oil, but we usually just make the plain old, regular variety!

Gluten-Free Play Dough

½ cup rice flour
½ cup cornstarch
½ cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon oil
Natural food coloring, if desired
Extra rice flour

Mix all ingredients, except additional rice flour, in a medium saucepan.
Cook and stir over low heat for several minutes, until it forms a ball. When cool,
knead well, adding additional rice flour, if needed, until dough is no longer sticky.

Store in a zippered plastic bag. I keep ours in the refrigerator.

JJ made pepperoni pizza and spaghetti with play dough. I think that E messed up the spaghetti before I could get a picture, but that pizza looks good enough to eat!